AKHIL SHARMA’S FAMILY LIFE: REGRETTING DOUBLENESS OF DIASPORA INDIVIDUALS

Abstract

This study discusses a matter of cultural identity faced by diaspora individuals in Akhil Sharma’s novel Family Life. As a diasporic Indian American, Sharma depicts that cultural identity is problematic, especially for an individual who experiences two or more conflicted cultures from home left behind and the home this individual has moved to. Sharma also demonstrates that the identity of this diasporic is never complete. This study aims to critically analyze Sharma’s fiction by highlighting the issues he engages as a diasporic writer. It also depicts how voluntary displacement done by diaspora characters tends to lead them to mourn. The analysis applies a concept of cultural identity by Stuart Hall. It explains a notion of identity within the discourses of history and culture, which is not an essence but a positioning. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method. The result shows there is doubleness of cultural identity conveyed by Sharma. This regretting doubleness appears in structured stages: admiring the West and being rejected by the West.