Intersectional Feminism and the Politics of Belonging in Diasporic and Transnational Narratives

This paper examines intersectional feminism and the politics of belonging in Indiandiasporic and transnational literature through a close reading of Anita Desai’s Bye-ByeBlackbird (1971), Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine (1989), and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’sQueen of Dreams (2004). Drawing upon intersectional feminist theory, the present researchexplores how women’s experiences of migration are shaped not solely by gender but by theintersecting forces of race, class, culture, nation, and migration status.The paper argues that diasporic belonging is not a neutral or inclusive condition but a politicallyregulated and gendered process, in which women are required to negotiate cultural loyalty,racial visibility, and patriarchal expectations simultaneously. In Bye-Bye Blackbird, Desaiforegrounds psychological alienation and racial exclusion in post-imperial Britain, revealing theemotional cost of migrant belonging for women confined within domestic and maritalstructures. Mukherjee’s Jasmine presents a more radical feminist trajectory, portraying identityas fluid and repeatedly reconstructed through migration, violence, and survival within racializedAmerican spaces. Divakaruni’s Queen of Dreams situates belonging within memory,motherhood, and post-9/11 racial surveillance, highlighting the affective and intergenerationaldimensions of diasporic womanhood.By placing these texts in comparative dialogue, the paper demonstrates how Indian diasporicwomen writers reconfigure belonging as a contested space shaped by intersectionalmarginalities. The study ultimately contends that feminist diasporic narratives move beyondassimilationist paradigms to articulate alternative modes of belonging grounded in resistance,memory, and self-authored identity.