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Greek-American Identity in Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex

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Greek-American Identity in Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex Greek-American Identity in Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex Self-Transformation through the Lens of Ethnicity Jelena Ciglanić A Thesis Presented to The Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages The University of Oslo in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Arts Degree Spring 2013 Supervisor: Tone Sundt Urstad Summary The thesis “Greek-American Identity in Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex, Self-Transformation through the Lens of Ethnicity” examines how three generations of a Greek-American family reinvent their identities in a lengthy process of assimilation and acculturation within modern industrialism. The novel is largely about the metamorphosis of each generation, and I have explored the extent to which the protagonists incorporate their cultural past, in particular their ethnicity, into their new lifestyles and new, hybridized identities. I have examined the impact of ethnicity in the novel in relation to social forces that influence the form and content of ethnicity, as well as through the three institutions that served as the pillars of traditional society and of the ethnic community – the family, the church, and the local community. In my exploration through close reading of the novel, I have relied on theories of ethnicity as well as studies in the fields of anthropology, psychology, sociology and gender identity to support my ideas and arguments. They have also proved useful for tackling the issues of immigration and assimilation as they pertain to modern American society in general. I have incorporated into the thesis the ideas of Milton Gordon, Richard Alba, Werner Sollors, Rey Chow, Ruth Frankenberg, Stephen Steinberg, Miranda Joseph, John Hartigan and Judith Butler. When it comes to sociological studies that helped me better understand the Greek-American identity, I have relied on the research of acclaimed anthropologists and sociologists of Greek-American origin. II Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Tone Sundt Urstad, for her time dedicated to me, inspiring and useful guidance in my preparation of this thesis, patience, encouragement and attention to detail. I have enjoyed immensely all her classes and tutorials, as well as our time outside of the University classroom. My gratitude goes also to Annette Møller Madsen at the University Library of Oslo for assisting in my research and helping me find relevant material both in libraries and online. I wish to thank my friends, superiors and colleagues in Oslo for invaluable assistance in my juggling of work and studies. A special thank you goes to Skogland Conrads and the family of Maksić for their love and support. I am grateful for the opportunity to study in an enjoyable international environment at the University of Oslo. It has been a profound and life changing experience. During my work on the thesis I was blessed with pregnancy and giving birth to a bundle of joy, Teodora, who has since been capturing everyone's heart. In this respect, I wish to thank the staff at ILOS, University of Oslo, for their consideration and support. Finally, I wish to express my deep gratitude to my loving and supportive family that has always believed in me. Thank you for passing onto me your love of literature and encouraging me to read during my formative years. A special thank you to my brother for his endless patience with me. III Contents Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................... iii Contents ............................................................................................................................... iv Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................. 2 Design of the Thesis ........................................................................................................... 3 The Life and Works of Jeffrey Eugenides............................................................................ 4 Middlesex ............................................................................................................................ 8 Critical Reception of Middlesex ........................................................................................ 10 Critical Works on Middlesex ............................................................................................. 12 The Concept of Ethnicity .................................................................................................. 13 Greek-American Ethnicity ................................................................................................ 19 The Concept of Hybridity.................................................................................................. 23 Immigrant Writing in America .......................................................................................... 25 Historiographic Metafiction .............................................................................................. 31 Chapter Two: The First Generation – Desdemona and Lefty Stephanides ..................... 35 The Voyage of Sibling Metamorphosis ............................................................................ 35 Lefty in the Ford Melting Pot ............................................................................................ 40 Desdemona in the Nation of Islam .................................................................................... 46 A Paradigm of Re-Invention: Fard Muhammad ................................................................ 50 Chapter Three: The Second Generation – Tessie and Milton Stephanides...................... 55 Milton – Pursuing the American Dream ............................................................................ 56 The Churchgoers Versus The Inn-Keepers ........................................................................ 61 Detroit Race Riots ............................................................................................................ 69 The House in Middlesex and the Ethnic In-Group ............................................................. 76 Chapter Four: The Third Generation – Cal Stephanides and Chapter Eleven ............... 79 Callie in Baker & Inglis Private School – Everyone is Ethnic ........................................... 80 Chapter Eleven ................................................................................................................. 85 Ethnic Customs: Funerals ................................................................................................. 87 Cal’s Metamorphosis ........................................................................................................ 93 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 99 Bibliography....................................................................................................................... 103 IV The reason why men enjoy seeing a likeness is, that in contemplating it they find themselves learning or inferring, and saying perhaps, 'Ah, that is he.' - Aristotle, Poetics 1 Chapter One: Introduction Jeffrey Eugenides’ second novel, Middlesex,1 is an epic multi-generational tale of a family of immigrants, who trace their origins from Asia Minor and redefine their identities in new circumstances on the American soil. It is a complex saga that spans an 80-year period in the twentieth century, and describes three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family in a lengthy process of assimilation and acculturation within modern industrialism. The tale involves multiple settings: war-ravaged Smyrna in 1922, Detroit during the Prohibition era and the ghetto upheavals in the 1960s, Detroit’s private school suburban settlement at the end of the decade, San Francisco during the mid-1970s and modern-day Berlin. The novel is thus largely about the metamorphosis of each generation, and a suitable ground for exploring the extent to which the protagonists incorporate their cultural past, in particular their ethnicity, into their new lifestyles and new, hybridized identities. In more particular terms, there is a tendency of a decline in the three institutions that served as the pillars of traditional society and of the ethnic community – the family, the church, and the local community.2 Ethnicity represents ways of thinking, feeling and acting that constitute the essence of culture.3 Since culture does not exist in a vacuum and is a part of a larger social process, any examination of ethnicity must be done in relation to social forces that influence the form and content of ethnicity. The twist in the novel lies in the hermaphroditic gene which is a result of inbreeding within the family. Most notably – the main protagonist’s grandparents, Desdemona and Lefty, are brother and sister. The gene does not get active until it reaches Calliope Stephanides, the youngest of the third generation and the novel’s extraordinary narrator. She is identified and brought up as a girl until male traits of her body start emerging in puberty: muscular body and an emerging penis, or a “blooming crocus,” as the narrator explains (376, 386-88). It leads to Callie’s puzzling discovery of her dual physical nature. Callie flees and creates a new identity as a male Cal, who is narrating the story for us as a 41-year old man from the perspective of a present-day Berlin. The novel may, therefore, be considered
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