Desis’ identity crisis in America: examining cultural and racial politics in Samira Ahmed’s Love, Hate and Other Filters (2018) and Sanjena Sathian’s Gold Diggers (2021)

ABSTRACT

This paper examines literary representations of Desis, who are commonly associated with the South Asian American diaspora, in terms of their simultaneous identity formations as ethnic Indians and American citizens. It analyses the vulnerabilities of second generation Desis in America while growing up in the post-9/11 era. Poststructuralist philosopher Judith Butler’s concept of a precarious life is critically employed to investigate sociopolitical agendas that underpin racial and cultural othering of Desis. Through a comparative analysis of Samira Ahmed’s Love, Hate and Other Filters (2018) and Sanjena Sathian’s Gold Diggers (2021), the cultural and psychophysical vulnerabilities of the second generation Desis for whom success is configured in the political construct of the American dream are discussed. This critical attention to an emergent genre of Indian diaspora fiction in English paves the way for nuanced understandings of marginal identities within America’s sociopolitical and cultural locales.

KEYWORDS:

• Desis
• identity crisis
• The American dream
• Post-9/11 terror
• South Asian American diaspora fiction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hannah Ming Yit Ho

Hannah Ming Yit Ho is an Assistant Professor of Literatures in English at Universiti Brunei Darussalam. She is also an Associate of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. ORCID: 0000-0003-3008-5028.