The Non-Literate Other: Readings of Illiteracy in Twentieth-Century Novels in English. (Costerus NS)

517 Pages·2007·1.33 MB·English

by  Helga Ramsey-Kurz

The Non-Literate
Other
Readings of Illiteracy
in Twentieth-Century

Novels in English

C N S 171
OSTERUS EW ERIES
Series Editors:
C.C. Barfoot, Theo D’haen
and Erik Kooper
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The Non-Literate
Other

Readings of Illiteracy
in Twentieth-Century
Novels in English
Helga Ramsey-Kurz
Amsterdam-New York, NY 2007
Cover design: Aart Jan Bergshoeff
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of
“ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for
documents - Requirements for permanence”.
ISBN: 978-90-420-2240-9
©Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam - New York, NY 2007
Printed in the Netherlands
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION 1
I ILLITERACY AS A THEORETICALANATHEMA 17
Chapter 1 In the Humanities: Tabooed 19
Chapter 2 In Literary Studies: Ignored 39
II Illiteracy as a Literary Theme 57
Chapter 3 Illiteracy in Earlier Fiction 61
Chapter 4 Illiteracy in Twentieth-Century Fiction:
Heart of Darkness 77
III THENON-LITERATEWITHOUT:
UNLETTERED CALIBANS IN DISTANTEUROPE 101
Chapter 5 Unearthing the Pre-Literate Mind:
William Golding’s The Inheritors 109
Chapter 6 Projections of a Post-Literate Mind:
Angela Carter’s Heroes and Villains 123
Chapter 7 Postcolonial Returns to a Pre-Literate
Europe: David Malouf’s An Imaginary Life
and Gillian Bouras’ Aphrodite and the Others 139
vi The Non-Literate Other
IV THENON-LITERATE IN SIGHT:
THEUNLETTERED NATIVE IN CONTACTNARRATIVES 163
EARLYCONTACTS IN FICTIONALAFRICA 171
Chapter 8 But a Glimpse in the Rear View Mirror:
The Unintelligible Native in
Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter 181
Chapter 9 Arrivals on a Bicycle:
The Unintelligible Colonist in
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart 191
Chapter 10 Meeting in the Desert:
Mirages of Literate and Non-Literate
Barbarities in J.M. Coetzee’s
Waiting for the Barbarians 205
LATERCONTACTS IN NEW ZEALAND AND NORTHAMERICA 221
Chapter 11 Islands of Preliterate Orality:
Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine and
Patricia Grace’s Potiki 231
V THENON-LITERATEWITHIN:ESTABLISHED FORMS
OFNON-LITERACY IN LITERATE CULTURES 259
ILLITERACYFORGED BY THE INDIANCASTE SYSTEM 265
Chapter 12 The Outcaste’s Longing to Learn:
Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable 275
Chapter 13 Learning to Belong to the Outcastes:
Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children 297
Table of Contents vii
BLACKILLITERACYFORGED BY SLAVERY AND RACISM 317
Chapter 14 The Lure of White Literacy: Richard
Wright’s Black Boy 331
Chapter 15 Resisting White Literacy: Toni
Morrison’s Beloved 347
Chapter 16 Forging a Black Literacy: Sapphire’s
Pushand Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson
Before Dying 367
VI THEILLITERATE RETURNED:
ILLITERACY IN MIGRANTLITERATURE 383
Chapter 17 The Illiterate Mother: Maxine
Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior 397
Chapter 18 The Illiterate Daughter: Joy Kogawa’s
Obasan 411
Chapter 19 Generations of Illiteracy:Amy Tan’s
The Bonesetter’s Daughter 425
CLOSINGREMARKS 437
BIBLIOGRAPHY 449
INDEX 489
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The idea for this book was sparked by David Malouf’s novel
Remembering Babylon. The text was given to me by Jake Ramsey, a
voracious reader who became illiterate: an eye operation, which
improved his ability to see, destroyed his capacity to process what he
saw. The damage was irreversible and its effect on Jake’s life almost
impossible for others to fathom. One person capable of understanding
was Jake’s son who had moved to Austria without any knowledge of
the German language. The illiteracy he suddenly found himself in was
as total as his father’s. Still, it was temporary and in this respect
similar to the handicap of a group of adults I worked with in
Innsbruck several years ago. Life had put them out of touch with
writing. Watching them revive their literacy skills has been more than
a uniquely rewarding experience. It has also alerted me to the
nonchalance with which most literates tend to take their access to
writing for granted.
In light of the endemic ignorance of illiteracy and indifference to
illiterates, especially amongst those comfortably at home in the world
of books and letters, the interest friends and colleagues have expressed
in my work has been absolutely vital. I owe special thanks to Marc
Delrez, Geetha Ganapathy-Doré, Heidi Ganner, Janette Turner
Hospital, Michael Ramsey, Ulla Ratheiser, and Janice Schiestl. They
never stopped giving me the feeling that my ideas were worth turning
into a book and, what is more, they never stopped expecting this book
to appear in print.
The person most responsible for helping this to actually happen is
Cedric Barfoot, whose adamant insistence on crystalline clarity
throughout the editing process has added yet another dimension to my
understanding of literacy. It has shown me that literacy is not only a
condition to be acquired by learning but also one to be facilitated by a
guardedly unpretentious use of language. Unlike in crystals, in writing
there is nothing to be gained by the loss of clarity. Small perturbations
in the characteristically simple structure of crystals produce highly
valued sapphires or rubies. Larger disturbances turn them black. But
arguments unnecessarily convoluted leave the reader in a darkness
even blacker. Or as Cedric Barfoot has canvassed what he believes