Diasporic Literature from Colonial America to Postmodern South Asia

 

In literary terms diaspora refers to the migration of people from their motherland to foreign countries for political, religious or economic reasons. Diaspora can be identified in the literary works of the medieval era up to the current times. Exodus of human beings has taken place over and over again throughout the world since the beginning of civilization till the prevailing postmodern times. 

Diasporic literature often addresses themes such as identity, belonging, cultural heritage, and the impact of historical events on individuals and communities. It serves as a medium through which writers express their unique perspectives on the complexities of the diasporic experience, including issues related to racism, discrimination, resilience, and the search for a sense of home.

Key elements in diasporic literature include a focus on the interconnectedness of diverse cultures, the preservation and celebration of African heritage, and the exploration of how diasporic communities navigate their place in the world.

Writers within this genre may draw on a variety of literary forms, including novels, poetry, essays and autobiographies, to convey their narratives.

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) is viewed by most of the scholars as the pioneer of American poetry. Being a woman, Anne Bradstreet capped off an enormous job by becoming a female poet in America during 17th century when the founding fathers of America like Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and William Bradford intended to transform New England into a theocratic state on the basis of Biblical dictums. It needs to be added that, during the initial days of American civilization in 17th century, the European immigrants on the soil of America used to call it New England. Therefore, pre-independence American prose and poetry are still known as New England literature.

 Aspects of diaspora and theology inseparably exist in Anne Bradstreet’s poems.

Anne Bradstreet immigrated to New England with her husband and parents in 1630 like many other Europeans who migrated there and civilized present day America.

After a strenuous three-month long sea voyage, their ship Arbella reached Salem, Massachusetts on 22nd July 1630. Bedraggled by the sickness, lack of food and poor living conditions of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Anne Bradstreet expressed her anguish in some of her classical poems about the inhospitable plight of the colony. However, later on she adapted to the perils and drawbacks of that place and recognized the Puritanical authority of New England. 

If perused attentively, Anne Bradstreet’s verses reflect the religious and emotional dichotomy she experienced as a female poet and as a Puritan. Throughout her life Anne Bradstreet remained preoccupied with paradoxes like sin and salvation, vice and virtue, hope and despair, death and immortality. As a Puritan she had a long struggle to curtail her attachment to this mundane world, but as a woman she felt more profoundly inclined to her husband, her children and to her community.

A simple definition of diaspora literature, then, would be works that are written by authors who live outside their native land. The term identifies a work’s distinctive geographic origins. But diaspora literature may also be defined by its contents, regardless of where it was written

The chief characteristic features of the diasporic writings are the quest for identity, uprooting and re-rooting, insider and outsider syndrome, nostalgia, nagging sense of guilt etc. The diasporic writers turn to their homeland for various reasons. For eg. Naipaul who is in a perpetual quest for his roots turns to India for the same.

The writers of the Indian diaspora, through their literary contributions have greatly enriched the English literature. They have been aiming at re-inventing India through the rhythms of ancient legends, the cadences of mythology, the complexities of another civilization, cultural assimilation and nostalgia.

When we come back to South Asia to speak on diaspora, we come under obligations to make references to Jhumpa Lahiri whose fame as a successful author radiated across the world after she won Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for her first anthology of short stories titled Interpreter of Maladies.

Her another outstanding recognition was the Asian American Literary Award in 2009 for her book Unaccustomed Earth which includes some mind-blowing stories. Moreover, she received the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2014 for her novel The Lowland which was published in 2013. Jhumpa Lahiri came back into literary confabulations following the appearance of her autobiographic book In Other Words in 2016.

All her stories resonate with a strain of diaspora because of the fact that in her fictional works she mirrors the smiles and tears of South Asian immigrants, particularly Indians who have been living in the United States amid sporadic slices of illusions and agonies.

In The Lowland Jhumpa Lahiri tells the story of two brothers Subhash and Udayan and Udayan's wife Gauri. Udayan gets involved in the Naxalite movement that rocked West Bengal and some other provinces of India during the 1960s which aimed at building up a classless society.

Subhash, on the other hand, lives in the United States and he does not endorse his brother's connection with the Naxalite activists. As the novel proceeds, Udayan one day gets killed by the Indian police force, causing a longstanding trauma to his pregnant wife Gauri. Subhash flies back to Calcutta to console his bereaved family.

He stands by his family to overcome the shock of Udayan's death. He takes Gauri with him to America and raises Gauri's daughter there. He gets into wedlock with Gauri and loves her profusely, but the haunting memories of Udayan hardly leave Gauri alone.

This disorientation trickles into the lives of Jhumpa Lahiri's immigrant characters in most of her tales.

While writing about diasporic literature, we have to spotlight on Zia Haider Rahman too. In the Light of What We Know is the first novel by Zia Haider Rahman, a British writer born in Bangladesh. The book has triggered a substantial amount of uproar and sensation among literary analysts across the world including Bangladesh. In this novel we come across a psychologically bifurcated man Zafar and his endless inquiries about conjuring up a way to jump over the general periphery of his knowledge. In the above line I wrote the words "psychologically bifurcated" referring to Zafar because Zafar is an exact coequal to the novel's narrator whose name is not specified in the book's story. It's a voluminous book in which the author often applies tools of metafiction to narrate the tale in such a way that sometimes goes beyond the established norms of a fictional work--a noteworthy trait frequently adopted by postmodern writers around the world. Even through a number of descriptions of the novel it transpires every now and then that Zafar is in fact introducing the readers to different facets of the narrator's life. Zafar and the narrator are sometimes difficult to be isolated: two faces of the same man, a theme idealized by Robert Louis Stevenson in his masterpiece Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Zafar studied mathematics in Oxford University, United Kingdom. He subconsciously picks up a propensity to go for equations in terms of all his questions about life which is very similar to the way he solved queries related to arithmetic and algebra on the basis of mathematical principles and theories.  Whenever he endeavors to explore the true meaning of life, the limits of his knowledge pose the biggest hurdles. Who am I? What am I here for? These questions grill Zafar at all times. These questions remind us of a remark by Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher, "Knowing others is wisdom. Knowing yourself is enlightenment." To have a deeper glance into his life, Zafar travels back to his hometown, Sylhet in Bangladesh, wherefrom he had been taken to the United Kingdom many years earlier. This is how diaspora becomes an indispensable part of In the Light of What We Know.

Zafar’s trip to Sylhet is narrated by Zia Haider Rahman in such an engrossing way that it reminds us of the protagonist of Khaled Hosseini's celebrated novel The Kite Runner who goes back to war-torn Afghanistan from the United States to discover his true identity and to quest for the roots of his genealogy. It's like an odyssey of a disoriented man who wants to streamline himself and to recompose his mind by digging up his past. It's a notable strain of diaspora too. Born in rural Bangladesh under circumstances tattered with violence, Zafar's fate performs a huge jump ahead when he is brought to London by his adoptive parents and they equip him with an adequate level of education. Just by virtue of his hard work, Zafar secures admission in Oxford University, before going to work as an investment banker in New York, undergoing lessons to work as a lawyer and ending up as a legal adviser for international agencies involved in providing humanitarian aid to the underprivileged masses of Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Zafar's checkered experiences resemble the gulf-like differences that lie between the west and the oriental societies. The story moves back and forth in time to catch glimpses from Zafar's present life and his eventful past in the form of temporal distortion which is another postmodern fictional characteristic.

This novel makes references to the Liberation War of 1971, the Language Movement of 1952 and the Indian Partition of 1947. Thus this book contains the value of a historical text too.

The current world is troubled with geopolitical hazards driving millions of people away from their homes. Countless numbers of refugees are migrating to foreign countries nowadays because of war, ethnic cleansing, political uncertainty etcetera. Under these circumstances diaspora has become relevant in terms of all discourses from literary discussions to international issues.

 
Mahfuz Ul Hasib Chowdhury is a
contributor to different English
newspapers and magazines.