“Home Culture” to “Host Culture”: Isolation and Identity Issues in Memories of Rain by Sunetra Gupta

Abstract

Literature is the clearest record of the human spirit with an artistic expression. It is a universal observation on the dilemmas of human existence. In rapidly changing times the term 'Diaspora' has become a term to explore multiple fields including literature, cultural and sociological studies. Diasporic literature is one of the literary canons that depict the traumas experienced during cultural transplantation. Diasporic literature include issues regarding cross-cultural encounter and formation of identity, hence identity issues can be analysed from a diasporic point of view. Displacement, dislocation, either self-imposed or forced, violates the existence of a person. Cultural dislocation has tremendous impact on the psyche of the immigrant as his sensibility keeps shifting between the two differing socio-cultural environments - first is "home culture" and another is "host culture". Culture locates man in time; it links man with his lineage and heritage from which he picks up various primordial traits such as mother tongue, faith, customs and rituals, characteristics of social ethos. Moni in Memories of Rain, written by Sunetra Gupta highlights the diasporic issues. Moni's husband Anthony is having an affair with another woman. Moni, due to her husband's infidelity and cultural dislocation, is pushed to recreate India of her mind. In the novel Moni's double consciousness is portrayed: one of India that is her past and one of England which is her present. Her attitude represents a resistance to absorption in the alien culture. In the process of assimilation diasporic subject gives up their individual identity that is formed by native culture and milieu. Moni however rejects the process of “melting pot”. Hence, it becomes an interesting study to analyze how culture and communication plays a vital role in the human life.