• Dr. NEELIMA CHOUDARAJU

  Author

This paper focuses on the fictional writings Desirable Daughters and The Tree Bride
written by the Indian born US writer Bharati Mukherjee examining the constitution of
identity/ies related to women’s diaspora in contemporary times. It offers excellent cultural
manifestation for the examination of the representation of identity process resulting from
transitional displacements. This presents gender studies and its reflection on main characters’
trajectories which are illuminated by the central notions of performativity and empowerment. It
also analyses protagonist’s actions viewing her process of empowerment as a transformative
strategy in terms of subjective development marked by gender issues. Mukherjee problematizes
the diasporic women subject’s identity formation in relation to the India/US movement, revisiting
and reweaving Indian traditions from multifaceted and gender-marked perspective. This may act
in terms of raising readers’ understanding and critical awareness of the women subject’s
diasporic in the contemporary world.

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