REPRESENTATION OF CULTURAL DIASPORA IN AMERICAN FEVER BY DUR E AZIZ AMNA

Abstract

The current study examines the representation of cultural diaspora in the novel “American Fever” by Dur-E-Aziz Amna. This study constructs the concepts of diaspora community and highlights the effects of migration for the diasporic people. The diasporic subjects have their cultural diaspora and when they migrate to another country, they revive and maintain their culture. The study aims to reveal the cultural diaspora within the framework of diasporic elements and postcolonial elements. Diasporic elements show cultural diaspora through exile and displacement, identity crisis, nostalgia, loss and trauma and language diversity while postcolonial elements are hybridity, mimicry and third space. These are the key concepts of postcolonial theory. The study analyzes the hybrid identities, their mimic actions to survive in host country and their struggle for third space as refugee. These elements analyze the psychological aspects as well as the adjustment and adaptation of migrated people. The novel “America Fever” is the journey of a Pakistani migrated girl named Hira, who experiences the new country with its new cultural norms but maintains her cultural traditions showing the cultural diaspora. It is the experience of migration of exchange students from Pakistan to America for studies. These migrated students try to overcome the issues of American norms and assimilate into new culture but it becomes difficult for the protagonist of the novel. The internal and external conflicts create complexities for her. Her exile shows diaspora and she clings to her Islamic traditions and Pakistani culture. Moreover, study shows the migration experience of the Pakistani diasporic author Dur-E-Aziz Amna. The writer, herself went to America for studies and she had to pass through these psychological aspects. The study highlights the possibilities of cultural adaptation and alienation. The researcher aims to analyze the cultural diaspora with perspective to specific cultural problems and cultural adjustment through the framework of diasporic and postcolonial elements