i In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at Idaho

210 Pages·2014·1.02 MB·English

by  Kelly Meyer

In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced
degree at Idaho State University, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for
inspection. I further state that permission to download and/or print my thesis for
scholarly purposes may be granted by the Dean of the Graduate School, Dean of my
academic division, or by the University Librarian. It is understood that any copying or
publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written
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Signature _________________________________
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TRANSGRESSING POSTCOLONIAL INDIFFERENCE, RECOVERING HISTORY:
WOMEN AND DESIRE IN ARUNDHATI ROY’S THE GOD OF SMALL THINGS,
AHDAF SOUEIF’S THE MAP OF LOVE,
AND EDWIDGE DANTICAT’S THE FARMING OF BONES

by
Kelly Louise Meyer

A dissertation

submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English and Philosophy

Idaho State University

Spring 2014
ii
Copyright (2014) Kelly Louise Meyer

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To the Graduate Faculty:
The members of the committee appointed to examine the dissertation of KELLY
LOUISE MEYER find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted.
_________________________________________
Alan Johnson,
Major Advisor
________________________________________
Margaret Johnson,
Committee Member
________________________________________
Jennifer Eastman Attebery,
Committee Member
_________________________________________
Pamela Park,
Graduate Faculty Representative
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ............................................................................................................................. vii
Chapter One: Introduction ..................................................................................................1
(Post)Colonial Indifference: An Introduction ..........................................................4
Recovering Sexuality from Colonial Discourse ....................................................10
Methodology and Aims: Desire, Sexuality, and the Novels ..................................15
Romance and the Private Realm ............................................................................21
Notes ......................................................................................................................27
Chapter Two: Ammu’s ‘Unmixable Mix’: Transgressing Smallness in Arundhati Roy’s
The God of Small Things....................................................................................................30
A Context of Indifference: Class, Caste, and Patriarchy .......................................32
The Cruelty of Family ............................................................................................38
Baby Kochamma Gives Us Another Lesson in Indifference .................................42
Children of Indifference .........................................................................................45
Ammu Shows Her ‘Unsafe Edge’ ..........................................................................48
Ammu and Velutha Transgress Fear: The Audacity of Love ................................52
Conclusion: Where Smallness Meets History ........................................................61
Notes ......................................................................................................................64
Chapter Three: Lady Winterbourne in the Harem: Rewriting the Fantasy in Ahdaf
Soueif’s The Map of Love ..................................................................................................66
Writing the East, Fighting the West .......................................................................70
Becoming ‘That Son’ .............................................................................................78
Frustrated Female Agency and Desire ...................................................................86
‘Life in the Harem’: Fantasy Fulfilled ...................................................................90
Conclusion .............................................................................................................97
Notes ....................................................................................................................100
Chapter Four: ‘Mine Enough’: Amabelle’s Miracle in Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming
of Bones ............................................................................................................................103
A Context of Indifference ....................................................................................104
Between Traumas: A Life of Under-Living.........................................................109
Racism, Fear, and the Dark Secret .......................................................................115
Inciting a Massacre ..............................................................................................122
After the Massacre: Amabelle’s Silent Testimony ..............................................126
Amabelle and Sebastien: Reaching for Wholeness .............................................131
Conclusion ...........................................................................................................139
Notes ....................................................................................................................142
Chapter Five: Conclusion: A Framework of Postcolonial Indifference .........................144
Fear and Order .....................................................................................................145
The Unnaturalness of Indifference .......................................................................151
Revising History ..................................................................................................155
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Other Implications for the Study of Indifference .................................................159
Final Remarks ......................................................................................................160
Notes ....................................................................................................................162
Chapter Six: Embracing Discomfort and Reconsidering Empathy in the Postcolonial
Literature Classroom: A Pedagogical Essay ....................................................................163
Defining and (Re)Valuing Empathy ....................................................................167
Course Goals ........................................................................................................171
Primary and Secondary Texts ..............................................................................175
Class Assignments ...............................................................................................182
Conclusion ...........................................................................................................183
Notes ....................................................................................................................185
Works Cited .....................................................................................................................187
Appendix: Postcolonial Literature Syllabus ...................................................................199
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ABSTRACT
This dissertation examines the concept of postcolonial indifference at play in
three contemporary novels by female writers: Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things
(1997), Ahdaf Soueif’s The Map of Love (1999), and Edwidge Danticat’s The Farming of
Bones (1998). All three novels are rooted in the homelands of their authors—India,
Egypt, and Haiti, respectively—and a consideration of the texts in their specific historical
and cultural contexts further illuminates the postcolonial worlds portrayed in the novels
as well as revealing how colonialism took different forms at each site. However, by
linking the three works, I establish common aspects among these postcolonial
experiences that shape a framework for postcolonial indifference. Extrapolating the idea
of postcolonial indifference as introduced by Rukmini Nair, my study draws from
existing scholarship in postcolonial studies and postcolonial feminist critique. I also
employ crucial sources from other fields of study, including philosophy, trauma studies,
and history.
In this dissertation, I argue that the female characters in these three novels
transgress environments of postcolonial indifference by engaging in romantic
relationships and expressing their sexuality. Pursuing their desires allows these women to
counteract the effects of monstrous indifference in their individual lives. They experience
deeply-felt personal emotions and connect intimately with fellow humans; these acts
challenge the legacy of colonial indifference in the postcolonial world. From a
consideration of Ammu’s clear, decisive challenge to indifference in The God of Small
Things and Anna’s transgression of colonial apathy among the British in The Map of
Love to Amabelle’s subtle, perhaps incomplete breaking with numbness in The Farming
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of Bones, I shape a trajectory that reveals how postcolonial subjects are held captive by
and, more importantly, how they can break with indifference to varying degrees. A
conclusion chapter acknowledges such diverse experiences but draws on commonalities,
allowing the novels themselves to establish a working theory of indifference in
postcolonial literary studies. This dissertation culminates in a pedagogical essay that
applies my work to the postcolonial literature classroom, where I address potential
challenges and explore avenues for students to connect with difficult texts and ideas in
the field.
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Chapter One: Introduction
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be
indifferent to them: that’s the essence of inhumanity.
—George Bernard Shaw, The Devil’s Disciple
Haiti, Egypt, and India are postcolonial nations whose news occasionally lands them on
the front pages of Western media outlets. Haiti’s 2010 earthquake likely still comes to
mind relatively easily among an English-speaking public—and the island nation
continues to recover and reconstruct itself—but its postcolonial struggles, of course, by
no means begin there. Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat has become a
spokesperson for her motherland, and she has made an effort through her writing “to
sustain international attention on the country’s continuing woes” (Tillotson). Turning to
India’s own “continuing woes,” we see a nation that seems to be handling one
international publicity nightmare after the next, including cases that exemplify the
widespread sexual violence against women.1 In an interview following the horrific gang
rape and death of a young woman in New Delhi in December of 2012, Indian activist and
writer Arundhati Roy observes that “violence against women—particularly rape—is a
means of asserting power, particularly from the perspective of men who feel they lack
power in other dimensions of their life. . . . There is ‘an anger and psychosis building up
and women at the top, middle and the bottom are going to pay the price for it’ ” (Le
Quesne). Most recently, Egypt has reached its own postcolonial boiling point, and the
tumult and revolution of the summer of 2013 made international headlines. Speaking to
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this crisis among the people, Egyptian author Ahdaf Soueif states, “It’s an extraordinary
moment, really, where everything—nothing is to be taken for granted—no presidencies,
no procedures, no constitutions, nothing. Everything has to be rethought again and again
and again” (qtd. in Goodman). This time of great change in Egypt takes a darker turn as
women are sexually assaulted at alarming rates in an effort to discourage them from
participating in the public sphere of activism.2 Rape in Haiti, too, is an urgent issue, while
its judicial system has historically failed to protect victims and prosecute offenders.3
Though news sources decry such instances of violence against women, as Jacqueline
Bhabha explains on the subject, “Popular outcries can be intense but short-lived, as we’ve
seen with gun control efforts in the U.S.” (qtd. in Pazzanese). The cases of these
postcolonial nations reveals how women in particular suffer in such times of crisis, while
their stories and their voices disappear all too quickly. As Peter Hulme relates, the most
apt definition of the term “postcolonial”4 is to consider it “a process of disengagement
from the whole colonial syndrome” (qtd. in Loomba 19, emphasis in the original). It is
understandable, then, that dealing with so-called “women’s rights issues” is commonly
postponed work while the endlessly complex process of postcolonial nation-building
takes priority.
Women writers in these nations, then, are particularly important voices. As the
focus of my dissertation, the writing of Danticat, Roy, and Soueif speaks to a Western
audience but from unique hybrid perspectives. As Emily Davis explains, “Soueif's status
as the only major Egyptian-born novelist writing in English underscores her singular
position as a translator between cultures and languages, a difficult position both
politically and aesthetically.” Danticat and Roy, too, have certainly positioned themselves
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