Jhumpa Lahiri, The Lowland

Abin Chakraborty (Chandernagore College)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.3.5: South Asian Diasporic Literature and Culture, 1800-present.
Vol. editors: Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Pavan Kumar Malreddy (J W Goethe University of Frankfurt), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège), Muneeza Shamsie (Independent Scholar - Asia), Niaz Zaman (Independent University Bangladesh)

Dates

First circulation or publication 2013

Places

United States (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2013, Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland (2013) is a poignant narrative of shifting focalisers, which follows a range of characters who move through both social and personal upheavals in search of altering definitions of selfhood. Their different quests are all related, in one form or another, to the birthplace, referred to in the title, of the two central male characters of the novel – the brothers Subhash and Udayan – and the memories associated with it.

Unlike Lahiri’s earlier works, The Lowland is not predominantly concerned about the experience of migration for members of the Indian diaspora, and the uneasy negotiations that characterise such journeys. While the novel …

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2106 words

Citation: Chakraborty, Abin. "The Lowland". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 October 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35501, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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