20th Annual Student Research Conference
Language & Literature
Interpreter Of The Unconscious: A Look At Jhumpa Lahiri’s "Interpreter of Maladies"
Mayumi Noguchi
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
Jhumpa Lahiri's short story, "Interpreter of Maladies," (1999) portrays an Indian American family on vacation in India. As they venture through India, Lahiri reveals the incompatible nature of the family and the secrets the unhappy mother shares with their native tour guide. Using Freudian psychoanalytic theory, this paper will examine the relationship of the unhappy, immature parents, their naïve children, and their "dutiful" tour guide, who is struck by the foreign family and their strange ways. This paper will examine the ways in which the fear of intimacy impacts the wife's relationship with her husband, children, and the tour guide, who has his own tragic history.
Keywords: Psychoanalysis, Freud, Lahiri, India, American Indian, Family, Intimacy, Vacation
Topic(s):English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 9-2
Location: VH 1428
Time: 8:30 am