Transnationalism in the Migrant Characters of Bangladeshi Origin

Abstract

South Asian experience of transnationalism can be closely observed through its literatures produced by diasporic writers of this origin. When the first generation Bangladeshi migrants struggle to make a balance between two cultures and values, the second or third generation descendants are keener on digging for roots and identity. They grow up in a pluricultural/plurilingual surrounding where they are in an ongoing dialogue with the news, culture, value and history of the significant others from the country of their origin. The third gen descendants become a part of that dialogue when they look for their origin. Schuerkens argued that “the transnational migrant links the different contexts and contributes to changes in both” or vice versa. Monica Ali, Zadie Smith, Zia Haider, and Tahmima Anam tell such stories of transnational migrants of Bangladeshi origin in Brick Lane, White Teeth, In the Light of What We Know, and The Bones of Grace. The nation is not their characters’ sole point of reference, rather it is themselves and their sense of identity that is in the center of everything.