Memory as Tool for Identity Formation in Sunetra Gupta's Memories of Rain
Sunetra Gupta, renowned Indo British novelist and essayist, is winner of Sahitya Akademi Award for Indian Literature in English, 1997 and Southern Arts Literature Award, 2000. She has authored five novels including The Glassblower's Breath (1993) Moonlight into Marzipan (1995) A Sin of Colour (1999) and So Good in Black (2009) the last of which was long listed for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2012. her debut novel Memories of Rain (1992) tells the tale of a cross cultural marriage of an Indian girl and an Englishman and the subsequent clash of cultures leading to infidelity, through a series of poignantly evocative memories. This paper will examine Gupta's Memories of Rain to study how memory restores the reality of the immigrant protagonist Moni's past life in Calcutta in its entirety and modifies her notions of belonging and self.