Transcultural Encounters in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess

Abstract

The term transculturalism was introduced in the 1940s and has been discussed further by philosophers, sociologists and cultural theorists. Transculturalism is a combination of elements of more than one culture. It is the emergence of new cultural forms accompanying globalization, a consequence of culturally diverse populations in countries like the United States of America, Canada, etc.Transculturalism occurs in situations where people of diverse cultural backgrounds meet, communicate and interact with each other. It also provides a cultural learning environment where individuals might acquire new skills and knowledge. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian American writer who focuses on identity crisis, globalization, transculturalism, transnationalism and rootlessness of the immigrants. The aim of the paper is to examine the transcultural encounters in Divakaruni’s novel Before We Visit the Goddessand the ways in which these aspects head towards the construction of new identities. The novel depicts the complexities of the transcultural identities, especially of the second-generation immigrants and the life of the South Asian immigrant women settled in the United States of America.