Practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction

Michel Foucault’s notion of neoliberal governmentality is important in the context of the portrayal of the private sphere of the family by diasporic writers. Family, which is generally defined in terms of its functionality, when considering the difficulties of integration into the non-natal cultur...

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Main Authors:	Asl, Moussa Pourya, Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11295/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11295/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11295/1/16518-54519-1-PB.pdf

id	ukm-11295
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-112952018-01-21T15:05:59Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11295/ Practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction Asl, Moussa Pourya Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah, Michel Foucault’s notion of neoliberal governmentality is important in the context of the portrayal of the private sphere of the family by diasporic writers. Family, which is generally defined in terms of its functionality, when considering the difficulties of integration into the non-natal culture from the perspective of the uprooted migrants, is often referred to, erroneously, as the locus of privacy, individuality and autonomy. Among the works of the contemporary writers of Indian diaspora experience in America, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies (1999) has addressed issues of displacement, assimilation and acculturation modifying Indian diaspora individuals and families. This essay analyses two of her short stories “Mrs. Sen’s” and “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” to examine the strategies employed to monitor, regulate and (re)form racial and gendered identities within the seemingly private domain of the Indian diaspora families in the process of establishing a socially acceptable congruence of images for the members of the migrant family. Using the personal sphere of the family as an example of constraint that perpetually fixes subjects to their disciplinary apparatuses, Lahiri portrays the capillary functioning of it through various acts of looking. This essay seeks to explore some of the complex dynamics of the gaze in Lahiri’s stories with a particular focus on the coercive character of power and the unequal gendering of the (examining) gaze. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2017 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11295/1/16518-54519-1-PB.pdf Asl, Moussa Pourya and Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah, (2017) Practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 23 (2). pp. 123-140. ISSN 0128-5157 http://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/972
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	Michel Foucault’s notion of neoliberal governmentality is important in the context of the portrayal of the private sphere of the family by diasporic writers. Family, which is generally defined in terms of its functionality, when considering the difficulties of integration into the non-natal culture from the perspective of the uprooted migrants, is often referred to, erroneously, as the locus of privacy, individuality and autonomy. Among the works of the contemporary writers of Indian diaspora experience in America, Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies (1999) has addressed issues of displacement, assimilation and acculturation modifying Indian diaspora individuals and families. This essay analyses two of her short stories “Mrs. Sen’s” and “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” to examine the strategies employed to monitor, regulate and (re)form racial and gendered identities within the seemingly private domain of the Indian diaspora families in the process of establishing a socially acceptable congruence of images for the members of the migrant family. Using the personal sphere of the family as an example of constraint that perpetually fixes subjects to their disciplinary apparatuses, Lahiri portrays the capillary functioning of it through various acts of looking. This essay seeks to explore some of the complex dynamics of the gaze in Lahiri’s stories with a particular focus on the coercive character of power and the unequal gendering of the (examining) gaze.
format	Article
author	Asl, Moussa Pourya Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah,
spellingShingle	Asl, Moussa Pourya Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah, Practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction
author_facet	Asl, Moussa Pourya Nurul Farhana Low Abdullah,
author_sort	Asl, Moussa Pourya
title	Practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction
title_short	Practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction
title_full	Practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction
title_fullStr	Practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction
title_full_unstemmed	Practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction
title_sort	practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in jhumpa lahiri’s fiction
publisher	Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate	2017
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11295/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11295/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/11295/1/16518-54519-1-PB.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:59:56Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:59:56Z
_version_	1777406780381331456

Practices of (neoliberal) governmentality: racial and gendered gaze in Jhumpa Lahiri’s fiction

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