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This powerful study reconceptualizes ideas of ethnic literature
while investigating the construction of ethnic heroines, shifting
the focus away from cultural politics and considering instead
narrative or poetic qualities which involve surprising
relationships between Anglo-American women's writing and fiction
produced by Asian American and African American women authors.
This thought-provoking study challenges current models of
ethnic-studies criticism and analyses of 'ethnic' narrative
subjectivity that emphasize the cultural politics of ethnic
traditions. Examining African and Asian American women's poetics,
it presents an alternative critical method that focuses on patterns
of 'transcultural' and transnational heroine construction occurring
as canonical nineteenth-century 'anglo' narratives of femininity
inform, and twentieth-century American expressions of feminine
identity. poetic qualities which involve surprising relationships
between Anglo-American women's writing and fiction produced by
Asian American and African American women authors, this study
reconceptualizes ideas of ethnic literature while investigating the
construction of ethnic heroines.
This anthology of essays, deliberates chiefly on the notion of
locating home through the lens of the mythical idea of Trishanku,
implying in-between space and homing, in diaspora women's
narratives, associated with the South Asian region. The idea of
in-between space has been used differently in various cultures but
gesture prominently on the connotation of 'hanging' between worlds.
Historically, imperialism and the indentured/ 'grimit' system,
triggered dispersal of labourers to the various colonies of the
British. Of course, this was not the only cause of international
migratory processes. The partition of India and Pakistan led to
large scale migration. There was Punjabi migration to Canada.
Several Indians, particularly the Gujaratis travelled to Africa for
business reasons. South Indians travelled to the Gulf for
employment. There were migrations to East Asian countries under the
kangani system. Again, these were not the only reasons. The process
of demographic movement from South Asia, has been complex due to
innumerable push-pull factors. The subsequent generations of
migrants included the twice, thrice (and likewise) displaced
members of the diaspora. Racial denigration and Orientalist
perceptions plagued their lives. They belonged to various
ethnicities and races, inhabited marginalized spaces and strived to
acculturate in the host society. Complete cultural assimilation was
not possible, creating layered and hyphenated identities. These
intricate social processes resulted in amalgamation and
cross-pollination of cultures, inter-racial relationships and
hybridization in all terrains of culture-language, music, fashion,
cuisine and so on. Situated in this matrix was the notion of Home-a
special personal space which an individual could feel as belonging
to, very strongly. Nostalgia, loss of home, culture shock and
interracial encounters problematized this discernment of
belongingness and home. These multifarious themes have been
captured by women writers from the South Asian region and this book
looks at the various aspects related to negotiating home in their
narratives.
Diaspora and Cultural Negotiations: The Films of Gurinder Chadha
explores critical and theoretical conceptualizations of identity,
globalization, intersectionality, and diaspora, among other topics,
in the films of Gurinder Chadha. This book argues that Chadha's
work offers relevant and sensitive portrayals of the members of the
diaspora community that make these films of contemporary and
enduring value, highlighting their challenges in hybridization and
acculturation in the societies they migrate to and the historical
and political exigencies that influence their everyday existence.
Contributors analyze Chadha's films in the context of cultural
milieus including multiculturalism, narration and representation,
ethnicity, literary adaptation, and intercultural negotiations,
while also exploring Chadha's own role as an auteur. Scholars of
film studies, Indian cinema, diaspora studies, sociology, and
cultural studies will find this book particularly useful.
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