https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i4.098
Mitigation of Migration Trauma through Culinary Traditions: An Analysis of The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
ANU JOSE
Research Scholar
Department of English, St. Xavier’s College for Women (Autonomous), Aluva
Email: anujose@stxaviersaluva.ac.in
ORCID : 0009-0004-8115-418X
PROF. DR. MINI V.S.
Professor and Research Guide
Department of English, St. Xavier’s College for Women (Autonomous), Aluva
Email: minivs@stxaviersaluva.ac.in
Abstract: Every human undergoes trauma when a change happens in his habitat, a total revolution takes place. The psychological condition of the migrant remains the same as the law of inertia suggests, to have a tendency to continue in the state of being. Identifying oneself in the new land has always been a nightmare for every migrant irrespective of any categories or groups. As an essential requirement and a major cultural artefact, food helps migrants to connect to their homeland and attain a feeling of home while being in a far location. This paper aims to analyse how the Migrants preserve culinary traditions in order to overcome the trauma of migration with special reference to the 2003 novel The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. Even though the diasporic novel The Namesake talks about the life of Gogol in search of his name and its heritages, it depicts how the Indian women abroad create ‘home’ by the act of preserving the Indian traditions of cooking. The novel itself opens with the aromatic scene of Ashima preparing Indian food in their American household, depicting how the writer has potentialised the act of cooking as the re-creation of a home itself while living far away from the roots. The research will undertake a qualitative analysis of the novel The Namesake based on how the Indian women try to cope with the trauma that migration has caused, through the act of cooking, thereby contributing to the larger discourse on diaspora and culinary studies.
Keywords: Migration, Trauma, Mitigation, Identity, Culinary Traditions
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