T 1290.pdf - Pondicherry University DSpace Portal

deslgned to keep out anyone with too much story totell 1Mukherlee 1988,2)Mukherlee's complaint that she 1s being kept out Of thedemaqds of mainstream American literature 1s understandable.One has to change and cater to the taste and requirements ofchanglnq tlmes. Mukherjee's world 1s different from theNlneteenth century lmmlgrant world. These new Americans are notwllllng to Walt for a generatlan or two to establishthemselves They're worklnq for themselves and thelr children.They are not In America to sadrlfice themselves for thefuture's sake. To paraphrase the words of Lt.Co1 Oliver North'slawyer, Brendan Salllvan "They're not exactly potted plantsu(Mukherlee 1988,2). They are characters In the latest Amerlcandrama.Lacklng a country, avoldlng all the messiness of rebirthas an lmmlgrant, the expatrlate or exlle, eventually harms eventhe flnest senslblllty. The natlve soclety marches forward andthe exiled wrlter preserves her lmage of lt in proseinzr-easlngly "mannered and self-referential". (Mukherjee1988,2). Unless one can make a vlrtue of memory and artifice,the deeply rooted exlle can end up, for all her genius,without an audience. Mukherlee 1s the klnd of wrlter who shiesaway from too much authorla1 InterventLon. Rushdie's Shame,Amltav Ghosl'.'~ Tt~e Cmcle of Reason and the Anglo-Indlan Allan