Dislocation and Loneliness in Jhumpa Lahiri's Fiction: A Study of The Namesake, The Lowland, and Whereabouts

Abstract

Jhumpa Lahiri's novels offer a sustained examination of migration, cultural negotiation, emotional estrangement, and the search for belonging. This article studies the interconnected experiences of dislocation and loneliness in The Namesake (2003), The Lowland (2013), and Whereabouts (2018; English edition 2021). It argues that Lahiri represents displacement not simply as movement across national borders but as a continuing psychological condition that can persist after physical settlement. In The Namesake, Ashima and Ashoke experience the loss of familiar social networks, while Gogol embodies the second generation's uncertainty between Bengali inheritance and American social identity. The Lowland broadens the theme by connecting displacement with political violence, bereavement, marriage, secrecy, and intergenerational consequences. In Whereabouts, the focus shifts toward urban anonymity and existential solitude, showing that loneliness can arise even in densely populated spaces. Drawing on diaspora and cultural-identity perspectives associated with Homi K. Bhabha, Stuart Hall, Salman Rushdie, Edward Said, and Steven Vertovec, the article interprets Lahiri's characters as subjects who repeatedly negotiate home, memory, language, family, and selfhood. The study also incorporates recent scholarship on The Namesake, including Parameswari and Shanmuga Sundara Raj's discussion of cultural duality, generational shifts, adaptation, and cross-cultural relationships, together with Qazi's corroborating analysis of diasporic identity and cultural displacement. The article concludes that Lahiri transforms the migrant search for home into a broader inquiry into belonging, intimacy, identity, and the conditions of modern loneliness.