Reinscribing home: South Asian diasporic fiction in Australia

This thesis examines through the theoretical discourses of diaspora how the icon of home is articulated in selected South Asian diasporic fiction in Australia. In terms of the textual analysis of twenty-three novels and short stories written by eleven South Asian diasporic authors in Australia I argue that the dynamic re-inscription of home, as articulated in the everyday experiences of the fictional characters, travels from the exilic strain of archetypal diaspora to more nuanced explorations of the dialectic of place and displacement. The changing invocations of home are examined against the social, cultural and political milieu of the homeland as well as that of the adopted land, particularly with reference to the changes in Australian immigration policies. The realization of home is also seen to be responsive to phenomena such as globalization and the technological and digital communications revolution. Finally, in this research I propose to use the neologism ‘homespace’, rather than ‘home’ as the fluid notion of ‘homespace’ is more potent in articulating the heterogeneity and complexity of the diasporic perception of home.