Writing Between Worlds: Linguistic Displacement, Identity, and the Search for Belonging in Jhumpa Lahiri’s In Other Words and Whereabouts

Abstract

Jhumpa Lahiri’s literary oeuvre has frequently been examined through the frameworks of diaspora, cultural identity, migration, hybridity, and displacement. However, her later linguistic transition from English to Italian offers a distinctive dimension through which her understanding of belonging and identity can be reconsidered. This qualitative research paper examines the relationship between language, displacement, and selfhood in Lahiri’s In Other Words (In altre parole, 2016) and Whereabouts (Dove mi trovo, 2018). Rather than treating language merely as a medium of literary expression, the study conceptualizes language as a space in which identity is negotiated and reconstructed. Through qualitative textual analysis, the paper investigates how Lahiri’s movement into Italian produces experiences of estrangement, vulnerability, freedom, and renewed self-discovery.