Non-Conforming Women in Neoliberal Cities

Re-thinking Empowerment in Contemporary Diaspora Fiction and Film

Shrimoyee Chattopadhyay

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040414774
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Film & Video
• Index: Social Sciences

This book investigates the complex role space and movement play in the representation of South Asian diasporic communities in contemporary diaspora literature and films, the question of female empowerment in neoliberal Western cities, and the impact of trauma on female identities. It highlights the literary and cinematic portrayal of South Asian people's migration to the UK and the US after the Second World War and discusses how the identities of the female characters are transformed in neoliberal cities. Focusing on South Asian women writers and directors, who are first- and second-generation immigrants in the West, the volume analyses how their works depict female empowerment in both British and American settings.

The book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of literature, film studies, diaspora studies, gender studies, and South Asian studies.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: Mapping Identities: South Asian Diasporic Women and Empowerment
• 1 Neoliberal Cities as Sites of Female Empowerment
• 2 “Places and Spaces”: Transformative Perspectives in Diasporic Narratives
• 3 Intersectionality and Its Impact on Identity Formation: A Comparative Analysis of South Asian Diasporic Female Characters
• 4 “Home and Homelessness”: Nostalgia and the Impact of Culinary Arts on Female Identity
• 5 Trauma and Healing: The Journeys of Diasporic Women as an Escape Mechanism
• 6 Conclusion (and beyond)
• Works Cited
• Index