Alternative Modernities and Othered Masculinities in Mira Nair's The Namesake

Abstract

This chapter contributes to the unpacking of heterogeneous South Asian diasporic masculinities from post-9/11 Eurocentric monolithic and stereotypical representations, ranging from ‘the good non-Muslim migrant’ to the ‘the homegrown terrorist’. Paying attention to the complex game of geopolitical and economic hierarchies covered by the reductive signifier ‘South Asian’, this chapter uses Judith Butler’s idea of intersectional, ‘discursively constituted identities’ to analyze specifically the historical (post)colonial clichés around Bengali masculinities, their relevance within radical Hindu nationalism and their subversion from feminist perspectives in Mira Nair’s highly successful film adaptation of Jumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake.