SOURCE: “See(k)ing Differences: Constructions of Gender and Culture in the Short Texts of Bharati Mukherjee,” in Intersexions: Issues of Race and Gender in Canadian Women's Writing, Creative Books, 1996, pp. 164-78.

In the following analysis of Darkness and The Middleman and Other Stories, Harishankar maintains that Mukherjee's writings act as a bridge of understanding “between the mainstream and minority, or man and woman, or centre and periphery … to effect a recognition of a common humanity.”

Introduction

Arguably, the two processes (seeing and seeking) operate simultaneously in any immigrant situation. The implications arising out of the exercise of seeing and seeking differences becomes more complex in cultures embracing pluralism (say, America or Canada). The situation gets further complicated when marginalisation at other levels (especially of religious, racial minorities and women) become prominent. More importantly, the two processes dramatise the conflict faced by an individual living in a culture...