Existential Angst and Diasporic Ambience in Jhumpa Lahiri’s the Interpreter of Maladies and the Namesake

Abstract

This research paper examines the philosophy of Existentialism and Diasporic challenges in the streak of post-modern era of Indian English Literature. Literature is an elucidation of what it witnesses, confronts or observes in everyday’s life because every author is a sensitive and gifted neurotic who cannot discard the backdrop and inter socio-cultural scenario encircles him. Indian English Literature is indeed a juxtaposition of all such psychological experiences wore by numerous continental authors since it began after the rise or advent of reason and rationality in the lives of common man that brought identity crisis and many psychological maladies to him. In consequences, Existential writing became an outlet for the psychological assertions and accumulations. This present research paper natters only an impound period of Indian English literature; especially the period of Post-Modern Indian English novel and more specifically the writing of Jhumpa Lahiri. Her two huge accomplishments The Interpreter of Maladies (Pub.1999) and The Namesake (Pub.2003) are the area under discussion of this research paper and it maps out the psychological impact of existential reality and cultural discrepancies on the protagonists of the selected novel and story-book. Their existential angst, sense of loneliness and alienation are explained up to an extent.