이산을 퀴어화하기: 라히리의 『저지대』를 중심으로

Queering Diasporic Experiences in The Lowland

This paper explores how Jhumpa Lahiri employs queer diaspora as a way of criticizing the Model Minority myth in The Lowland. Model Minority myth has become a widely pervasive idea in American society since the Immigration and National Act has been initiated in 1965, which is not only to produce a politically docile type of immigrants but to encourage them to reproduce another generation of highly functional citizens in economic terms. Subhashi in The Lowland represents the myth; he tries to survive in the U.S. by remaining apolitical and creating heteronormative nuclear family with children. In contrast, Gauri is described as someone defying the double-bind task of Model Minority myth. As a queer diasporic subject, she disrupts the role imposed upon her by undermining the very concept of ‘normal’ Asian immigrant family: she disrupts the reproductive economy of child-rearing and care, and in doing so, she turns into an unruly diasporic subject trespassing the ideological boundary that Model Minority myth enforces. By closely following Gauri’s transformation from an South Asian immigrant wife/mother to a queer disasporic individual, this paper aims to show that The Lowland debunks the biopolitical aspect of Model Minority myth enforcing reproductive citizenship to Asian immigrants.