South asian women in diasporic space voices of adolescent girls in the novels of Mitali Perkins

Abstract

A considerable body of research has been conducted to understand the problems faced by women migrants in diasporic spaces. This research encompasses the diasporic experiences of women and adolescent girl migrants. The current study is based on select novels of Mitali Perkins, in which the female characters are social migrants. The narratives selected for the investigation include You Bring the Distant Near, The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen, and the two novels in the First Daughter series, Extreme American Makeover and White House Rules. The novels have been analysed from the point of view of diasporic studies, feminism and theories related to young adult literature. The study does not undervalue the sufferings of male migrants, but the study agrees with the theorists who uphold the notion that women migrants suffer more in terms of their gender rather than their race. While male migrants suffer owing to their race, women migrants suffer on multiple levels due to their various marginalised identities. The problems caused by the intersection of marginalised identities have also been discussed in this thesis. The pressure on women to preserve the cultural values of their country of origin is a major issue faced by women in diasporic spaces. This curtails their freedom to choose their level of adaptation to the culture of the host land. A sharp contradiction can be seen in the acculturation process of male migrants, as they have the liberty to choose their level of adaptation. The pressure on women to represent their ancestral culture makes their acculturation process more challenging than that of male migrants. The researcher has also probed into the novels to understand whether gender issues decreases as the generation goes higher.Since women migrants are forced to wear ethnic costumes in the diasporic space, their ethnical identity is easily identified, which makes them more vulnerable to racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia in the case of Muslim women. The research seeks to understand how women migrants handle these challenges; whether they remain passive to the discrimination targeted against them, or actively work to overcome their marginalised status.