Spatial Metaphors and Social Consciousness in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake and The Lowland

Abstract

This paper argues that Jhumpa Lahiri employs spatial metaphors—particularly those related to domestic space, borders, and lowland terrain—to critique both bureaucratic violence in immigration systems and intergenerational trauma rooted in political histories. By analysing The Namesake and The Lowland through the combined lenses of diaspora and trauma theory, the study shows that Lahiri’s representations of space reveal embodied experiences of social consciousness that challenge binary notions of assimilation, identity, and collective memory. Drawing on recent open-access scholarship and selected textual citations, this comparative analysis foregrounds how Lahiri’s spatial poetics mobilise domestic, geopolitical, and ecological landscapes as sites for negotiating personal and collective trauma, ultimately illuminating the complexities of diasporic life and transgenerational legacy.