8. Januar - 14. Januar

1)    What are the particular cultural differences that the novel identifies between US-American and Bengali cultures? What are the points of hybridity and hybridization? In what respects does Gogol/Nikhil find himself torn between the two – and how does his relationships with Maxine and his marriage to Moushumi embody the tensions and conflicting forces?

Try to identity – and specifically list – some of the differences.  

2)    The train crash that almost kills Ashoke lies at the origin of his decision to give his son the pet name ‚Gogol‘. But it also a moment of trauma and – given his silence about it throughout much of the narrative – a largely unspoken point of absence. What do you think the significance of this ‚absence‘ is? What does it reveal about the difficulties that migrants of the first and second generations have in negotiating their relationships with their racial, ethnic, and cultural heritages?

3)    Are we the authors of our own identities? And what does it mean when we talk about ‘authenticity’ in identity? What does the ongoing tension between the 'pet name' and the 'good name' have to tell us about identity and subjectivity more generally?   

4) What does the novel have to show us about the very concept of 'home'?

5)  What is the significance of the Gogol story, ‘The Overcoat’? It barely features in the novel – but why do you think Lahiri chose this narrative in particular?