ABSTRACT

In Bharati Mukherjee's novel Jasmine, the eponymous heroine embarks on a journey from Calcutta to the US to perform the outlawed rite of Sati. This chapter focuses on the Romantic representation of exotic Otherness in Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni's Sister of My Heart before examining some of the more unsettling aspects of Gothic Otherness in Mukherjee's Wife and Jasmine. The generic elements that can be identified as variations of Gothic romance, including heroic medieval quests and love-driven plot, propel the narrative forward, and the novel's closure re-unites Anju and Sudha in their new home in America. While the romance genre often uses exotic landscapes and magical elements, in the Gothic novel the Other enters in the form of terror and the supernatural. In the Gothic tradition, critics have noted that the racial and national Other is constantly evoked. Donna Heiland examines the idea of nation in Gothic fiction.