'No Better or Worse Than Anyone, But an Equal': Negotiating Mutuality in Adib Khan's Seasonal Adjustments

[...]if, on the one hand, diasporic formations are seen transcending the boundaries of nation-states, on the other, the same exclusivist structures of domination may very well shifttransnationally, thus re-establishing diasporic identities based on their 'internal unity, logically set apart from "others" [...] a site of both support and oppression, emancipation and confinement, solidarity and division' (Ang 142). Here, the emigration of an upper class Sri Lankan couple to New South Wales is not merely portrayed as a journey of assimilation into the new land, the Down Under cultural desert of koala, kangaroo, and wombat, but also as a multi-faceted exploration of the fundamental question of identity seen as constantly evolving rather than merely bound by tradition (Schmidt-Haberkamp), to the extent that its readers are also asked 'to reflect on their process of interpreting the novel' (Bredella 382). The artificiality of a pan-subcontinental identity is further revealed by the heterogeneous geographical vastness of a region, which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives, where differences of culture, history, and religion abound. [...]when South Asia is compared to Europe, although being less than half the size, it hosts more than twice its population, enriched by a long history of cultural exchanges that flourished through Indian Ocean trade routes long before European colonialism. [...]the suggested literary grouping of South Asian Australian literature becomes productive if we wish to further identify a more nuanced and textured appraisal of Australia's shared and multiple histories and focus on the multiplicity of subjective responses and contestations of rigidly defined identities and national boundaries.