March 2022
Discussion: The Indian-American Experience. Jhumpa Lahiri.
March 27th, 5:30-7pm
“When I was growing up… I felt neither Indian nor American. Like many immigrant offspring I felt intense pressure to be two things, loyal to the old world and fluent in the new, approved of on either side of the hyphen.” -Jhumpa Lahiri
This month we are going to be reading Jhumpa Lahiri's collection of short stories, The Interpreter of Maladies, for which she was awarded the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The daughter of Bengali parents, Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London and grew up in the United States, in Rhode Island. Her stories, which are set both in the US and India, deal with issues of cultural displacement, marital troubles and issues of identity among immigrants from India and their children.
Questions about the stories to think about and discuss:
Which story did you like the best? What did you especially like about it? Were you able to relate to any of the characters? Which ones? What about them made them particulary relatable?
Lahiri once said that her writing derived from a “desire to force the two worlds [she] occupied to mingle on the page.” How are these stories an example of this?
Many of the stories show instances where the differences between American and Indian culture are made evident. What scene was especially significant to you and why?
Lahiri has also said, that "as a storyteller [she is] aware that there are limitations in communication." What importance do miscommunication and unexpressed feelings have in these stories? For example, how is the couple’s sense of alienation and lack of communication conveyed by their food habits in “A Temporary Matter”?
What kinds of marriage are presented in the stories? One reviewer wrote that Lahiri's "subject is not love's failure, but the opportunity that an artful spouse (like an artful writer) can make of failure." Do you agree or disagree with that assessment?
Another reviewer wrote, "Food in these stories is a talisman, a reassuring bit of the homeland to cling to." How do food and meal preparation maintain links to the characters’ homelands? What other talismans act as "reassuring bits of the homeland"?
What are the roles and significance of routine and ritual in the stories? What are the rewards and drawbacks of maintaining long-established routines and ritual?
The main character in the story "The Interpreter of Maladies" changes his perceptions of his passengers, the Das family. What causes him to change his mind about them? Do they seem like typical tourists, even though they are of Indian descent? Have they become "Americanized" and therefore lost their connection to their homeland? What is the "malady" refered to in the title of the story?
Lahiri’s first novel, The Namesake (2003), is about a young man negotiating the divide between his parents’ traditional Indian roots and his own American identity. We are going to watch the film version, directed by Mira Nair.
Questions about the movie to think about and discuss:
The title The Namesake reflects the struggles Gogol Ganguli goes through to identify with his unusual names. How does he try to remake his identity, after choosing to rename himself, and what is the result? How do our names precede us in society, and how do they define us?
The marriage of Ashima and Ashoke is arranged by their families. What impact does this have on their lives? Why did they remain married so long? Did they finally fall in love? Gogol's romantic encounters are very different. From where do you think we take our notions of romantic love --- from our family and friends, or from society and the media? How much does our cultural heritage define our ideas and experience of love?
Gogol goes through two major romantic relationships in the movie, and both of them change him a great deal, altering how he sees family and how he sees America. What does Gogol learn about himself from both his relationship with Maxine and his relationship with Moushumi?
Lahiri explores in several ways the difficulty of reconciling cross-cultural rituals around death and dying. When Gogol's father suddenly dies, Gogol's relationship with Maxine is strained and quickly ends. Why do you think their love affair can't survive Gogol's grief? How does the loss of Gogol's father turn him back toward his family?
Ashoke tells Gogol to remember that “We all come out from Gogol’s overcoat.” What role does “The Overcoat” play in the film? At the end of the film, Gogol begins to read the book by his "namesake" for the first time. Where do you imagine Gogol will go from here?
In 2012, Lahiri and her family moved to Rome so she could pursue a decades-long interest in the Italian language. Three years later she published her first book written in Italian, In altre parole (In Other Words), a meditation on her immersion in another culture and language.
Watch Falling in Love with the Italian Language. An Interview with Jhumpa Lahiri.
Questions about the interview to think about and discuss:
What according to Lahiri is responsible for her love of the Italian language? Why does she consider it "an occasionally unrequited love story"?
How can a new language open new doors for us? How can it help us overcome boundaries?
What is the relationship between language and identity? How can we forge an identity in a language that is not our own? What can such experiences teach us about ourselves?
Lahiri says that she is happier now after having taken this leap. Why do you think this is so?
Why did Lahiri not translate her book into English herself? Did you find this surprising?
Follow-up
In 2018 Lahiri published her first novel in Italian, “Dove Mi Trovo”, which she translated herself into English as "Whereabouts".
Sara Antonelli, a professor of American literature at Università Roma Tre and a friend of Lahiri’s, had read her books in English. But reading her in Italian remarked, “I had the impression that I was reading another author. It seemed that the imagination was different, the shape of the sentences, too.”
As a literary critic and scholar, Antonelli had questions for her friend. “What was missing or absent in the English language that compelled her to make this transition? And what did a Bengali-American find so liberating, so regenerating, in Rome and the Italian language?”
When the questions were relayed to Lahiri, her reply was simple.
“Joy,” she said.