Language, Individual & Society, Volume 9, 2015

Abstract: This research seeks to address and examine the significance of spaces of ethnicity in Jhumpa Lahiri’s narratives from a cultural perspective. The objective is to explicate different perceptions and representations from the concept of diaspora in the Indian community in the United States. This has been done by studying the responses of two different generations of the Indian immigrants to the cultural space of the host society. It is shown that the concept of diaspora takes ambivalent dimensions and signifies contradictory meanings within the ethnic Indian community. The researcher indicates that it is firstly the site of absolute differences when it comes to the cultural interactions between earlier generation of immigrants and the mainstream society. Besides, it is the locus of articulation of differences when it requires the responses of younger generation of immigrants to both the heritage and the prevailing culture of New England.