Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri discusses her latest collection of stories set in Rome. Topics include exploring boundaries and trust, embracing Italian and exploring language, a traumatic incident and finding safety, exploring the darker aspects of Rome, and the challenges of translation.
Jhumpa Lahiri embraced the Italian language after moving to Rome, finding it to be her true home.
The theme of boundaries and the navigation of inside and outside are central to Lahiri's collection, Roman Stories.
Lahiri's writing challenges traditional notions of identity and highlights the universal concept of foreignness.
Deep dives
Jhumpa Lahiri discusses her latest collection, Roman Stories, and her transition to writing in Italian
Jhumpa Lahiri talks about her latest collection, Roman Stories, and her decision to start writing in Italian. She shares that she moved to Rome with her family and believed it was her true home, prompting her to fully embrace the Italian language. Lahiri discusses the challenges and rewards of self-translation, mentioning that translation is an act of appropriation and a way to understand the operations of other great writers. She also addresses the concept of authenticity and how her experiences as an immigrant and multilingual writer have shaped her perspective on identity and language.
The exploration of boundaries and the question of inside versus outside in Lahiri's Roman Stories
Lahiri's collection, Roman Stories, delves into the theme of boundaries and the question of who is on the inside and who is on the outside. She reflects on the story titled 'The Boundary' as setting the tone for the book, highlighting the difficulties and necessity created by the issue of boundaries. Lahiri explores the ideas of being a guest, an enemy, a host, being at home or from abroad. She emphasizes that these questions, present from the very beginning of human conversation, are central to the characters in her stories and their navigation of inside and outside.
Lahiri's personal journey of transitioning to writing in Italian and its impact on her sense of authenticity
Lahiri shares her personal journey of transitioning from writing in English to writing in Italian. She discusses discovering a new language and exploring her relationship with English and Bengali. She explains how moving to Rome and writing in Italian allowed her to find a connection to her parents' experiences as immigrants and a deeper understanding of her own foreignness. Lahiri reflects on her sense of authenticity, noting that her lack of a fixed point of origin and her experiences as an immigrant have contributed to her feeling inauthentic. She also explores the complexity of authenticity and self-identity as a writer.
The exploration of foreignness and issues of xenophobia and prejudice in Lahiri's writing
Lahiri's stories in Roman Stories delve into the experiences of characters struggling with foreignness and the impact of xenophobia and prejudice. She highlights that her characters are not limited to immigrants, but encompass individuals from various backgrounds and perspectives. Lahiri emphasizes that foreignness is a universal concept, as everyone is an outsider in some way. She explores how her writing challenges traditional notions of identity and highlights the human tendency to otherize people. Lahiri stresses the importance of understanding the humanity and complexities of individuals who may act in harmful ways, rather than simply labeling them as enemies.
Lahiri's perspective on the translation process and the role of translation in her creative journey
Lahiri discusses her experience with translation and its role in her creative journey. She explains that translation is a deeply intimate and transformative act, allowing for a pure and direct contact with the text. Lahiri acknowledges the challenges of self-translation and the continuous process of reworking the text in a new language. She also reflects on the selfish pleasure that translation brings as a writer, enabling her to learn from and immerse herself in great works of literature. Lahiri explores the significance of translating her own work and the joy of bringing previously untranslated works to new readers.
Our guest this week is writer Jhumpa Lahiri. Her debut short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, earned Lahiri a Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Many short story collections followed, as well as novels like The Namesake, which was the basis of a 2006 film directed by Mira Nair. Lahiri now translates and produces her own work in Italian too. On October 13, 2023, Jhumpa Lahiri came to the Sydney Goldstein Theater in San Francisco to talk to Peter Stein about her latest collection, Roman Stories - which centers around Rome, not as a setting, but as a protagonist. Translated from Italian, the stories capture Rome as both a metropolis and a monument, multi-faceted and metaphysical, suspended between past and future – and prove that Lahiri is now master of form in her adopted language.
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