Naming, Diaspora And The Quest For Identity In Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

Parasakthi K

Naming, Diaspora And The Quest For Identity In Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

Author(s)	Dr. Parasakthi K
Country	India
Abstract	Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake (2003) is a significant work of Indian-American diasporic fiction that explores identity, displacement, cultural conflict, assimilation and belonging. The novel traces the experiences of the Ganguli family, particularly Gogol Ganguli, the American-born son of Bengali immigrants Ashoke and Ashima. At the centre of the novel is the question of naming and its relationship to personal and cultural identity. Gogol’s unusual name becomes a source of embarrassment and alienation during his childhood and adolescence, leading him to adopt the name Nikhil as an attempt to construct a new identity. However, his movement towards American assimilation does not completely resolve his internal conflict. His relationship with his family, his father’s death and his gradual understanding of the significance of his name eventually lead him towards a more complex understanding of his Bengali-American identity. This paper examines the relationship between naming and identity, the first- and second-generation immigrant experience, cultural displacement, generational conflict and the process of self-discovery in The Namesake. It argues that Lahiri does not present identity as a fixed or singular category; instead, identity emerges as a continuous process of negotiation between inherited culture and individual experience.
Keywords	Keywords: Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake, identity, diaspora, naming, cultural conflict, assimilation, hybridity, immigration, belonging.
Field	Arts
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 4, July-August 2026
Published On	2026-08-26

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Naming, Diaspora And The Quest For Identity In Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

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