Browsing by Author "Islam, Md Rafiqul"

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Cultural Translation and Hybrid Subjectivity in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts
(Premier University, Chattogram, 2026-03) Islam, Md Rafiqul
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Whereabouts (2021) resists conventional diaspora narratives by portraying identity as a fluid and affective process shaped by cultural translation and hybridity. Drawing on Talal Asad’s theory of cultural translation and Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of the “third space,” this paper argues that the protagonist’s emotional dislocation and liminality are not merely personal but embedded in asymmetrical power dynamics of cross-cultural meaning-making. Through qualitative textual analysis and thematic interpretation, the study examines key passages to show how identity is continuously reconfigured through fragmented memories, spatial movement, and symbolic acts of self-translation. The novel’s minimalist style, absence of proper nouns, and use of unnamed spaces underscore Lahiri’s resistance to fixed cultural identities, emphasizing universal human experiences over specific cultural markers. Recurring metaphors such as water and mobility further illustrate the instability of belonging in a globalized world. The analysis suggests that identity in Whereabouts emerges through negotiation rather than assimilation, existing in the in-betweenness where meaning is contested, unstable, and emotionally charged. Methodologically, this study relies on interpretive strategies rooted in cultural theory to explore recurring motifs and narrative structure. It contributes to literary scholarship by reframing the novel not only as a meditation on solitude but as a nuanced exploration of identity as an ongoing process shaped by language, memory, and transcultural experience.
Diasporic Anxiety and Ambivalence in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
(Premier University, Chattogram, 2023-04) Islam, Md Rafiqul
This paper explores diasporic tensions like identity crisis, anxiety, and ambivalence in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake. It argues that Gogol, a representative of the Indian-born American, suffers a more acute identity crisis, anxiety, and ambivalence than his parents do. Ashoke and Ashima, the first-generation emigrants, resist hybridized identity and keep a conscious connection with the root by maintaining Indian culture, religion, and ideologies in their host land America. On the other hand, Gogol faces severe crises with his name right after his birth and desperately tries to assimilate into the mainstream American culture and tradition, but finally realizes, with deeper shock, that he belongs nowhere. His attraction to the host country and its culture turns out to be repulsive and produces ambivalence in him. Gogol succeeds in becoming an American ‘almost total’ but ’not quite’. This paper draws on the relevant post-colonial concepts like hybridity, mimicry, and ambivalence advocated by Homi K. Bhabha, and validates the argument that Gogol is fated to become a diasporic nomad.
William Shakespeare's Hamlet: An Existential Study
(Premier University, Chattogram, 2022-05) Islam, Md Rafiqul
This paper explores the proposition that Hamlet, the protagonist of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, conforms to the modern philosophical ideas of Existentialism. When Hamlet comes to know about the murder of his father by his uncle Claudius, he is immediately gripped by doubts and procrastination. As a result, he fails to avenge his father’s murder. He desperately tries to examine, in his constant procrastination, his position on the complex world he suddenly finds himself trapped in and delays his action. I have examined the complex mindset of Hamlet through analyzing his soliloquies and argued that the confused persona of Hamlet undergoes significant changes as it develops and finally leads him to a firm inner resolution that finds a meaning of his existence only in his death. In the light of Hamlet’s changes, I have argued that Hamlet bears out Sartre’s view that "existence precedes essence." Shakespeare’s Hamlet can be called an Existentialist.