School Of Languages, Literature And Culture

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    Dialectics of South Asian Subjectivity across Borders: A Critical Study of Selected Contemporary English and Vernacular Diasporic Fiction
    (Central University of Punjab, 2019) Kaur, Pardeep; Singh, Amandeep
    The present thesis examines the dialectics of South Asian subjectivity across borders of nation-state, gender, religion, class, culture and ethnicity through the critical study of eight novels by diasporic writers in English and vernacular languages. The thesis is organised into six chapters. The introductory chapter comprises major trends in contemporary South Asian diasporic literature, the review of existing literature, brief introduction to the selected texts, historically theorising the term subjectivity from the Enlightenment to the postmodern era. The second chapter explores the perceptions of different generations regarding tradition, modernity, assimilation and acculturation, evolved through conflicts and dialogue. The third chapter explores how spatial and temporal contexts keep on shaping individual subjectivity, while at the same time personal and collective history spiral together for determining the historical positioning of these subjects. The fourth chapter examines the contestation between normative discourses (heterosexuality, patriarchy, religion, nationalism etc.) and the existing alternative discourses (homosexuality, hybridity, cosmopolitanism etc.) leading to the dynamic process of South Asian subjectivity construction. The changing definitions and nature of culture, existence of plurality of cultures, multicultural overtones represented in the contemporary fiction constitute the fifth chapter of this study. The concluding chapter presents a composite South Asian subjectivity which cannot be claimed as a definite portrayal because subjectivity is not an event but a process. A pattern can be seen through the analysis of these works which shows the common frames of reference in the subjectivity formation of this community through the dialectics among different notions of existence. The critical study of selected diasporic texts shows that subjugated and muted subjectivities occupy the narrative spaces in contemporary English and vernacular fiction.
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    Diasporic Spaces: A Comparative Study of Selected Diasporic Fiction
    (Central University of Punjab, 2014) Shah, Samees Ahmed; Singh, Amandeep
    This study is an attempt to do the comparative analysis of three novels by three Indian English women writers, The Namesake, Jasmine and Born Confused by Jhumpa Lahiri, Bharati Mukherjee and Tanuja Desai Hidier respectively. Starting with diaspora, its phases and its types, it focuses on the making of diasporic spaces amid diaspora. It also shows the characters' struggle to make their home and space in a foreign land. Every character is shown as having his/her own perception of home, space and world of belonging. All three novels are an important part of Modern Diasporic Indian English Literature. Study of 'diaspora space' shows how individual identity is shaped and where differences are created, and it also shows how identities are formulated and constructed by physical, mental and social attitudes. Individual identities and his/her relation with homeland have undergone considerable change in recent decades. It has lost its fixity and migrants are in a process of becoming global citizens. The study of the three novels taken up for comparison suggests that all the characters try their best to penetrate their roots deep into the American soil, but everyone is not fully successful in doing so. All diasporic people struggle to create a separate space in host country but everyone struggles in his/her own way. Analysing diaspora space and other identity issues relating to diaspora helps in understanding of how and where identity is shaped and differences are made and remade.
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    Domestic space: A comparative study of born confused and queen of dreams
    (Central University of Punjab, 2014) Naik, Showkat Ahmed; Singh, Amandeep
    Within a variety of academic disciplines, diaspora has gained a stupendous magnitude over the times. Dispersion of an established system brought about by the crisis coercion, catastrophe and other forcible movements is called diaspora. After the dispersion the individual needs some specific place to continue his life and the place he chooses subsequent to the dispersion is termed as domestic space, space which allows privacy, security and creativity. Domestic space is imbued with the sense of homeliness and in view of this home is considered as the most imperative element of domestic space which has begin to attract an increasing amount of critical attention across the humanities and social science. While living in the domestic space human being is always at the periphery of the war, the domestic space becomes a scene of conflict. Numerous authors around the world have presented domesticity in their creative works yet little has been written on the experience. Tanuja Desai Hidier and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni had traversed into the new territories and tried to delve into the new suburban's of the domestic space. The foremost objective of this research is to analyse the domestic space in the course of Diaspora alluding from Tanuja Desai's Born Confused and Chitra Divakaruni's Queen of Dreams. The heart of Born Confused is about learning how to bring two cultures together without falling apart yourself in the process. Likewise Queen of Dreams vivifies the arrogant, deceitful and the xenophobia of the Americans towards the immigrants after the 9/11 attack on World Trade Centre. Born Confused and Queen of Dreams are blended with the dwelling of domestic space created by immigrants themselves which not only gives them the impression of place of living but acts as a whole territory.
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    Portrayal of diaspora in english and vernacular fiction: A study of the namesake and hashiye
    (Central University of Punjab, 2012) Kaur, Shyamkiran; Singh, Amandeep
    Diaspora is a complex phenomenon which has important economic, political, social, and religious dimensions. It can be voluntary or forcible movement of people from their native land into new regions. Diasporic discourses deal with themes like cultural dualism, racial discrimination, identity crisis, alienation, struggle for survival, nostalgia, hybridity, transnational migration, globalization and second-generation cultural gaps etc. The approach of this study is to undertake individual studies of Jhumpa Lahiri and Darshan Singh Dhir and examine the diasporic issues in their chosen works, The Namesake and Hashiye respectively. The prime object of this research is to bring into focus the major issues of the different classes of migrants by undertaking a comparative study of two novels: one published in English and the other in Punjabi; one written by a woman and the other by a man. Both Lahiri and Dhir portray the well known as well as normally concealed world of migrants in their fictional narratives. Lahiri portrays the individual and familial matters from a broadly female perspective while Dhir reveals political, cultural and familial issues. These writings encapsulate many experiences of the Indian American and Indian Britain families from changing family relationships and issues of culture to the overall challenge of navigating a new set of identity-related complications and racial abuses. The works of Dhir and Lahiri bring into focus issues related to diasporic communities and highlight some of the problems they face in host societies due to their ethnicity, race and culture.