Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri has raised concerns about the global obsession with origin, describing it as a significant danger. Lahiri shared her views during the Miu Miu Literary Club event at Milan Design Week, emphasising the problematic nature of prioritising authenticity and originality in society.
Lahiri frequently encounters questions about her origins, with people often asking her, “Where are you really from?” She finds this question pervasive, saying, “I don’t have that specific set of coordinates that mark me as who I am. I have many pieces to myself.” Born in London to Indian parents, Lahiri moved to the US at the age of three and now resides in Rome.
At the Hay literary festival in Powys, Wales, Lahiri criticised the global focus on authenticity, arguing it can lead to dangerous ideas about purity. She explained, “I understand that we don’t want things to be false, we want things to be true, but then there’s the leap from authenticity to the idea of purity, and therefore, what is not authentic or pure is somehow corrupt, and that’s the danger zone.”
Lahiri linked the obsession with origin to global conflicts, citing Gaza, the US, India, and Italy as examples. She questioned nationalist slogans like “Make America Great Again” and connected the rise of figures like Donald Trump and Narendra Modi to a dangerous sense of nationalist entitlement.
As a creative writing teacher at Barnard College in New York, Lahiri encourages questioning the concept of fixed identities. She contends that strong attachments to origin foster xenophobia and an “us versus them” mentality. Reflecting on her childhood in Rhode Island, she criticised the erasure of indigenous histories, recalling how singing “This Land Is Your Land” ignored the land’s true origins.
Lahiri emphasised that much of history is built on exile and movement, warning that emotional attachments to places can distort our understanding of reality.
