READING SPECULATIVE SUBJECTIVITIES: THE SECOND GENERATION AND THE AFTERLIFE OF MIGRATION ASHA JEFFERS A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN ENGLISH YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO JANUARY 2018 © ASHA JEFFERS 2018 ii Abstract This dissertation takes a transethnic, transnational, relational, and comparative approach to literature about the children of immigrants, the “second generation.” It argues that second generation is a distinct subject position that is shaped but not wholly defined by race, ethnicity, and nation and, as such, ought to be considered across these boundaries. Negotiations of this subject position itself are also inflected by other factors that are not ethnically or nationally bound, including but not limited to gender, sexuality, age, class, and spirituality. I further argue that, by analyzing second-generation texts from diverse contexts and with diverse forms and styles, the central characteristic and themes of second-generation-focused literature can be discerned. The defining characteristic of second-generation texts and their representation of second-generation subjectivity is a focus on intergenerational relationships with immigrant parents or the first generation more broadly and the enduring effects and affects of that generation’s migration. This characteristic finds its expression through the central themes prevalent in second-generation-focused texts. This project takes up two such themes, the process of coming of age and the relationship between myth, memory, and history, through the analysis and comparison of four nationally and ethnically disparate texts, lê thi diem thuy’s The Gangster We Are All Looking For, Meera Syal’s Anita and Me, David Chariandy’s Soucouyant, and Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I argue that these texts have a future-facing orientation that might seem at odds with the melancholy tones that suffuse them. Despite being deeply interested in looking backwards at how nations and migrations came to be, the second- generation-focused text always seems to turn towards the future. The past of the homeland and the past of the place of settlement are sites of inquiry but not of experience; there is no “back home” to remember as an escape from the flaws of here. As such, second-generation-focused texts are deeply invested in imagining futures that are rooted in an understanding of the past but also a necessary distancing from it, and a skeptical approach to the nation and to racial and ethnic essentialisms. iii Acknowledgements The thinking and then writing of this dissertation has been a long road and I have benefited from an incredible amount of support as I walked it. I am thankful to my supervisor, the inimitable Lily Cho, whose thoughtful commentary, practical attitude, and confidence in my abilities were what I needed throughout this process. I was lucky to have very invested and intelligent second and third readers, Leslie Sanders and Shobna Nijhawan, whose feedback continually improved my work. I am thankful to the brilliant and generous Donald Goellnicht for serving as my external examiner, the incisive and enthusiastic Aparna Mishra Tarc for serving as my internal external, and the kind and efficient Kim Byrd for serving as chair. Special thanks to Arun Mukherjee and Vermonja Alston for helping to shape this project through sitting on my comps committees. Thank you also to Rob Zacharias and John Bell for being the most supportive course directors a TA could ask for, as well as generous letter writers and encouraging colleagues. To my new colleagues at University of King’s College, thank you for easing my transition into the teaching life and welcoming me into this delightfully strange little club. So much gratitude for my York English pals, whose commiseration, information-sharing, and carousing were invaluable: Aaron, Anna P., Anna V., Dani, Eric, Geoff, Jacqueline, Kate, Katie, Mario, Matthew, Meryl, MLA, and Sarah. Big love to academic friends outside of my department who shared this journey with me: Alison, Cassel, Donya, Gökbörü, Kasim, Ken, Malissa, Marquita, Melanie, Nadine, Nandini, Nicole, Patty, Shaira, Sune, and Y-Dang. To the entire SALA community: I’m so glad braved the polar vortex for you all those years ago. Regular dancing was integral to my surviving the PhD, so a special shout out is due to the Essence Brown boys and all my favourite dance partners. I would also like to acknowledge Sufjan Stevens, whose music was the soundtrack to much of my writing. Also, tea and sports: you really came through for me. So much thanks to my great loves and biggest cheerleaders: Alyssa, Ambreen, Arden, Ausma, Brendan, Greer, Greg, Gunjan, Hiwot, Irfan, Maral, Michelle, Nadia, Pacinthe, Phanuel, Rossana, Sommer, Stef, and Stephanie. Extra bigtime love to Vinh Nguyen, whose endless encouragement, thoughtful conversation, and generous heart have meant so much to me. I would not have eaten nearly as well these last few years without you. I could not have done this work without the incredible support of my family. Thank you to my mother, Denise, whose love, words of wisdom, and grammatical prowess got me through three degrees; to my father, Francis, who knew I was going to do a PhD before I did and who is always there for me when I need him; to my brother, Adom, who is also an exemplary friend, concert buddy, and copyeditor, and who facilitated a ton of my conference travel through the course of my PhD; to my brother Chike, who has always been in my corner, paved the way as the first doctor in the family, and who, with my fantastic and also super supportive sister-in-law Tina, provided me with three of my favourite humans ever, Aminata, Ayo, and Aza; to Adom’s partner, Erin, who brought about the people’s champ, Amara, and who generously lent her copyediting expertise to this project in its final stages; and to my extended family, living and dead, blood related and otherwise. Special thanks are also due to the woman who taught me how to read, my Auntie Jessie King, whom we all still miss more than a decade since her passing. At this end of one journey and beginning of another, I am all joy, gratitude, and love. iv Epigraphs At other times it seemed the most natural thing in the world that I should remember things that went on before I was born, things that happened in other lifetimes. They happened to me; I was there, and the memories are continuous. Why should they be anything but? I did not realize that other people did not have these memories. I did not think of myself as a child afflicted by history, unable to escape its delights or its torments. Larissa Lai, Salt Fish Girl History wasn’t an easy thing to learn, seemed to be what I was learning. It wasn’t a static story about dead people. It was a revolving door fraught with ghosts still straining to tell their version and turn your head, multifaceted and blinding as a cut diamond. Tanuja Desai Hidier, Born Confused I have lived that moment of the scattering of the people that in other times and other places, in nations of others, become a time of gathering. Gatherings of exiles and émigrés and refugees; gathering on the edge of ‘foreign’ cultures; gathering at the frontiers; gathering in the ghettos or cafés of city centres; gathering in the half-life, half-light of foreign tongues, or in the uncanny fluency of another’s language; gathering the signs of approval and acceptance, degrees, discourses, disciplines; gathering the memories of underdevelopment, of other worlds lived retroactively; gathering the present. Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture v Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iii Epigraphs ...................................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... v Looking Sideways: An Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 What Is Second Generation? ........................................................................................................... 7 Historical and Political Contexts .................................................................................................... 9 Critical Context and Argument for the Comparative .................................................................... 17 Argument for Second Generationness as a Literary Lens ............................................................ 20 Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 23 Structure of the Dissertation ......................................................................................................... 25 Section One Imagining Oneself into Being: Coming of Age in Second-Generation Literature ................ 28 “I Was Certain I Saw My Future in Him”: Coming into Intergenerational Empathy and Escape in lê thi diem thuy’s The Gangster We Are All Looking For ............................................................ 44 “A Real Tollington