Epiphany of cultural identity and hybridity in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Queen of Dreams

Abstract

As a cultural process, hybridity binds together many nationalities and their family traditions. Divakaruni successfully mixes the familial rituals of Asian American immigrants with the new surroundings in that scenario. In this paper, the researcher has investigated and exposed the manifestations of cultural identity and hybridity. This article investigates the role of immigrant women in cultural ethics and shows how their straddled culture constrains the three cultural identities in Divakaruni's novel Queen of Dreams: suppressed Indian, colonial European, and new world Americans. The existence of these three cultural identities confers a diasporic identity to Indians. These characteristics indicate their rootlessness and identification with the host country's culture and customs. In this novel, Divakaruni has merged ancient history with the aspirations of an occidental civilization. Rakhi speaks up against the mental anguish, cultural isolation, and identity crisis of India's displaced people. She tries to fit in with new cultures. The idea of immigrant strife infuses most of Divakaruni's work, a battle between acquired and accepted cultural norms.