Migrant Identities of «Creole Cosmopolitans»: Transcultural Narratives of Contemporary Postcoloniality

204 Pages·2014·7.429 MB·English

by  Nirmala Menon (editor), Marika Preziuso (editor)

Menon_Preziuso_cpi_cb:zamora2 6/17/2014 1:57 PM Page 1
18 NIRMALA MENON & MARIKA PREZIUSO, EDITORS
One defining question links the essays of this collection: How do aesthetic and stylistic
choices perform the condition of dislocation of the migrant and, in doing so, also put pres-
sure on the seemingly global promise of cosmopolitanism? Migrant Identities of “Creole
Cosmopolitans”: Transcultural Narratives of Contemporary Postcolonialityoffers a wide M
array of narratives that complicate the rhetoric of cosmopolitanism and the related dis- e
courses of “hybridity.” Many such narratives are under-theorized migrations, such as Dalit n
o
narratives from India and inter-island migrations in the Caribbean. Collectively, the essays n
suggest that there are ways in which the forms of the migrant aesthetics, language, and &
imaginaries may offer new insights in the interactions between practices and discourses of
P
hybridity and cosmopolitanism by examining their precise points of intersection and diver- r
e
gence. This inquiry is especially timely because it raises questions about the circulation, z
i
marketing, and consumption of narratives of migration, dislocation, and “diaspora.” u
s
In addition, the collection addresses in at least two significant ways the question about o
,
“beyond postcolonialism” and the future of the discipline. First, by questioning and criti-
e
cally examining some foundational theories in postcolonialism, it points to possible new d
s
directions in our theoretical vocabulary. Second, it offers an array of reflections around dis- .
parate geographies that are, equally importantly, written in different languages. The value
that the authors place on languages other than English and their choice to focus on the M
effect that multiple languages have on the present of postcolonial studies are in line with one i
g
of the aims of the collection—to make the case for a multilingual expansion of the post- r
a
colonial imaginary as a necessary imperative. n
t

I
d
e
Nirmala Menonis Assistant Professor of Literature at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
n
Indore, India. She received her doctorate at The George Washington University in Wash- t
i
t
ington, D.C. Her areas of expertise include postcolonial literature and theory from India, i
e
especially in multilingual narratives. She has written and published in areas of translation s

studies and regional language literatures in India. Dr. Menon is a member of the Postcolo- o
f
nial Studies Association (PSA) and is a reader and reviewer for publications such as Journal
“
of Postcolonial Writing, Postcolonial Text,and Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary C
Inquiry.Her current working projects include a monograph and a digital humanities data- re
base. She is an executive member of the Editorial and Internationalisation Committee of o
l
Open Library for Humanities (OLH). e

C
o
Marika Preziusois Assistant Professor of World Literature at Massachusetts College of Art
s
and Design (Mass Art) in Boston. She received her Ph.D. in comparative literature from m
Caribbean women writers at the University of London. Her areas of academic interest o
p
include contemporary literature by immigrant writers in the United States, Latin@ literature,
o
Migrant Identities of
postcolonial literature, and gender and cultural studies. Dr. Preziuso is particularly inter- l
i
t
ested in interdisciplinary narratives of twentieth-century and contemporary migrants a
n
through literature and the visual arts.She currently leads the Committee for the Visual Arts
s
of the Caribbean Studies Association (CSA). ” “Creole Cosmopolitans”
P
E
T Transcultural Narratives
E
R
L
A
N of Contemporary Postcoloniality
G
P O S T C O L O N I A L S T U D I E S 1 8
WWW.PETERLANG.COM
Menon_Preziuso_cpi_cb:zamora2 6/17/2014 1:57 PM Page 1
18 NIRMALA MENON & MARIKA PREZIUSO, EDITORS
One defining question links the essays of this collection: How do aesthetic and stylistic
choices perform the condition of dislocation of the migrant and, in doing so, also put pres-
sure on the seemingly global promise of cosmopolitanism? Migrant Identities of “Creole
Cosmopolitans”: Transcultural Narratives of Contemporary Postcolonialityoffers a wide M
array of narratives that complicate the rhetoric of cosmopolitanism and the related dis- e
courses of “hybridity.” Many such narratives are under-theorized migrations, such as Dalit n
o
narratives from India and inter-island migrations in the Caribbean. Collectively, the essays n
suggest that there are ways in which the forms of the migrant aesthetics, language, and &
imaginaries may offer new insights in the interactions between practices and discourses of
P
hybridity and cosmopolitanism by examining their precise points of intersection and diver- r
e
gence. This inquiry is especially timely because it raises questions about the circulation, z
i
marketing, and consumption of narratives of migration, dislocation, and “diaspora.” u
s
In addition, the collection addresses in at least two significant ways the question about o
,
“beyond postcolonialism” and the future of the discipline. First, by questioning and criti-
e
cally examining some foundational theories in postcolonialism, it points to possible new d
s
directions in our theoretical vocabulary. Second, it offers an array of reflections around dis- .
parate geographies that are, equally importantly, written in different languages. The value
that the authors place on languages other than English and their choice to focus on the M
effect that multiple languages have on the present of postcolonial studies are in line with one i
g
of the aims of the collection—to make the case for a multilingual expansion of the post- r
a
colonial imaginary as a necessary imperative. n
t

I
d
e
Nirmala Menonis Assistant Professor of Literature at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
n
Indore, India. She received her doctorate at The George Washington University in Wash- t
i
t
ington, D.C. Her areas of expertise include postcolonial literature and theory from India, i
e
especially in multilingual narratives. She has written and published in areas of translation s

studies and regional language literatures in India. Dr. Menon is a member of the Postcolo- o
f
nial Studies Association (PSA) and is a reader and reviewer for publications such as Journal
“
of Postcolonial Writing, Postcolonial Text,and Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary C
Inquiry.Her current working projects include a monograph and a digital humanities data- re
base. She is an executive member of the Editorial and Internationalisation Committee of o
l
Open Library for Humanities (OLH). e

C
o
Marika Preziusois Assistant Professor of World Literature at Massachusetts College of Art
s
and Design (Mass Art) in Boston. She received her Ph.D. in comparative literature from m
Caribbean women writers at the University of London. Her areas of academic interest o
p
include contemporary literature by immigrant writers in the United States, Latin@ literature,
o
Migrant Identities of
postcolonial literature, and gender and cultural studies. Dr. Preziuso is particularly inter- l
i
t
ested in interdisciplinary narratives of twentieth-century and contemporary migrants a
n
through literature and the visual arts.She currently leads the Committee for the Visual Arts
s
of the Caribbean Studies Association (CSA). ” “Creole Cosmopolitans”
P
E
T Transcultural Narratives
E
R
L
A
N of Contemporary Postcoloniality
G
P O S T C O L O N I A L S T U D I E S 1 8
WWW.PETERLANG.COM
Migrant Identities of
“Creole Cosmopolitans”
POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES

Maria C. Zamora
General Editor

Vol. 18

This book is a volume in a Peter Lang monograph series.
Every title is peer reviewed and meets
the highest quality standards for content and production.

PETER LANG
New York  Washington, D.C./Baltimore  Bern
Frankfurt  Berlin  Brussels  Vienna  Oxford
Migrant Identities of
“Creole Cosmopolitans”

Transcultural Narratives of
Contemporary Postcoloniality

NIRMALA MENON
EDITED BY
MARIKA PREZIUSO
AND

PETER LANG
New York  Washington, D.C./Baltimore  Bern
Frankfurt  Berlin  Brussels  Vienna  Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Migrant identities of Creole cosmopolitans: transcultural narratives of contemporary
postcoloniality / edited by Nirmala Menon, Marika Preziuso.
pages cm. — (Postcolonial Studies; Vol. 18)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1.Emigration and immigration in literature. 2. Postcolonialism in literature.
3.Immigrants in literature. I. Menon, Nirmala, editor of compilation.
II.Preziuso, Marika, editor of compilation.
PN56.E59M48 809’.933552—dc23 2013003298
ISBN 978-1-4331-1812-8 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4539-1104-4 (e-book)
ISSN 1942-6100
Bibliographic information published by .
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.
Cover art: “Cosmopolitanopolis” by Kimberly Kersey Asbury,
Associate Professor of Fine Arts, Saint Anselm College,
Manchester, New Hampshire
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council of Library Resources.
© 2014 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006
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All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm,
xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .vii
Nirmala meNoN & marika Preziuso
Part I. Creole Cosmopolitanism(s): Traveling Texts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter .1 . .The .Migrant .Text: .Aimé .Césaire’s .Hemispheric .Gambit .
and .the .Editorial .Blind-Spot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
alex Gil
Chapter .2 . .Border .Crossings: .Cultural .Collisions .and .Reconciliation .
in .Hanan .Al-Shaykh’s .Only .in .London . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
HaNadi al-sammaN
Chapter .3 . .Politics .and .Belonging .in .the .Music .of .Turkish-French .Rapper .C-it . . . . . . . .35
aNNeditH scHNeider
Chapter .4 . .Postcolonial .Textualities .and .Diasporic .Imagination: .Reading .
Julia .Alvarez’s .In .the .Time .of .the .Butterflies .(1994) .through .Azar .Nafisi’s
. Reading .Lolita .in .Tehran .(2003) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49
marika Preziuso
Chapter .5 . .Migration .Literature .and .Place: .Aleksandar .Hemon’s .
The .Lazarus .Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
søreN FraNk
Menon & Preziuso_Book.indd 5 23/06/14 3:54 PM
vi | miGraNt ideNtities oF “creole cosmoPolitaNs”
Part II. Hybridity Refracted: Migrant Narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
Chapter .6 . .Lamming .vs . .Naipaul: .Writing .Migrants, .Writing .Islands .in .the .
British .Literary .Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
malacHi mciNtosH
Chapter .7 . .Long-Distance .Nationalism: .The .Filipino .Ilustrados .Abroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95
euGeNio matibaG
Chapter .8 . .The .Hullabaloo .about .Hybridity .in .Kiran .Desai’s .
The .Inheritance .of .Loss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .107
Nirmala meNoN
Chapter .9 . .Liminality .within .Borders: .A .Study .of .Baby .Kamble’s .The .Prisons .
We .Broke .and .Urmila .Pawar’s .The .Weave .of .My .Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .125
Putul satHe
Chapter .10 . .Family .Desires: .Kinship .and .Intimacy .among .Japanese . .
Immigrants .in .America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143
satoko kakiHara
Chapter .11 . .Rethinking .Hybridity: .Liminality .in .the .Cultural .Productions .
by .Black .and .Asian .Women .in .Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159
sumaNa ray
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175
Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .185
Menon & Preziuso_Book.indd 6 23/06/14 3:54 PM
Introduction
Nirmala .Menon .and .Marika .Preziuso
The idea for this collection came from the wonderful format of the ACLA
(American Comparative Literature Association) 2010 conference seminar over
three days of enriching and delightful discussions on Cosmopolitanism. One clear
outcome was an understanding of the numerous divergences of narratives of cos-
mopolitanism and hybridity rather than a convergence of thoughts on the concept
of cosmopolitanism. Indeed, many of the contributors to this collection further
enrich and enhance debates and arguments about the conceptual links and com-
mon ground between the “migrant,” the “cosmopolitan” and/or the “hybrid” in
postcolonial studies.
The “migrant” has been represented through various avatars, both in critical
theory and in creative writing, visual arts and performance; among others, it has
been read through the rhetoric of the marginalized, the nostalgic, and the ghet-
toized. Whereas the migrant has been regularly expressed via these means, their
sum total does not exhaust the complex and contesting identities of immigrant
populations. Similarly, the notion of “cosmopolitanism” has also been subject to
debate within postcolonial studies. The word cosmopolitanism, derived from the
Greek word meaning “citizen of the world,” has been used loosely for people who
can exist and function comfortably within different cultures. Scholars have often
used the word as antithetical to nationalist drives that espouse identification with
a single culture or place, wherein the nation is viewed as the conventional and
exclusive socio-cultural unit of reference. In this respect, cosmopolitanism fitted
Menon & Preziuso_Book.indd 7 23/06/14 3:54 PM
viii | miGraNt ideNtities oF “creole cosmoPolitaNs”
the narrative of crossing borders and continents. However, critics such as Pnina
Werbner have drawn attention to “local” or “rooted” cosmopolitanisms, thus call-
ing for a more complex understanding of a cosmopolitan.
The identity of the migrant has to be considered within these different under-
standings of the experiences cosmopolitanism reflects, which come also to redefine
what is meant by “local” and “global”. The scholars in our collection investigate
how these complex patterns of understanding and experience are reflected in works
of literature, film, theater and music. This collection:
Defines and elaborates on these complex patterns;
Offers an array of narratives of identity that are produced out of those interactions of
places and cultures; and
Discusses the possibilities and limitations inherent in the contemporary cultural rep-
resentations of the migrant condition.
Through our study of these varied representations of the “migrant,” we also
challenge some of the categories and terms that have defined postcolonialism as a
discipline in the last decades by addressing a series of questions. How useful is the
definition, by recent postcolonial scholarship, of the cultures and identity enacted
through and in migration as cosmopolitan? Can a new perspective on postcolonial-
ism come from the stories of inter-migrations or internal migration instead? Are
these examples really at the opposite ends of cosmopolitanism in the local-global
spectrum? Examples of what we believe are under-theorized migrations include
Dalit narratives from India, Caribbean border-migrations, and Italian and Turkish
music beyond the national borders.
A defining question that ties together the essays of this collection is: How
do aesthetic and stylistic choices actually accentuate the condition of dislocation
of the migrant, and by doing so also “trouble” the seemingly global promise of
cosmopolitanism? Moreover, can the narratives presented in the collection be the
timely manifestations of the fractured local ground of the postcolonial present that
is due to put pressure on any pretension of cosmopolitanism? In this respect, we
take one specific concept that has been related to postcolonial studies in recent
times—hybridity—especially in its relation to questions of sameness/universality
beyond localized differences.
The essays in the collection suggest that there are ways in which the migrant
aesthetics, language, and imaginations in art forms may offer insights into the state
of postcolonial studies, specifically about the interactions between hybridity (par-
ticularly in Bhabha’s articulation) and cosmopolitanism. In fact, the experiences
of hybridity by and within migrant communities sometimes intersect with, and,
Menon & Preziuso_Book.indd 8 23/06/14 3:54 PM