119: Lakshmi C.M.

Abstract 119: Lakshmi C.M.

Labyrinths of Culture: Exploring the Intraculture and Cross-border Perspectives in  Jhumpa Lahiri’s Namesake

Both cross border and intraculture produce a sense of dissent in its own realm. Culture is subjective encompassing a society’s values, attitudes, beliefs, ideas, point of views and feelings about certain things. Culture can become hierarchical laddering up from individual, familial, societal, regional, provincial, and national. Both two persons in the family would never have a culture replica of the other, be it father or son, brothers, daughters. An ever changing phenomenon, culture is modified time and again throughout man’s life in accord with the circumstances he is exposed to. When this modification becomes unpalatable to the family, there emerges dissent. Namesake portrays both first and second generation Americans and the problems they face in a given environment. When labyrinths of cross border culture surfaces throughout the novel, streaks of intraculture perspectives could also be perceived. This paper attempts to explore the intraculture and cross border culture elements in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Namesake.