Silence, Displacement and Transnational Subjectivity in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth: A Diasporic Feminist Reading

Abstract

Displacement, the creation of identity, intergenerational tensions, and the emotional ramifications of migration are all recurrent themes in Jhumpa Lahiri’s novels. Although much of the critical discussion of Lahiri foregrounds issues of cultural hybridity and immigrant identity, silence as a constitutive mechanism of diasporic subjectivity in Unaccustomed Earth has received very little attention. This paper reads Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth through the lenses of feminist diaspora theory, postcolonial criticism, and transnational literary studies to analyse the themes of silence, displacement, and transnational identity construction. Drawing on theoretical interventions by Homi K. Bhabha, Avtar Brah, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Stuart Hall and Sara Ahmed, the paper argues that silence is not just an absence of speech, but an emotional and cultural framework that constructs identity negotiation in immigrant lives. Lahiri’s characters navigate belonging through disjointed recollections, intergenerational tensions, self-censorship and global migration. This study, through a rigorous textual analysis, shows how Lahiri reconfigures immigrant subjectivity beyond conventional binaries of homeland and host nation. This study contributes to current scholarship by re-framing silence as an active cultural force in diasporic experience and emotional heritage.