Diasporic Experience Of Korobi In Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Oleander Girl

Abstract

Women's independence and freedom is a tired topic that nevertheless sparks lively debate in our culture. Women's autonomy and appropriate limits are still denied to a large proportion of women. Indian women are frequently used as instruments to promote one's culture and as tradition bearers. The concerns of diaspora, transnationality, hybridity, and identity crises continue to enrich the literatures of the twenty-first century in the age of globalisation. In the realm of global migration, shifting, cultural transaction, multiculturalism, and fluid identity constitute a complicated framework. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, a South Asian immigrant herself, frequently uses her narrative to reflect the challenges of these women in her novels. Her best-known work, Oleander Girl depicts the cultural displacement of Indian immigrant Korobi and her customers as they face identity crises. Divakaruni gives voice to her female characters in the novel, who represent a portion of oppressed Indian women, through her great use of magical realism. This paper investigates the sense of identification and belonging of characters of Indian descent and immigrants in the United States in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's novel. In her writings, she has written on the Indian Diaspora and told anecdotes about the inconsistency of the concept of identity and cultural differences in the Diaspora realm.