“适”与“不适”——《不适之地》中移民文化身份困境探析

Accustomedness and Unaccustomedness——The Perennial Dilemma of Cultural Identity in Unaccustomed Earth

美国印裔女作家茱帕·拉希里的短篇小说集《不适之地》中的同名小说围绕祖孙三代的生活琐事,勾勒出南亚移民及在美国生长的后代的生存状态,凸显出第二代移民在处理根文化和居住地文化时所遭遇的身份认同困境。表象的同化无法掩饰他们内心的漂泊感,而深层的涵化又令人无法企及。于是,这个群体不停地在"适"与"不适"间追寻和重塑自我。

The works of American-Bengali writer Jhumpa Lahiri are known for an ingenious combination of the daily life experience and the complex emotions of immigrants. Focusing on the title story ＂Unaccustomed Earth＂ in her collection Unaccustomed Earth, the paper examines the gulf between the first-and-second generation Bengali immi- grants and explores the causes of the confusion and embarrassment when they handle the entanglement of root cul- ture and western culture. Material well-being fails to bring them inner peace and satisfaction. Feelings of disorien- tation and alienation always haunt their pursuit of cultural identity. Cultural reconciliation and identity reconstruc- tion remains a perpetual theme for them.