Endless Travel, Endless Possibilities: Homing/Rooting/Routing in Bharati Mukherjee's Jasmine

• Main Authors: Meng-chun Chen, 陳孟君
• Other Authors: Tsui-yu Lee
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/58eg3y

碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 101 === In Jasmine, Mukherjee depicts the hybrid position of a postcolonial Indian subject in pursuit of making herself an American. With the attempt to portray perplexities of the immigrant experience, Jasmine draws on her native Indian culture while assimilating American culture in search for survival. The thesis draws attention to how travel shapes postcolonial subjectivity based on Deleuze and Guattari’s nomad thought and Bhabha’s concept of liminality. The thesis consists of five chapters. Beginning with setting out Mukherjee’s historical and cultural background, I attempt to illustrate her enthusiastic embrace of an alien culture as a Third World immigrant and how her origin influences her writing. To rethink space in more dynamic relativity, Chapter two examines Jasmine’s travel and her role as a traveller by elaborating on Deleuze and Guattari’s nomadology. Then following Deleuze and Guattari’s nomad thought, Chapter Three discusses Jasmine’s always becoming by analysing the interweaving of the past and present in her in-between situation. In Chapter Four, I apply Bhabha’s notion of liminality to the novel to explore the significance of floating identities to a traveller. Chapter Five concludes the concept of home has constructed by nomadic travel. The shuttle within space is the only way for travellers to challenge the state apparatus and re-routing their home.