Riddles of Belonging: India in Translation and Other Tales of Possession

397 Pages·2008·3.898 MB·English

by  Christi A. Merrill

Riddles of
Be ongıng
l
India in Translation &
other Tales of Possession
Christi A. Merrill
Riddles of Belonging

Riddles of Belonging
INDIA IN TRANSLATION AND
OTHER TALES OF POSSESSION
Christi A. Merrill
fordham university press
new york 2009
Copyright © 2009 Fordham University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
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Fordham University Press has no responsibility for the
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Merrill, Christi A.
Riddles of belonging : India in translation and other tales of
possession / Christi A. Merrill. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8232-2955-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Indic literature—Translations—History and criticism.
2. Folk literature, Indic—Translations—History and criticism.
3. Detha, Vijayadanna—Translations—History and criticism.
I. Title.
PK5409.M47 2008
891.409—dc22 2008037466
Printed in the United States of America
10 09 08 5 4 3 2 1
First edition
For Dorothy Freeman, whose keen habits of reading and
of living have inspired me at every turn, and for her twin
sister and my mother, Dolores Miller, who passed away while
this book was being completed and whose memory has left its
mark on every page.

contents
Acknowledgments ix
Can the Subaltern Joke? (to open) 1
1. Humoring the Melancholic Reader of World Literature 16
2. A Telling Example 44
3. Framed 105
4. A Divided Sense 168
5. Passing On 205
6. Narration in Ghost Time 245
A Double Hearing (to close) 286
Notes 297
Works Cited 339
Index 363
vii

acknowledgments
Riddles of Belonging started with translation riddles posed by the stories of
Vijay Dan Detha; I am grateful to him for the rare aesthetic and political
sensibility he brings to his work, which has so inspired me over the years, and
for his unfailing enthusiasm in encouraging my attempts to do the stories
justice in English. Likewise, I thank his Hindi translator and my collabora-
tor, Kailash Kabir, for sharing so many incisive perspectives on Detha’s sto-
ries, translation more generally, and the global circuits of exchange in our
practices as writers. I thank as well Detha’s best friend and lifelong collabo-
rator, Komal Kothari, whose easy graciousness and keenness of intellectual
and moral vision brought together a vibrant international community of
scholars, artists, and activists poised to carry on his work after his passing
in 2004. I am also grateful for the generosity and verve with which so many
of the extended families and close friends of Detha, Kabir, and Kothari
have welcomed me into their homes in Borunda and Jodhpur, especially
Chandrakala, Mahendra, Nirmala, Prakash, Suman, and Swathi Detha. I
also wish to thank the storytellers in Rajasthan who continue to keep these
oral traditions alive and who have been so generous in sharing their work
with me, particularly Bhola Ram and Shankar Singh.
I would not have found myself translating at all if my fi rst Hindi teacher,
Virendra Singh, had not made learning the language such an exciting adven-
ture. More than that, over the years he and his family have made me feel I
had a home in Banaras and Jaipur when I most needed it. A special thanks
to his wife, Sushila, for her reliably commonsensical counsel; to Kashika,
Anu, Sujata, and Sandesh for reviving my faith in the beauty of pancakes
and wishing on stars; and to Rajendra and Surendra Singh and their fami-
lies in Jaipur who helped me fi nd a sure footing in a new city. Likewise, I
wish to express my gratitude to John and Faith Singh for their ongoing
ix