Interrogating Ambivalence, Identity and Supplementarity in Anurag Mathur’s The Inscrutable Americans

The Inscrutable Americans chronicles Gopal's misadventures in America. His journey for a better education puts him in the middle of the outrageous and the grotesque realities of America as he desperately tries to cling to the comfort of his Indian identity. He battles racism, feelings of insecurity, familial expectations and judgement all the while interrogating his cultural beliefs of morality and sexuality. Through Gopal, Mathur accomplishes what many postcolonial and diasporic writers fail to do: a sense of humour amidst cultural anxiety. Through the ideas of Ambivalance, Subalterity and Hybridity as proposed by Bhabha and Spivak, the paper attempts to examine the challenges faced by Gopal, his recognition of otherhood, his constant questioning of identity and the gradual acceptance of ambivalence in a foreign land.