Category Archives: Unit 3

What’s in a Name?

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Jhumpa Lahiri, author of The Namesake. Lynn Neary [CC BY-SA 4.0   (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Jhumpa Lahiri, the author of The Namesake, had her own struggles with her name while she was growing up. Her Bengali parents immigrated to London, where Lahiri was born, and then they moved to America when Lahiri was three years old. Lahiri began her schooling in Kingstown, Rhode Island:

Like her character Gogol, Lahiri experienced some confusion over her name when starting school. Her parents tried to enroll her using her “good” names—Nilanjana and Sudeshna—but the teacher insisted that those were too long, and opted instead for her pet name, Jhumpa. Lahiri notes that, “Even now, people in India ask why I’m publishing under my pet name instead of a real name” (Source: NEA Big Read).

Consider the importance of names in The Namesake and how Gogol’s evolving identification with and rejection of his name connect to his evolving cultural identity and his sense of belonging, whether in America or in India. Particularly, consider chapter 6 of the novel, which focuses on Gogol’s relationship with Maxine Ratliff and his closeness to her parents and their entire way of life. As he integrates more fully into Maxine’s world (as Nikhil), Gogol realizes that “his immersion in Maxine’s family is a betrayal of his own” (141).

Leave a response below in which you discuss how Gogol’s relationship with Maxine (and her parents) is affecting his evolving self-understanding and his cultural identity. Also discuss the ways in which your own name has contributed to your own identity and sense of belonging, whether at home, here in the US, or elsewhere. Do you adopt an “American name” in the US, for instance? If so, does this ever lead to feelings of a split identity like Gogol experiences?

Technology and Minority Languages

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Photo by User:Mattes [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

In his essay “Death by Monoculture,” Stephen Pax Leonard discusses the devastating impact that consumerism and globalization are having on linguistic diversity around the world. Leonard focuses specifically on the dual role played by technology: on the one hand, certain forms of technology are endangering minority languages; on the other hand, the Internet has the potential to preserve linguistic diversity.

To promote multilingualism and cultural diversity and to honor the men who gave their lives on February 21, 1952 in defense of Bengali language and culture, UNESCO declared February 21st “International Mother Language Day” in 1999, and it has been celebrated annually throughout the world since the year 2000. Please watch this 6-minute-long video about International Mother Language Day, produced by UNESCO, and then leave a comment in which you respond to the following 2 questions before class on Monday, 10/29 (*Note: You do not need to connect to another Globalization essay in this response!):

1. What role do you feel technology plays in the extinction and preservation of minority languages around the world? Do you agree with Leonard’s point of view?

2. Do you feel as though your own mother tongue is currently endangered? Why or why not? Are there minority languages or regional dialects in your home country that are in danger of extinction? How are you affected (or not affected) by the risk to linguistic diversity in your home country and/or around the world?

Refer to the “Blog Response Evaluation Criteria” handout distributed in class (also available on BB > Handouts > Unit 2) for guidelines and expectations in your response.