MIGRANT AS THE „OTHER“: KIRAN DESAI’S THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS

Abstract

This paper is concerned with two key concepts of postcolonialism: migrant and the „other“. The notion of the „other“ has been borrowed from Jacque Lacan’s psychoanalitic analyses of the formation of one’s identity. In postcolonial theory, however, it has undergone a meaning change and refers to a colonized subject. By means of an indepth analysis of Kiran Desai’s novel, The Inheritance of Loss, the author investigates otherness from migrants’ point of view. The focus is on two migrant characters – the anglophile and retired judge, Jamubhai Patel, and Saeed Saeed, a black Zanzibari Muslim. The former fails to overcome the sense of otherness as he entirely renounces Indian culture and forges too rigid an identity. The latter thrives in the multicultural world due to his plasticity and flexibility, which turn out to be essential for a successful cultural contact. Desai demonstrates that cultures cannot be put in a hierarchical order and that all peo-ple are equal, regardless of their race, religious denomination or ethnicity. If one bears this in mind, the notion of the „other“ becomes superfluous.