The “Transgressive Other” in Shauna Singh’s “Devika”

Abstract

Scholars often use the terms fragmentation, dual consciousness and hybridity to understand diaspora.
The process of ‘dislocation’ and ‘relocation’ causes inner conflict as the diasporic populace is unable to
completely adopt the ways of the host land and it clings tenaciously to the values and ethos of the
homeland. The inner conflict leads to the rupture of the self and the creation of the fragmented self.
Shauna in several of her narratives probes deep into the psyche of a plethora of immigrant women
characters to unravel their travails in their land of adoption. The endeavor in this paper is to analyse her
short story ‘Devika’, a woman centric narrative to understand the struggles of a displaced woman as she
strives to come to terms with the novel experiences and emotions with their attendant anxieties and
misgivings that she confronts in the land of adoption.