1. Indian Writers in the States
JHUMPA LAHIRI
Born in London 1967 to Bengali parents
Raised in New York
PhD in Renaissance Studies at Boston University
Based in Brooklyn, NYC
Winner of the 2000 Booker Prize with Interpreter of Maladies
Photo Credit: Marion Ettlinger
Interpreter of Maladies
The Namesake
Unaccustomed Earth
The Lowland

2. Indian Film Directors in the States
MIRA NAIR
Born in Rourkela, Orissa, India 1957
Raised in India and United States
M.A. in Sociology at Harvard University
Based in New York
Founder of her Film Production Company in NYC: MIRABAI FILMS
Now shooting Shantaram based on Australian novel by Gregory David Roberts
The Namesake
Vanity Fair

3. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
GENRE: “Minority literature in a multicultural world”* – “Global novel”
The “double” (ref. Gogol’s “The Overcoat”).
Bildungsroman: presents the growth of the protagonist (Gogol) from birth to adulthood (sentimental education).
Familienroman (The Gangulis): not a real family saga, albeit four generations are represented: (great)-grandparents (India), parents (India-USA), children (USA).

4. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
SETTING, TIME, NARRATOR
India: Calcutta (Bengal) / USA: Boston, Cambridge, New York (New England).
Third space**: Russia (Ashoke), Paris (Moushumi).
Time span: from , chronological structure, linear narration, few flashbacks (Historical references: death of Senator Robert Kennedy and of Martin Luther King Jr. 1968, p. 31).
Third person omniscient narrator / First person interior monologues.
No consolatory happy ending, rather open ending.

5. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
METANARRATIVITY
Intertextuality: novel as loose re-writing of Nikolaj Gogol’s “The Overcoat” and biography.
Academics:
paternal grandfather = university professor of European Literature,
father (Ashoke) = professor of Engineering,
son (Gogol) = MA in Architecture,
Gogol’s wife (Moushumi) = PhD in French Literature.
Background: university and public libraries (Ashima, the mother, works in a public library).
The novel as book: embeds other books and dramatizes reading as a formative experience (circularity: opening with father reading Gogol vs ending with son reading Gogol).
Critical views on the concept of “marginality” attached to Indian novels written in English and on ABCDs (American Born Confused Deshi) p. 118.

6. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
CHARACTERS
Major characters:
Ashima-Ashoke Ganguli (parents) move from India to the US,
Gogol and Sonia Ganguli (children) born in the US,
Moushumi (Gogol’s Bengali-American wife) moves from New York to Paris.
Minor characters:
Paternal grandfather,
Maternal grandmother,
Maxine (Gogol’s American first fiancé).
Groups: Bengali friends vs American friends.

7. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
PLOT: part I
Ashima is the daughter of a well-off, Brahmin family. Her marriage is not arranged in the traditional way, she is allowed instead to choose among pretenders.
She chooses Ashoke after trying on his American-made shoes.
Ashoke survived a train accident, while reading the Russian author Gogol.
They move to Boston, where Ashoke is finishing his PhD.
Two children are born there: Gogol and Sonia.
Gogol’s name is only provisional, yet it becomes his good name.*
Ashoke gets a position at University, and they move to a bigger house in the suburbs.
Ashoke and children have assimilated while Ashima has not.
*good name: Foreigners in India are often confused when asked, "What is your good name?" The questioner is just asking for the person's name. It is a literal translation of the Hindi usage "Aap ka shubh nam?" ("shubh" means "auspicious").

8. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
PLOT: part II
Ashoke accepts a position far from home, where he lives alone.
This fact indirectly causes a general crisis to the various members of the family.
Ashima, left alone, develops a stronger nostalgia for India.
Gogol changes name to Nikhil, and in spite of that, he does no longer know who he is.
Ashima becomes a widow.

9. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
THEMES
Migration and diaspora: Indian migrants to the US***
India vs USA, (assimilation vs alienation) [NRI= non residential Indian; PIO= person of Indian origin].
Motherland vs American Dream / Promised Land: Nostalgia**** (losses and gains).
The double: double nationalities; double names and identities.
Names:
Pet name = Gogol (private, familiar) vs good name = Nikhil (public, official) p.26
Complementarity (Ashima-Ashoke): they never call each other by name p.2
double Gogol-Ganguli vs Akakij-Akakievic (“The Overcoat”)
name change (Nikhil vs Gogol)
name refusal (Moushumi refuses to adopt her husband’s surname) p.227.
Otherness: Ashima as emblem of foreigness, outsideness, displacement.
Crossculturalism: constant comparison between Indian and American way of life.

10. Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
MOTIVES AND SYMBOLS
British colonial legacy.
Rites of passage:
birth, graduation, marriage (inclusion/union);
migration, changing names, divorce, death / widowhood (exclusion/separation).
Geographies / Topographies:
- Est / West (India / USA)
- Centre/periphery: houses, suburbs, cities.
Professional success vs sentimental failure.
Existential loneliness, alienation.
Ethnic cuisine.