The Mistress of Spices: A Tale of Magical and Diasporic Sensibilities

Abstract

Chitra Divakaruni Bannerjee’s The Mistress of Spices is a story in a diasporic set up of a magical female named Tilottamma in Oakland, who tries her best to better the lives of the diasporic people in United State of America with the medicinal and magical effects of her spices. Set in a magic realist technique to explore the desire of woman, the novel explores the angst and anguishes of people living in diasporic set up in the USA. The novel at the same time deals with the way in which Tilo forges an identity for herself by giving vent to her ‘desire’ in spite of having restrictions on her by the First Mother. Divakurani explores the female desire and its ramifications in a diasporic set up to question the ways in which the patriarchal society put restrictions on female self.