Transnational Women’s Fiction Also by Susan Strehle

FICTION IN THE QUANTUM UNIVERSE DOUBLED PLOTS: Romance and History (co-edited with Mary Paniccia Carden) Transnational Women’s Fiction Unsettling Home and Homeland

Susan Strehle © Susan Strehle 2008 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-0-230-53687-6

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2008 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-35862-5 ISBN 978-0-230-58386-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230583863 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Strehle, Susan. Transnational women’s fiction;unsettling home and homeland/ Susan Strehle. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. American fiction“Women authors“History and criticism. 2. English literature“Women authors“History and criticism. 3. Home in literature. 4. Feminism and literature“English-speaking countries. 5. Women and literature“English-speaking countries. 6. Sex role in literature. I. Title. PS374.W6S794 2008 823.914093581“dc22 2007052984 10987654321 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 For my son, Adam Spanos Who may remake the homeland In the generously scattered, richly thought likeness Of our unsettled home This page intentionally left blank Contents

Acknowledgments viii

1 Introduction: Unsettling Home and Homeland 1 2 Homeless in the American Empire: Toni Morrison’s Paradise 28 3 The Incandescent Home: Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin 53 4 House of Paper: Rosario Ferré’s The House on the Lagoon 77 5 The Decolonized Home: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus 102 6 Exiles and Orphans: Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things 126 7 The Home Elsewhere: Simone Lazaroo’s The Australian Fiancé 153 8 Conclusion: Unsettling Inventions 178

Notes 190 Works Cited 201 Index 213

vii Acknowledgments

This book was begun and finished in Australia, and I owe sunlit debts of gratitude to colleagues and friends in Perth: Brenda Walker, Simone Lazaroo, Delys Bird, Helen Temby, Gareth Griffiths, Sue Lewis, and espe- cially Judy Johnston, who generously provided a perfect home and work space for the book’s completion. I am grateful to many colleagues and friends at Binghamton University: David Bartine, Gisela Brinker-Gabler, Donette Francis, Joseph Keith, Richard Lee, Elizabeth Tucker, and others gave me valuable responses when I presented drafts of this manuscript. Bing- hamton University Provost Mary Ann Swain provided encouragement and leave time, both of great value. Former colleagues Carole Boyce Davies, Suzette Henke, and Sidonie Smith have contributed important ideas in conversations long ago and in their published work, and R. Radhakrishnan’s visit cast a genial light over the project at just the right moment. K. Thomas Chandy provided vital information and a helpful reading of the chapter on Arundhati Roy. I am grateful to Ruth Stanek, Anita Pisani, Priscilla Brunner, and Barb Walling for practical help, unfailing humor, and good will. Many thanks to Geoffrey Gould, who helped create the cover by making a useable form of a photograph taken in 1940 of my grandpar- ents new home, my fifteen year old mother at the door. My students at Binghamton have joined me in thinking through this material during several seminars, and I am grateful for their intellectual vitality. Many thanks to helpful professionals at Palgrave Macmillan, who have been a delight to work with. I appreciate Paula Kennedy’s clear communication and belief in the project and Christabel Scaife’s quick and intelligent responses. Thanks also to the capable Geetha Naren- dranath, who oversaw the copyediting and production of the index. I owe special thanks to William V. Spanos, always my best reader, whose comments and suggestions improved the book and whose conver- sation enlivened and cheered me through the process. Our son, Adam V. Spanos, emerging scholar and intuitively unsettling thinker, loaned me books, asked unanswerable questions, and inspired deeper reflection.

viii Acknowledgments ix

I gratefully acknowledge permission to quote from the following:

From The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, copyright © 1997 by Arundhati Roy. Used by permission of Random House, Inc. From Paradise by Toni Morrison, copyright © 1997 by Toni Morrison. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc. From The Australian Fiancé by Simone Lazaroo, copyright © 2000 by Simone Lazaroo. Used by permission of Simone Lazaroo. From The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, copyright © 2000 by O. W. Toad, Ltd. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Excerpted from The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, copyright © 2003 by Margaret Atwood. Published by McClelland & Stewart. Used with permission of the publisher. From The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, copyright © 2000 by Margaret Atwood. Published by Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd. Used with permission of the publisher. From “Morning in the Burned House,” in Morning in the Burned House, copyright © 1995 by Margaret Atwood. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. From Morning in the Burned House by Margaret Atwood, copyright © 1995 by Margaret Atwood. Published by McClelland & Stewart. Used with permission of the publisher. From “Morning in the Burned House” by Margaret Atwood, copyright © 1995 by Margaret Atwood. Reproduced with permission of Curtis Brown Group Ltd., London. From Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Adichie, copyright © 2003 by Chimamanda Adichie. Reprinted by permission of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. From The House on the Lagoon by Rosario Ferré, copyright © 1995 by Rosario Ferré. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. This page intentionally left blank