IDENTITY AND DIASPORIC TRAUMA IN MIRA JACOB'S THE SLEEPWALKER'S GUIDE TO DANCING
Vol.7, Issue 1, 2021, pp. 51-68 Full text
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.21.1.4
Web of Science: 000658797400005
Authors:
Jameel Alghaberi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1863-9403
Sanjay Mukherjee https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9866-9308
Affiliation: Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, India
Contributor roles
Conceptualization J.A. (lead); Textual analysis J.A. (lead); Supervision, Validation, Methodological Appropriation S.M. (lead); Formal Analysis; Critical Evaluation J.A., S.M. (equal); Writing – original draft J.A. (lead); Writing - review and editing, S.M. (lead).
Abstract
This article explores the assimilation politics in Mira Jacob's novel The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing (2013). The intersection of memory, trauma, and mourning with reference to immigrant experience is discussed. In terms of assimilation, Barkan's six stage model is critiqued, and diasporic 'hybridity' is proposed as an alternative to the notion of total assimilation. In the analysis of traumatic experience, the paper makes reference to Caruth's formulations of the 'abreactive model'. The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing is a transcultural text that represents the gap that truly exists between the first-generation immigrants and their offspring. It is a typical trauma novel featuring timeless and unspeakable experiences. The novel does not present a postcolonial collective trauma but invariably an example of diasporic imagined trauma. By presenting two contrasting generations in her novel, Mira Jacob attempts to highlight the dilemmas that baffle diasporas in the United States particularly of those that resist assimilation. Much of the narrative projects the haunting presence of home, and the anguish of personal loss experienced by first generation immigrants. Moreover, the novel questions the nostalgic and romantic engagements with the past and it promotes a bold affirmation of the culture of the adopted land. In other words, Mira Jacob calls for more genuine engagements with the new culture that the second and the third-generation immigrants are more exposed to than their home culture because their in-between status leaves them with no choice.
Keywords: assimilation, memory, identity, trauma, diasporic experience
Article history:
Submitted: 15 February 2021
Reviewed: 05 April 2021
Revised: 18 April 2021
[Accepted}2021-04-18|22 May 2021]
Published: 1 June 2021
Citation (APA):
Alghaberi, J., & Mukherjee, S. (2021). Identity and Diasporic Trauma in Mira Jacob's "The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing". English Studies at NBU, 7(1), 51-68. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.21.1.4
Copyright © 2021 Jameel Alghaberi and Sanjay Mukherjee
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Review
1. Reviewer's name: Undisclosed
Review Content: Undisclosed
Review Verified on Publons
2. Reviewer's name: Tadd Graham Fernée, PhD, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria
Review Content: Undisclosed
Review Verified on Publons
Handling Editor: Stan Bogdanov
Verified Editor Record on Publons