A Study on the Social Issues Raised In the Novels of Bharati Mukherjee

Exploring Cultural Identity and Social Issues in Bharati Mukherjee's Novels

Abstract

One of the ways in which Mukherjee negotiatesa new cultural identity for her women characters is by undermining the fixitywith which these cultural narratives construct the subjectivity of the Indianwoman. This process of interrogation is carried out primarily through herdismantling of the binary construction of social space for women as private andpublic or pure and polluted. Mukherjee explores the sociopolitical issues thatdetermine this position on American identity through the migration narrative ofits title character. Several well-known scholars find what they interpret asMukherjee’s celebration of assimilation and adoption of Western feminist valuesproblematic, arguing that she idealizes the United States at the expense of herhomeland.