T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

She is in another sense following In a long andrespected American traditlon-that of the immigrantwriter writing about the immigrant community he orshe is part of - Roth, Nabakov, Malamud, Singer,Doctorow.. ..the list is distinguised and forms amajor part of contemporary Americanfiction". (Davidar 1989,5)In a critrcal review of Bharati Mukherjee, Anita Desai writes:she feels a klnship with of all writers BernardMalamud. Having moved away from 'the aloofness ofexpatriation to the exuberance of rmmlgration' shesays she 'jolned lmaginatlve forces with ananonymous driven underclass.. ..I see my 'immigrant'story replicated in a dozen Amerlcan cities andinstead of seelnq my Indianness as a fragileidentltv to be preserved aualnst obliteration (orworse a' 'visible-' drsflgurement to be hidden) I ieelt now as a set of fluld ldentlties &celebrated' , and she sees Malamud's stories as partof the same celebration. (Desal 1985, 145-146)Qulte In keeplng wlth the Twentieth century spirit andtrends Julla Kz lseva, the French llngulst, llterary critic,psycho-analyst and post-modern feminist remarked: "a person ofthe Twentleth century can exlst honestly only, as a forelgner".(Davldar 1989,5) Bharatl Mukherlee has taken that dlctum a stepfurther. As a foreigner turned natlve she has ventured intolives "fictionally, that are manifestly not (her) own" and inthe process has opened-up a new world to the readers bothnatlve (Indlan and American) naturallsed and foreign.The task of an author 1s to make hls/her lntrlcate and