Negotiating Identities and Beyond: An Analysis of Jhumpa Lahiri's In Other Words

Abstract

Jhumpa Lahiri abandons her principal language English, in which she has written four pieces of fiction and earned many international accolades including the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, and has learned Italian in a rigorous process of second language acquisition. She succeeds in speaking and writing in Italian fluently and as such comes up with her maiden autobiography In Other Words. She completely immerses herself in the Italian language and culture and constructs a new identity that is free from her previous familial and social strings; she finds a new tongue, a new independent voice. With language Lahiri has had an ambivalent relationship since her childhood; she learnt Bengali to talk to her parents at home, and as she grew up and went to school, she learnt English and mastered it. She finds these two languages to be in conflicting positions and they are imposed upon her. With Italian, she finds a third one which liberates her from the previous linguistic entanglements, and gives her a new life; she falls in love with her newfound language. Lahiri uses rich images and metaphors to explore Italian language and culture and the trans.formative power of language, which brings about her metamorphosis in her transnational and translingual setting. This paper explores the themes of identity, language, and cultural immersion in Lahiri's nonfiction In Other Words. Drawing on the theories of identity, cultural hybridity, and the third space, this paper analyzes how Lahiri negotiates her evolving identities, the impact of her cultural immersion, and the ultimate transformation that shapes her sense of self and others around her. It finally argues and validates that Lahiri positions herself in the liminal hybrid third space and is destined to remain a diasporic subject who is never accepted either by the Americans or by the Italians to belong to them.