Transculturalism in the Diasporic Writings of Bharati Mukherjee: A Note on The Tiger’s Daughter and Wife

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to analyse the transcultural elements in the novels The Tiger’s Daughter and Wife written by Bharati Mukherjee, an Indian diasporic writer. Mukherjee’s writings reflect her own life as an immigrant, as she writes about the pain of adjusting to a completely alien land with its own culture and beliefs. Through her stories, the readers are able to catch a glimpse of the immigrant life, and their conflict between location and culture. An attempt is made to explore the concept of transculturalism in her novels by tracing the respective journeys of the protagonists, Tara and Dimple, with the help of Homi Bhabha’s concepts of mimicry, third space and hybridity.