Displacement and Trauma in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake.

To be displaced is to live in the space between memory of homeland and host land alienation marked by elements of geography, culture, and identity. Although voluntary displacement of people from their homeland does not appear problematic, they are often marked by elements of trauma. Much diasporic literature has been produced on such traumatic journeys of Indian diaspora communities. A close reading of the diasporic novels shows that trauma is not only what happened in the past, but also what continues to be experienced across generations, shaping and reshaping their culture, identity, and language. This paper explores Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake (2003) to unravel the intersections between displacement and trauma by using literary psychoanalysis as the main theoretical framework, combined with other literary theoretical concepts. Lahiri's diasporic novel revolves around three main characters, a newly married couple, Ashoke and Ashima, and their son Gogol, in a foreign land. Within the context of displacement and trauma, this paper explores the deplorable situation of these three characters who feel trapped between two different cultures and examines how trauma runs across generations among the diasporic subjects in a host land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]