NU Journal of Humanities, Social Sciences & Business Studies, 2015
The notion of cultural clash has come into focus recently as a consequence of the globalization o... more The notion of cultural clash has come into focus recently as a consequence of the globalization of the modern world although it has always been there in reality since there have been diverse ethnic groups possessing different cultures in the same and different countries since the prehistoric time. Generally, when one culture begins to get stronger, tries to assert itself over another culture, and the other culture starts to fight back in return to preserve its own cultural identity, then the cultural clash takes place. Writers from all over the world have been exploring this theme of how exposure to a different culture results in serious cultural clash, affecting in turn people's lives drastically, in their works. For this paper, we have selected two world renowned writers, Monica Ali (1967-), a Bangladeshi British writer, and Kiran Desai (1971-), an Indian author, from this sub-continent, as they have examined this idea of cultural clash and its impact on the lives of the major characters of their respective novels Brick Lane (2003) and The Inheritance of Loss (2006). The two novels have depicted graphically that exposure to another culture mainly results in loss of identity, alienation, and ambivalence regarding one's own cultural identity; however, side by side both the novels have also shown a few cases where it seems that knowing and living in a different culture can have positive results. This paper examines these issues in details.
NU Journal of Humanities, Social Sciences & Business Studies, 2015
The notion of cultural clash has come into focus recently as a consequence of the globalization o... more The notion of cultural clash has come into focus recently as a consequence of the globalization of the modern world although it has always been there in reality since there have been diverse ethnic groups possessing different cultures in the same and different countries since the prehistoric time. Generally, when one culture begins to get stronger, tries to assert itself over another culture, and the other culture starts to fight back in return to preserve its own cultural identity, then the cultural clash takes place. Writers from all over the world have been exploring this theme of how exposure to a different culture results in serious cultural clash, affecting in turn people's lives drastically, in their works. For this paper, we have selected two world renowned writers, Monica Ali (1967-), a Bangladeshi British writer, and Kiran Desai (1971-), an Indian author, from this sub-continent, as they have examined this idea of cultural clash and its impact on the lives of the major characters of their respective novels Brick Lane (2003) and The Inheritance of Loss (2006). The two novels have depicted graphically that exposure to another culture mainly results in loss of identity, alienation, and ambivalence regarding one's own cultural identity; however, side by side both the novels have also shown a few cases where it seems that knowing and living in a different culture can have positive results. This paper examines these issues in details.
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