A Geocritical Reading of Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland

Abstract

This paper aims at investigating the role that place plays in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Lowland from two perspectives: objective and subjective. The paper follows a spatio-temporal analysis as a method of research. Within the framework of a geocritical approach, the paper investigates such elements as geographical boundaries, space, place, movement, transgressivity and national identity. The paper argues that a spatial perspective offers important insights into an Indian/American society struggling with the tensions of immigration, diaspora, nostalgia, cultural clash, search for identity, and acculturation. Such elements are brought together through the psychological journey motif, a widespread spatial schema, which dominates the course of this novel. The paper argues that though the place of origin undergoes many physical changes, it still bears the same nostalgic and traumatic effect on the main characters since it encapsulates their history and their national identity. Not only does place perform a significant function for each character, but it also connects their past with their present through retelling the story of the British colonization of the Indian nation. The paper illustrates the characters’ disillusion in escaping India for America since all their cultural, national, spatial, religious and social identity are repressed in their subconscious waiting to be released upon seeing their Lowland again.

Keywords

• place
• jhumpa lahiri
• the lowland
• geocriticism
• space
• identity
• journey
• transgressivity