Spatial Construction and Ethical Writing in Jhumpa Lahiri's “Unaccustomed Earth”

Abstract

Abstract: Indian American writer Jhumpa Lahiri’s short story, “Unaccustomed Earth”, centers around its narrative’s shift in space, its characters’ movement in space, its textual construction of space, so as to bring into focus the existential space for ethnic groups on the one hand and, on the other, addresses ethical themes, highlights ethical implications through a variety of spatial images, metaphors. By delineating how the Indian immigrants in multiple generations confront their dilemmatic living condition, their anxiety over identity in America, Lahiri represents their ethical choices, the return of their ethical consciousness, the retrospection of their ethnic history, the affirmation of their spatial belonging, hence articulates the ethical pursuit of ethnic writers. Lahiri’s story reveals the close relationship between the multidimensional spatial structure of the text, the representation of the theme. Also, it explores issues like diaspora, space, identity, ethics faced by the Indian American community in the age of globalization, reflecting the author’s concern with the Indian immigrants in America, demonstrating the ethical value of spatial narrative

Key words: Lahiri, “Unaccustomed Earth”, spatial construction, ethical writing

Yuan Xuesheng. Spatial Construction and Ethical Writing in Jhumpa Lahiri's “Unaccustomed Earth”[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2020, 42(6): 62-72.

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