Postcolonial Yearning: Reshaping Spiritual and Secular Discourses in Contemporary Literature

126 Pages·0.721 MB·English

by  Asha Sen (auth.)

Postcolonial Yearning
DOI: 10.1057/9781137340184
Also by Asha Sen
“Locating South Asian Feminisms within the Context of Postcolonial Theory.” Proceedings of
the Twenty-Third Annual Conference of the University of Wisconsin Systems Women’s Studies
Consortium. Ed. Rhoades and Statham. WI: Madison, 1999, pp. 244–56.
“Rewriting History: Hanif Kureishi and the Politics of Black Britain.” Passages: A Journal of
Transnational and Transcultural Studies. 2.1 (2000), pp. 61–80.
“Allegories of Nation, Woman, and Empire in Salman Rushdie’s East, West Stories.” Kunapipi,
13.2 (2001), pp. 121–44.
“Feminist Ethnographies of Desire and Resistance in Lalithambika Antherjanam’s ‘The
Goddess of Revenge’ and Ismat Chugtai’s ‘Lihaaf.’ ” South Asian Review, 28.2 (2007),
pp. 165–81.
“From National to Transnational: Three Generations of South Asian American Women
Writers.” Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 4.1 (June 2009).
“Re-Visioning Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India in a Post-National Age.” Kunapipi. General issue,
9 (2009), pp. 66–82.
“Looking Back, Looking Forward: Examining Pre-Colonial Identities in Mahesh Dattani’s
Dance Like a Man.” ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 41.2 (2011),
pp. 129–38.
“None of Her Lord’s Blessings Would She Deny: Towards a Feminist Reading of Monica
Ali’s Brick Lane.” (short article) NAWCHE: National Association for Women in Catholic
Higher Education newsletter. Women’s Studies Dept., Dept. of Sociology. Boston College,
Massachusetts.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137340184
Postcolonial Yearning:
Reshaping Spiritual
and Secular Discourses
in Contemporary
Literature
Asha Sen
DOI: 10.1057/9781137340184
postcolonial yearning
Copyright © Asha Sen 2013.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978-1-137-34018-4 PDF
ISBN: 978-1-137-33296-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
First edition: 2013
www.palgrave.com/pivot
doi: 10.1057/9781137340184
For
Eberth Guillermo Alarcón, II (1966–2006)
. . . ..
For my parents
Pradip Chandra Sen (1926–2010) and Aloka Sen (1929–2009)
DOI: 10.1057/9781137340184
Contents
Preface vii
Poem for Eberth viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Travel Writing and Cultural Tourism:
William Dalrymple’s Nine Lives and Pankaj
Mishra’s An End to Suffering 18
2 Th ings Fall Apart and Wide Sargasso Sea:
Revisiting Spirit, Rewriting Canon 33
3 Boundary Crossings in Leila Ahmed’s
A Border Passage and Pico Iyer’s Abandon 49
4 “Spiritual/Secular; Hmong/American”:
Anne Fadiman’s The Spirit Catches You
and You Fall Down and Kao Kalia Yang’s
The Latehomecomer 74
Epilogue: Toward an Ethical Epistemology
of Language 94
Works Cited 102
Index 111
vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137340184
Preface
In the spring of 2006 my partner, Dr. Eberth Alarcón, a
math professor at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
was suddenly diagnosed with AML M7, a rare and aggres-
sive leukemia. The prognosis was poor; he was treated
with chemotherapy and radiation, and underwent a clini-
cal trial. He also suffered intense agony before dying six
months after his diagnosis. He was just forty years old.
The past six years of my life have been spent trying to
make sense of what happened to us. As a professor of
literature, I turned to my books for solace. But whereas the
late postcolonial critic Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978)
had given me a much-needed template by which to make
sense of my own colonized identity, this time there was lit-
tle that the world could offer me. It has taken me six years
to find language and concepts that come close to articulat-
ing my feelings. This book is the product of those six years.
It is also a tribute to the love between Eberth and me. And
perhaps, most significantly for its readers, it fills a huge
void in contemporary discourse patterns by providing a
much-needed language and epistemology for contemplat-
ing, interpreting, and expressing life’s experiences.
DOI: 10.1057/9781137340184 vii
Poem for Eberth
I am not my illness
You said to me
That night I heard with horror the news of your leukemia
Shut off the mind
Try to forget the white coats, the IV drugs, all the cruel
banalities of medical speech
Shut off the mind
That gawks and sputters
Torn between anxiety and terror
Life and death
Why and how
Let my body remember
The rhythm of your breath
The softness of your skin
The hardness of your muscle
The tenderness of your love
No, Eberth, no! No matter what they say
You are not your illness
You are . . .
Everything beautiful in the universe
My love, my life, my joy
viii DOI: 10.1057/9781137340184
Acknowledgments
This book would not have been possible without the three
people to whom it is dedicated. Their unconditional love,
intellectual curiosity, and generosity of spirit shape every
moment of its being.
I also want to thank the students, staff, and faculty at the
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire who cared so well and
thoughtfully for Eberth and me during his illness. I am par-
ticularly grateful to the Math and English departments for
their offerings of food, rides, and company, which helped
to sustain us. Special thanks go out to Stacy Thompson and
Kate Hinnant for their round-the-clock support. Thanks
too to Charlene Burns, and Katherine and Bruce Rhoades
for helping me understand the finer points of Eberth’s ill-
ness and care. Friends and colleagues provided tremendous
support during those days, and my appreciation goes out
to Jack Bushnell and Jenny Shaddock, Marty Wood and
Mary Ellen Alea, Ben and Selika Lawton, Marc and Sarah
Goulet, Scott and Marilyn Gaulke, Blake Westerlund, Max
Garland, and Maria DaCosta. Their support is emblematic
of the many kindnesses that poured in during that trau-
matic time. Given the constraints of space, I am forced to
leave out the names of many others who were there for us
during Eberth’s illness. You know who you are. And you
have our love and blessings in perpetuity.
During and since Eberth’s passing, I have been indebted to
Theresa Kemp and Jan Stirm, who keep me on track in the
way that only very special friends can. Thanks also go out
to Debra Barker, David Jones, David Shih, and Joel Pace for
DOI: 10.1057/9781137340184 ix