ABSTRACT
This chapter offers an interpretation of Bharati Mukherjee's fiction (specifically The Middleman and Other Stories and Jasmine) in order to make the point that its assertedly radical critique of mainstream American literary-cultural productions is not as radical as it might be. It shows the readings of Mukherjee will need to take into account her representations and homogenizations of the other. In the chapter the author critiqued her not out of whim but out of a particular necessity that involves our current moment both in United States history and in academia. It demonstrates, first, Mukherjee ignores the role that representation plays in the textual production of her writing and, second, she homogenizes her ethnic minority immigrant subjects, instead of calling attention to the actual heterogeneity of ethnic minority immigrant subjects in the United States. Mukherjee's project in both The Middleman and Other Stories and Jasmine is to represent that which cannot represent itself.
