BHARATI MUKHERJEE’NİN JASMINE İSİMLİ ROMANI: KÜLTÜREL ÇATIŞMA VE KİMLİK ARAYIŞI

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BHARATI MUKHERJEE’NİN JASMINE İSİMLİ ROMANI: KÜLTÜREL ÇATIŞMA VE KİMLİK ARAYIŞI

Özet

Kimliğin ironik biçimde hem indirgendiği hem de çoğaltıldığı postmodern dünyada, yeni düzeni tanımlamak için küreselleşme ve çokkültürlülük gibi kavramlar türemiştir. Dünya farklılıkların benzerliklerde eridiği küresel bir köye dönüşürken, baskın ideolojinin dışında kalan kültürler ve gruplar çeşitliliklerini ortaya koymanın yollarını aramaktadırlar. Öte yandan, konunun karmaşıklığı kişinin kendini tanımlayacak sabit bir nokta bulamaması olarak özetlenebilecek olan kimlik krizini ortaya koyar. Hintli yazar Bharati Mukherjee’nin Jasmine isimli romanı hem kendi kültürü içinde hem de dışında kimlik krizi ve kültürel karmaşayı tecrübe eden genç bir Hintli kadının hikâyesidir. Bu çalışma, çokkültürlü ve feminist bakış açıları çerçevesinde, Batı’nın ve erkek egemen toplumun baskın gücüne karşılık Doğu’nun ve kadının içinde bulunduğu kimlik krizini ve kültürel çatışmayı Mukherjee’nin Jasmine romanında incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır.

In the postmodern world, the concept of identity is in an ironical condition for the reason that identities are multiplied in a richness of various combinations within multicultural societies while they are reduced to a single dimension in the hands of globalization. According to Chris Barker, “identity is an essence that can be signified through signs of taste, beliefs, attitudes and lifestyles” (2003: 220). Identity has personal and social dimension both of which has the potential of becoming more and more complex and wealthy thanks to the interactive relationships of our postmodern world.

On the other hand, the trend of globalization, which is shaped by the dominant powers, creates a standard identity within which none of the differences are welcome.  natural outcome of this clash between the opposing powers of multiculturalism and globalization, postmodern self is decentred and frag ented and that is why “persons are composed not of one but of several, sometimes contradictory, identities” (Barker, 2003: 224). The tension between the mentioned opposite powers bring identity crisis forth for many individuals and groups, which can be summarized as a difficulty of finding a fixed place for oneself and of creating any sense of life and meaning. The Indian author Bharati Mukherjee’s 1989 novel Jasmine is the story of a young woman from Punjab, India who experiences identity crisis and cultural conflict both in and out of her own culture. In other words, the story narrates Jasmine’s search for her true and unfragmented identity and the transformations she experiences in a positive and optimistic way. Thus, it becomes a tale of moral courage seeking for self-awareness.

 The ovel is more than a classical bildungsroman since it only focuses on a short but very intense life span of the protagonist and it involves her struggle against not only the ordinary difficulties of the normal process which is experienced by every young person but also challenges related with her sexual, racial, national and cultural identity. Jasmine’s life in India, her migration to United States and her struggle to define herself portray the similar stories of many others both as easterners and women. That is why this paper will discuss cultural conflict and identity crisis by focusing on the East and women in opposition to the dominant power of the West and men. The metaphorical quest of Jasmine’s protagonist starts as Jyoti in India where she stands against the role that was prepared for her by the patriarchal system of her homeland. Like most of the Indian women, she is born as the disappointing baby girl of her family and her whole life is under the control of her father and brothers. According to Indian tradition,a girl should be m arried at an early age with a dowry which is a burden for the families. Additionally, girls are seen as belongings of e husbands. That is why families are reluctant about educating them or giving them extra facilities. In short, they are named as curses directed towards women “who needed to be punished for sins committed in other incarnations” (Mukherjee, 1991: 34) according to their religious belief.Jyoti stands as a rebellious character in the triarchal society that dominates India. She does not want to obey her society’s predetermined gender roles which are summarized by Chris Barker as “the cultural assumptions and practices that govern the social constructions of men, women and their social relations” (2003: 240). Having interests and demands more than the usual girls, she wants to continue her education to finally become a doctor and to have her own choices in life unlike the village girls who are “like cattle” that follows “whichever way you lead them” (Mukherjee, 1991: 39). Instead, Jyoti likes “hearing the men talk” (Mukherjee, 1991: 56) since they usually talk about a world to which she is a stranger. 

Thus, the first conflict Jyoti experiences is the one between the dominant patriarchal system and the modern life that she desires. She loses her sense of belonging to the life and traditions of rural India and dreams a life which is impossible even to dream for many Indian girls. Prakash, her Indian husband, is the man who gives her what she looks for. Prakash is a radical man with extreme ideas even for Jyoti. He believes that “there’s no room in modern India for feudalism” (Mukherjee, 1991: 69), rejects the traditional large family life and forces his wife to call him by his first name in contra Indian traditions. However, his biggest impact on Jyoti is his Professor Higgins-like role in her life: like the professor aiming to create a lady out of the flower girl, Prakash intends to turn Jyoti into the ideal, modern woman of India: “Pygmalion wasn’t a play I’d seen or read then, but I realize now how much of Professor Higgins there was in my husband. He wanted to break down the Jyoti I’d been in Hasnapur and make me a new kind of city woman. To break off the past, he gave me a new name: Jasmine. He said; ‘You are small and sweet and heady, my Jasmine. You’ll quicken the whole world with your perfume.’ Jyoti, Jasmine: I shuttled between identities.” (Mukherjee, 1991: 70) Although Jyoti wants to become Jasmine, still she is split into two just as her life is parted in two halves by her marriage with Prakash. Despite her eagerness for a more modern lifeeven she hesitates to go beyond patriarchal rules at first: “In contrast to the other men of the traditional culture, Prakash does not see marriage as the cultural sanctioning of patriarchal control and enforced obedience. He renames Jyoti as Jasmine, a symbolic break with her feudal past. Yet this break causes Jyoti/Jasmine deep conflict. As a traditional woman she wants to get pregnant immediately to prove her worth and to validate her identity. Indeed, in this society, pregnancy is the only available identity.” (Ruppel, 1995: 184) 

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