Social and Cultural Conflicts in Literature: Indian Migration in The Lowland and Iraqi Conflict in Frankenstein in Baghdad

Prepared by the researche : Asst. Lecturer Rasool Mohammed A.Al Al-Muslimawi – Assistant Lecturer at the Ministry of Education / General Directorate of Education, – Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf Governorate

DAC Democratic Arabic Center GmbH

Journal of Iranian orbits : Twenty-ninth Issue – September 2025

A Periodical International Journal published by the “Democratic Arab Center” Germany – Berlin

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Abstract

The given study critically examines the complex intertwining of the social and cultural conflicts depicted by Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland and Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad, guided by postcolonial theory, while providing a deeper critical look into alienation under both cultural migration and sectarian wars. In The Lowland, Lahiri narrates emotional and identity struggles experienced by Subhash and Gauri through the dissonance of migration from India to the United States, underlining how displacement disrupts intergenerational relationships. Frankenstein in Baghdad, by contrast, is an allegorical investigation into Iraqi post-invasion fractured identity; its grotesque creature symbolizes collective trauma and social alienation. Accordingly, while this comparative research indicates the universality of identity crises amidst cultural and political turmoil, it addresses discrete sociopolitical contexts of migration and war. The results highlight the contributions literature can make in interrogating global issues of belonging, alienation, and intersecting cultures.

1. Introduction

Literature is a prism through, or rather within, which not only social and cultural conflicts or tensions but also migrationary processes of identity and alienation are reflected to the subtle perception of readers. Being yet another form of cultural knowledge, literature represents an outlook on how individuals and societies deal-or fail to cope-with bodily and cultural displacements involving cross-cultural confrontations continuously. Such is the relevant background in today’s largely migration-shaped world and ongoing sociopolitical turmoil. The stories of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland and Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad stand testament to how literature has within its strong possibilities of impact on identity brought about by migration or conflict.

Perhaps nowhere does this come into play as vividly as in the questions of immigration and identity. In The Lowland Lahiri again considers the themes of migration and belonging in a beautiful yet somber tale of two brothers, Subhash and Gauri, whose fates become inextricably entwined within the furor of the political movement known as Naxalism in India and then immigration to the United States. The story is a narration of themes such as alienation, cultural dislocation, and intergenerational identity as Subhash strives to connect his Indian roots with his new American life (Lahiri 45). Similarly, Gauri’s emotional detachment and her striving for individuality echo the immigrants’ inability to balance the past with the present (Lahiri 98).

In contrast, Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad tackles identity and cultural fragmentation within the context of war. Set in post-invasion Iraq, the novel uses an allegorical grotesque figure, Whatsitsname, a composite of body parts from war victims, to express the collective trauma and fractured identity of a nation torn apart by conflict. The story denounces the worthlessness of violence and cultural fragmentations since one is compelled continuously to reinvent the idea of the self amidst all confusions.

Taking these two works into consideration, one comes across a valuable insight that explores identity formation through the compelling pressures of displacement and conflict in literature. Migration normally presupposes losses accompanying the challenge of integrating into the new cultural landscape. In The Lowland, Subhash’s struggle with cultural isolation epitomizes how the alienation of immigration experience leads to such a fractured sense of oneself, while Gauri’s emotional withdrawal exemplifies the psychological toll dislocations take (Lahiri 113). Meanwhile, Frankenstein in Baghdad is discussed in terms of the issue of how the war violently displaces people not merely from their physical surroundings but out of their cultural and national senses of belonging, which thereby propels them to have continuous negotiations between fractured identities throughout their lives (Saadawi 220).

The study aims to answer the following question: How do the two novels depict cultural alienation, otherness, and hybridity in the context of conflict?

Structure of the Research

Chapter One: Theoretical Framework and Methodology

• Introduces cultural alienation, otherness, and hybridity using postcolonial theory (Fanon, Said, Bhabha).
• Explains the postcolonial approach and comparative textual analysis of the two novels.

Chapter Two: Migration and Cultural Alienation in The Lowland

• Migration and Alienation: Subhash’s identity struggles in the U.S.
• Family Impact: Effects of migration on relationships between Subhash, Gauri, and Bela.

Chapter Three: Conflict and Otherness in Frankenstein in Baghdad

• Social Conflict: Baghdad as a city shaped by sectarian violence.
• Otherness: Whatsitsname as a symbol of societal rejection and alienation.

Chapter Four: Comparison of the Novels

• Similarities: Both depict conflict shaping identity and belonging.
• Differences: Focus on internal migration struggles in The Lowland external sectarian violence in Frankenstein in Baghdad.

Chapter Five: Contributions to Literature

• Highlights how each novel uses characters and narratives to address cultural conflicts and identity.
• Conclusion
• Summarizes the analysis and contributions of both novels.
• Recommends further study of literature as a lens for migration and conflict.

2. Theoretical Framework

2.2 Definitions of Cultural Alienation, Otherness, and Hybridity

Cultural alienation refers to the feelings of estrangement experienced by individuals or groups due to displacement from their cultural roots as a consequence of either migration, colonization, or systemic marginalization. It refers to the disengagement from native traditions, practices, and identity consequent upon exposure or imposition of a dominant culture (Fanon 11). Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth has described cultural alienation as a deep dislocation, at once psychic and cultural, which depletes the sense of belonging and identity of an individual.

“Otherness,” an idea emanating from postcolonial theory, is a process through which the dominant groups marginalize those they perceive as different. As Edward Said has intimated in his landmark book Orientalism, the West constructed the East as “the Other” to define itself against, thereby justifying cultural and political supremacy (Said 3).

Hybridity embodies primarily the space of negotiation – cultural mixing giving rise to postcolonial societies-, according to Homi Bhabha. In The Location of Culture Bhabha sets forth a hybindity as the “third space” where such “identity is neither named traditional, nor entirely caught under the dominant colonial power” (Bhabha 37).

2.3 Overview of Postcolonial Theorists: Homi Bhabha and Edward Said

Postcolonial theory sets the critical perspective against which migration, cultural alienation, and identity should be considered. The role and contributions of Homi Bhabha, especially his understanding of hybridity and cultural difference, are very important in fathoming how dislocated people negotiate their identity. It is not a question, as Bhabha so succinctly puts it, of racial or cultural priority but rather one of a new opening produced by the process of cultural intersection in what he termed “third space,” where culture is continually negotiated (Bhabha 54).

Edward Said’s Orientalism completes Bhabha’s work with the critique of the creation and marginalization of “the Other” by the dominant cultures. In his criticism, Said presents the West’s imagination of the East as exotic, underdeveloped, and primitive and argues that such images of the East serve to uphold cultural and political hegemony (Said 7).

2.4 The Relationship Between Literature, Migration, and Social/Cultural Conflicts

Literature can be regarded as a strong medium through which the relationship between migration and social/cultural conflicts is handled. Migration is usually associated with a double journey: a physical one, from one place to another, and an emotional one, wherein one undergoes cultural alienation and identity reconstruction.

In The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri talks of how migration impacts identity and a sense of belonging. In the novel, Subhash migrates from India into the United States, caught in the dissonance that comes with living between the two worlds. He represents a very good example of Bhabha’s theory of hybridity as a result of his failure to adjust into the American world while still retaining his background from India (Lahiri 112).

3. Methodology

This study embarks on a postcolonial perspective to discuss the themes of cultural alienation, otherness, and hybridity in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland and Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad. Meanwhile, the postcolonial theory allows this work to establish a critical framework where one could analyze the way literature reflects migration, identity issues, and social conflicts.

3.1 Postcolonial Approach

The postcolonial framework is based on the work of scholars like Edward Said and Homi Bhabha, works that are particularly instrumental in the analysis of dynamics of power and identity within a postcolonial context. This said aspect of otherness, as expressed by Said, is fundamental to how cultural and social hierarchies have been known to marginalize individuals and whole communities, a theme that is also echoed within both novels. Theorization by Bhabha of hybridity through the “third space” also provides a useful framework within which negotiating positions of overlapping cultural identifications face migration and conflict (Bhabha 37).

3.2 Comparative Textual Analysis

What primarily lies at the heart of the given methodology is a comparative textual analysis between The Lowland and Frankenstein in Baghdad. The comparative perspective provides the minute details of how the representation of migration and conflict functions in different historical and cultural contexts. While both novels talk about displacement and identity, their different narrative techniques and thematic emphases make them complement each other on these universal issues.

4. Migration as a Source of Alienation in The Lowland

Migration is often viewed as a way to new opportunities and growth, but for those pulled up from their native cultures, it is also a source of deep alienation. In Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland, this duality is well-entwined with the character of Subhash, whose migration to the United States epitomizes the trials of cultural dislocation, identity loss, and emotional toll of living between two worlds.

4.1 Subhash as a Representation of the Migrant Struggle

Subhash, the older of two brothers, moves to Rhode Island from India to pursue academics and a profession, leaving behind his family, culture, and the political turbulence of the Naxalite movement in West Bengal. The migration to the United States brings on feelings of isolation (Stoican 44). Lahiri etches his first impressions of America so vividly-what was going to be the biggest contrasting factor between his native and adopted lands: “In Rhode Island, the sky was a different color, the air a different smell” (Lahiri 65).

4.2 The Tension Between Original and Acquired Cultures

The cultural alienation of Subhash has also been elaborated in terms of his relationship with his Indian roots and the ways he adapted to American culture. Lahiri reflects this tension between the two worlds in Subhash’s migrant experience. When alone, he misses the familiar rhythms of Tollygunge: street vendors calling, the smell of monsoon rains, the companionship of his brother Udayan (Lahiri 82).

The same tension between the conflict of the original and then the acquired culture is unfolded in the marriage of Subhash with Gauri. Following the death of Udayan, he marries Gauri; the purpose is to give security to both her and her unborn baby. However, Gauri’s withdrawal into gloom and failure to adjust American culture mirror the same fights of Subhash. While Subhash tries to work his way through the expectations of his new life, Gauri remains detached-personifying the psychological consequence of cultural alienation in migrants’ lives (Alfonso 855).

4.3 Subhash’s Identity Loss and Reconciliation

Identity loss is a recurring saga in Subhash’s narration as his migration cut him from the collective identity of the family and community into self-redefinition in an alien cultural landscape (Munos 435). This theme Lahiri drives home throughout the novel, often finding her character Subhash waxing philosophical about times of removal from Tollygunge, both in the geographical and emotional understanding: “In America, he was alone, part of none of the constellations anymore that had mapped his life” (Lahiri 101).

But then Lahiri also conjures the partial reconciliation of Subhash with his fragmented identity. A father to Bela, Gauri’s daughter, he acts with a stability of purpose. In the effort to give Bela a sense of belonging, Subhash discovers a way in which Indian heritage can connect with the American life.

4.4 The Impact of Migration on Family Relationships

Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland closely investigates the emotional toll imposed by migration on family relationships, especially through the protagonists Subhash, Gauri, and their interaction with Bela. It displays how migration creates physical distances that are often emotionally changing into alienation and disconnection. Gauri failure to put herself in her new life in America brings into view the psychological battles of migrants. In this respect, Lahiri writes, “She felt no connection to Rhode Island, to the house she lived in, or to the man she lived with” (Lahiri 143).

4.5 Reflection of Cultural Conflicts on Future Generations

The cultural conflicts Subhash and Gauri have been mirrored in the dislocation Bela inherits from them. Lahiri does look at how Bela’s identity is shaped by the cultural duality she has to negotiate, her struggles to feel out a place for herself within America and her complicated parentage born from Indian immigrants (Kumar 145). One eloquent passage finds Bela articulating her own mixed sentiments about her heritage, a thought that holds true even through its changes: “I am neither fully Indian nor entirely American. I belong to neither place” (Lahiri 263).

4.6 Grappling with Cultural Duality

In The Lowland, the struggles of the characters with cultural duality are central to their experiences of migration and alienation (Challa 24). Subhash’s life in America is the epitome of this tension as he tries to balance his Indian heritage with the demands for assimilation. Through the novella, Lahiri builds up a sense of Subhash’ inner angst, longing as he does to the familiarity of Tollygunge: “Even as he made a life for himself in America, the sound of the monsoons in Tollygunge continued to echo in his mind” (Lahiri 177).

4.7 Inability to Reconcile Cultures

One of the major themes throughout The Lowland is the inability for any of these characters to find balance between their native and adopted cultures. There was just always something incomplete about the manner of Subhash, an integration into American society (Istari 170). As much as he can have assimilated with the life of America by using his academic career as his launching pad, he was never accepted fully within their rank and file.

5. Conflict and Otherness in Frankenstein in Baghdad

5.1 Baghdad as a City Suffering from Sectarian Conflicts

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi is a strong narration of Baghdad as a city seriously scarred by sectarian conflicts and the devastating impact of war. The city is, therefore, almost a microcosm of post-invasion Iraq, where divisions on religious and ethnic lines have made an atmosphere of unending violence and instability (Al-Asad 125). Saadawi likens Baghdad to a city in disarray, with physical and social structures crumbling under the heavy weight of war: “The streets were filled with rubble, the sounds of gunfire and explosions a constant presence, and the air thick with the smell of destruction” (Saadawi 23).

5.2 The Character of “Whatsitsname” as a Symbol of Fragmented Identity Due to Conflict

The character “Whatsitsname,” the grotesque creature at the center of Frankenstein in Baghdad, is an allegory to the fragmented identity of Iraq itself. Constructed from body parts of war victims, the creature is a physical manifestation of a society torn apart by violence and sectarianism (Alhashmi 100). As Hadi, a junk dealer who created Whatsitsname called it a “tribute to the dead and a cry for justice,” he said, “each piece came from someone who had been forgotten, someone who deserved to be remembered” (Saadawi 95).

5.3 Analysis of “Whatsitsname” as a Representation of the “Other”

In Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad, “Whatsitsname” is a serious personification of the concept of the “Other,” which then symbolizes social rejection and the fractured identity of Iraq. Constructed out of body parts from victims of sectarian violence, Whatsitsname is innately composite; it shows the mergence of diverse ethnic, religious, and political constituencies into the entity that is Iraq (Campbell 154). Whatsitsname is quite literally assembled from the trash of many: As Hadi, the junk dealer who puts together the creature, puts it, “It is a body that belongs to everyone and no one. It is made from our people, but it is not one of us” (Saadawi 95).

5.4 How the novel reflects the idea of forming a hybrid identity as a result of violence and cultural conflicts.

In Frankenstein in Baghdad, Ahmed Saadawi looks to the concept of hybridity as a byproduct from within Iraqi violent sociopolitical landscape. The book shows how individuals and communities are driven to negotiate the intersectional positions of cultural identity amidst unrelenting sectarian violence and fragmentation (Metz 20). Through “Whatsitsname,” Saadawi shows how such hybridity is not elective but rather an inevitable end of tussles within culture and society.

It is the grotesque creature at the center of the novel, Whatsitsname, that is the very embodiment of the hybrid identity, constructed from the body parts of people from various ethnic, religious, and social backgrounds. Saadawi describes it as “a body that belonged to no single sect, no single community, but to all of them” (Saadawi 96).

6. Comparison Between the Two Novels in Light of Social and Cultural Conflicts

6.1 Similarities

All three-By Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland and Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad-manifest conflict as a metamorphic force for identity and belonging. For instance, in the novel The Lowland, Subhash’s migration to the United States promotes cultural alienation, where he struggles with his roots of being Indian in an American life. Lahiri brings out the same through the musings of Subhash thus: “Even as he lived in America, the monsoon rains in Tollygunge remained in his mind” (Lahiri 177). In Frankenstein in Baghdad, sectarian violence tears asunder the individual and collective identities. Whatsitsname, the monster, despairs over no identity: “I am made of many, but I belong to no one” (Saadawi 141). Both novels, in essence, deal with the result of the disorientation caused by conflicts from within and without.

6.2 Differences

The major difference is in the nature of conflict that each novel projects. In The Lowland, migration gets internalized into a tussle for Subhash and Gauri; both are in a dislocated cultural position, and in their emotional dislocation, too. While Lahiri draws out the psychic and familial textures of war, as when Gauri relinquishes her role of mother-“She had no choice but to leave, to find space for herself” (Lahiri 229). Frankenstein in Baghdad is about sectarian conflict as externality that shapes the course of the characters’ lives. The violence in Baghdad is portrayed as pervasive and unavoidable, and Mahmoud muses, “There was no escaping the chaos—it was everywhere” (Saadawi 188). Saadawi focuses on an external conflict so that the societal fragmentation due to war is really dramatized.

6.3 Contributions to Literature

Both The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri and Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi enrich literature with their perspectives on cultural struggles and a search for identity through protagonists and their narrative worlds. In The Lowland, Lahiri probes the psychological cost of migration through the inner struggles of Subhash, Gauri, and Bela. With Subhash and his strained balancing between his Indian heritage and his life in America, Lahiri unravels the question of cultural duality in all its complexity. Gauri’s emotional withdrawal and eventual departure bring out the cost of alienation in personal relationships. Lahiri writes, “Gauri had wanted to escape, not only from Tollygunge, but from every role that confined her” (Lahiri 229).

In contrast, the novel Frankenstein in Baghdad by Saadawi wraps its story within one society’s traumatized and thus fractured collectiveness through which the identity of this entire nation was fragmented in general. Allegorization concerning Iraqi fragmented identities may be well-featured as sectarian violence disrupts their unity in the character of Whatsitsname.

7. Conclusion

7.1 Summary of Analysis

Both The Lowland and Frankenstein in Baghdad are testimonies to the power of literature in comprehending cultural alienation and identity within these two contrasting contexts. Through Lahiri’s novel, one may find migration depicted in terms of struggles that occur within psychology, within the family. Subhash struggles through both his dual identities, as does Gauri in her emotional detachment; for them, this can represent cultural dislocation. Thus, with its tightly interpersonal scope, The Lowland gives insight into personal perspectives on diaspora, revealing how the intergenerational impact of migration comes home.

On the other hand, Frankenstein in Baghdad serves to narrate the collective traumas that sectarian violence brought into an already fragmented society. Using Whatsitsname as a metaphor for the fragmented Iraqi identity, Saadawi examines hybridity, Otherness, and alienation from society.

7.2 Contribution to Literary Studies

Thus, a comparative reading of The Lowland and Frankenstein in Baghdad highlights the need to discuss migration and cultural conflict along diverse lines. While exploring Indian migration and Iraqi sectarian violence, respectively, these two novels provide a framework toward approaching global concerns about identity, alienation, and hybridity. This cross-cultural methodology enriches literary studies in showing how diverse narratives are concerned with common human experiences, yet embedded in distinct historical and cultural realities.

7.3 Recommendations

Further research is required on the role literature has played in recording and analyzing human experiences of migration, identity, and conflict. Comparative studies of different cultural and geopolitical contexts might offer valuable insight into both the universal and particular dimensions of these themes. Further analysis of hybrid identities and their representation in literature can enrich broader discussions on cultural intersectionality and resilience in view of global challenges.

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