Asghar, J. (2014). Postcolonial South Asian Literature and the Quest for Identity. NUML Journal of Critical Inquiry, 12(2), 57-VI. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.middlebury.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1864574674?accountid=12447

Asghar presents a clear discussion of the link between identity, language, and literature, looking at these three categories through the lens of South Asian postcolonial authors. He begins by defining identity, and talking about how colonial literature often flattened the identity of the “other” into the one dimension of ethnicity. Asghar then goes on to discuss the complicated relationship that Indian authors have to the English language. The main tension regarding the use of English is an acceptance and appreciation of it on the one hand, and a rejection of it on the other. He argues that although Indian authors mainly use the English language, they creatively mold it in order to subvert the colonial legacy of its usage. Asghar remarks on those South Asian authors who are immigrants from India themselves, and the way that their status as members of the diaspora often makes their writing nostalgic or over-romanticized. He concludes by reiterating that literature can serve a crucial role in the process of identity formation for regions of the world that have been ravaged by colonialism. He also suggests that a new and easily distinguishable linguistic pattern should be defined, one that will consistently mark South Asian literature apart and return it to its indigenous roots.

This journal entry raises important questions for my own writing project, as I am exploring the nexus between South Asian literature and my identity. It will be helpful to have Asghar’s more scientific understandings of identity as I write. He touches on all the elements of South Asian diaspora writing that I wanted to address, namely the over-romanticization of India, and the tension of using the English language. I appreciate Asghar’s inclusion of writers voices and poems on what it means to use English in their writing. This model of including excerpts will prove helpful for my own project.

Bhagat, C. (2005). One Night at the Call Center. New York: Ballantine Books.

Bhagat’s fictional account of call-center agents chronicles the ups-and-downs in one evening at a New Delhi call-center. It is Thanksgiving Day in the US, and so half-way across the world, a team of six Indian young-adults who have never even eaten a turkey, answer phone calls about faulty ovens and microwaves. Although posing as a comedy, Bhagat’s work deals with really heavy themes centered around the desperation of Indian youth who feel trapped in a low-paying and unfruitful job. This book discusses the hopes and dreams of Indian young adults and provides a poignant view into their heartbreaks as well.

Bhagat’s work has intrigued me since I first read it my freshman year of college. The magic-realism elements of the frame narrative provide the added layer of mystery to the evening depicted in the novel. His descriptions of American culture are spot-on, but also placed me in a somewhat strange position. Growing up in and around Indian culture,  I could see how an Indian would negatively perceive the actions and words of a curt American caller. However, I could also empathize with the frustrations of an American customer at not receiving a straight answer from a call-center agent simply because they do not understand your context whatsoever. The interplay of Indian youth culture and its perceptions of America will be interesting to unpack as I discuss my own straddling of both worlds.

Lahiri, J. (2003). The Namesake. New York: Houghton Mifflin

This exquisite first novel of Jhumpa Lahiri follows the Ganguli family as they make their home in Cambridge, MA, after emigrating from Calcutta, India. The novel centers on the son of the family, nicknamed Gogol, and his struggles to reconcile both his Indian and American upbringings. Throughout the book, Gogol’s relationship with his own name remains complicated, adding to the identity crisis of his experience. Lahiri’s account of the Indian-American immigrant experience is semi-autobiographical in that she was raised by two Indian immigrants on the East Coast of America as well.

This book has been a cornerstone in chronicling the lives of the Indian-American diaspora in America and has been very influential in my own journey with South Asian literature. No discussion of my identity and SA Literature would be complete without touching on the experience of reading this work.

Lahiri, J. (2011, June 13). Trading Stories: Notes from an Apprenticeship. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/06/13/trading-stories.

In this personal essay, Lahiri reflects on her own evolution as a writer, starting from childhood onwards. She talks about the connection between books and possession in her experience, and how important the moment was when she owned her first book. As the daughter of immigrants, Lahiri grew up having to navigate multiple worlds and identities. This article delves into her tensions with identity, and how writing about her life experiences proved difficult when she herself was not sure of who she was.

The format of Lahiri’s essay serves as a helpful model for my own reflective essay. I want to tie in my more abstract thoughts with concrete examples from my life. Lahiri does this with ease and beauty throughout. Furthermore, her thoughts on identity really resonate with the thoughts that I plan to share in my writing and it will be appropriate to reference them as I write my own.

Mistry, R. (1995). A Fine Balance. New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc.

Rohinton Mistry’s sweeping account of the events of the Emergency in 1970’s India follows the lives of four individuals thrown together by life’s unexpected circumstances. The novel particularly deals with the enormous injustices leveraged against the poor and disenfranchised in India by the events of the Emergency. Tragedy and joy are so closely intertwined in this haunting narrative, and the ending leaves the reader speechless.

Mistry is an under-recognized South Asian diaspora writer, and it was important to me to include his work in my own project, simply to get his books in the hands of more readers. This novel made me laugh and cry at so many points. I have never experienced such a visceral and emotional reaction to the end of any novel before, as I had with this book. Mistry is a powerful writer, able to see the overview of an entire swatch of history, but also go into the specifics by developing each character with immense detail.

Nelson, E. S. (Ed.). (1993). Writers of the Indian Diaspora: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Connecticut: Greenwood Press.

This anthology of biographical accounts of South Asian authors is one of the most helpful resources I have encountered about this genre of literature. Each writer presented gets three sections dedicated to them in their respective chapters. The first is a brief biography of their life and career. Secondly, the chapters discuss that author’s major works and themes of exploration. The chapters also present the critical reception of the work, placing it in context both historical and spatial. Key authors that are included in this sourcebook include Salman Rushdie, Rohinton Mistry, V.S. Naipaul, Anita Desai and Bharati Mukherjee. Most of the contributing writers who compiled the biographies of these greats are South Asian themselves.

In particular, I used this sourcebook to look up Salman Rushdie and Mistry’s biographies. This sourcebook helped me to learn about the expatriate experience as Rushdie and Mistry described it. It also provided suggestions for further reading and research in preparation for this final project.

Rushdie, S. (1980). Midnight’s Children. New York: Penguin Books.

The length and breadth of Salman Rushdie’s imaginative novel, Midnight’s Children, captures the history of a nation that is often elusive in its intricate complexity. In this fictional account of protagonist Saleem Sinai’s life, the distinctions between story-book and history-book are artfully blurred, a characteristic that is at once fascinating and gloriously bewildering. Saleem, born at the precise moment of India’s independence, joins 1,000 other ‘midnight children’, in a fateful linkage to India’s history. As the new nation experiences growing pains, loss, division and oppression, so too, Saleem. This connection is manifest in the following ways , “ actively-literally, passively-metaphorically, actively-metaphorically and passively-literally” (Rushdie 232). Either through literal, tangible actions, or symbolic, passive situations, Saleem’s life mirrors that of India. 

Rushdie thoughts on the writing process of chronicling India’s history will be particularly relevant to this project on South Asian literature. The protagonist of the novel is a writer himself, and so we get a glimpse into the real author’s head. The account of history through the art of story-telling is a profound method that comes up a lot in South Asian literature.