Decoding Gender in the Selected Works of Salman Rushdie
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The University of Notre Dame Australia ResearchOnline@ND Theses 2020 Decoding Gender in the Selected Works of Salman Rushdie Zubaidah Binti Mohamed Shaburdin Follow this and additional works at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theses Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Copyright Regulations 1969 WARNING The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further copying or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice. This dissertation/thesis is brought to you by ResearchOnline@ND. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@ND. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DECODING GENDER IN THE SELECTED WORKS OF SALMAN RUSHDIE Zubaidah Binti Mohamed Shaburdin BA (Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy School of Arts and Sciences, Fremantle Campus November, 2020 Declaration of Authorship I declare that this thesis is my own work and contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other institution. I further declare that to the best of my knowledge, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. ______________________________ Zubaidah Binti Mohamed Shaburdin 1 Abstract This thesis examines how ideologies such as feminism and patriarchy operate within language by providing a detailed analysis of five of Salman Rushdie’s novels, Midnight’s Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Ground Beneath Her Feet and The Enchantress of Florence. It is concerned with the changes in Rushdie’s use of language and the effect of this on the way gender is constructed in the selected texts. His novels offer a critique of contemporary Western culture’s understanding of gender, identity, politics, philosophy and religion. Although Rushdean scholarship is often concerned with identity politics, this thesis expands the discussion by critically engaging with the gender politics in his texts. Language is a powerful and flexible tool of communication; it is changeable in nature and is ideologically driven. It can be used to oppress and liberate both the speaker and those spoken for. Language and ideology share a profound relationship. By looking at how ideologies operate within language we can call attention to some dominant cultural discourses that make up a culture’s norms, values and attitudes. Rushdie’s novels are an uncomfortable meeting place of patriarchal and anti-patriarchal sentiments. Critics have acknowledged the ambiguity and ambivalence found in Rushdie’s female characters to the point where some of the characters become destructive towards the male protagonists. This thesis concerns itself with the ways in which his use of language exhibits patriarchal norms and values in our discourse. Despite his best efforts Rushdie’s experimentation with language reveals how deeply ingrained patriarchal ideology is in language. As such, it is not surprising to find characters such as Arjumand ‘Virgin Ironpants’ Harappa in Shame and Ayesha the Prophetess in The Satanic Verses who seemingly reinforce patriarchal ideology. These characters are masculinised as powerful and strong women who become destructive towards the male protagonists and 2 eventually themselves and those around them at the conclusion of their narratives. Yet, Rani Harappa and Zeeny Vakil from the aforementioned texts are represented in such a way that they reject patriarchal stereotypes and proceed to reveal the patriarchal oppression which they are working within and against. Rushdie’s writings of women’s stories in the selected five texts is an attempt to portray a variety of women, depicting their strengths and struggles as well as how they cope living within the bounds of a patriarchal culture. Rather than pigeonholing Rushdie’s texts and his female characters as portraying sexist tropes, it is more useful to approach his works by examining how feminist and patriarchal ideologies operate within the language he uses. 3 Acknowledgements I am forever grateful to my mother, Zallina Mohamed Shariff, and late grandmother, Gayah Binte Sulong, for their unconditional support and love to pursue my dream to go to university. To Dr Angeline O’Neill who never gave up on me even when life got difficult and messy. To Professor Chris Wortham and Professor Joan Wardrop for tirelessly advocating for me and sending me messages of support and encouragement. I would also like to acknowledge that this PhD was supported by the Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. And lastly, to my husband Matthew Crawford who made sure I never gave up while at the same time feeding me nutritious meals on my writing days. 4 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... 2 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1: Mother India ............................................................................................................. 29 Chapter 2: Narrating and Fictionalising History ............................................................... 81 Chapter 3: Blasphemy, heresy and gender in The Satanic Verses ............................ 121 Chapter 4: Gender dynamics, feminine identity and globalisation ......................... 163 Chapter 5: Social and sexual taboos in The Enchantress of Florence ...................... 208 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 253 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 268 5 Introduction Language plays a strong part in the way communities build their social structures and systems. It is a tool used to build and represent a community’s values, norms and attitudes. Arimbi and Kwary note that ‘it is through language that our understanding of the world is perceived and it is through language too, that our conceptual framework of how we see the world is built.’1 Language gives us the ability to create meanings and comprehend reality. It is dynamic, constantly moving and changing. Theorists and philosophers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein and Jacques Derrida have argued that language is not a stable medium of communication.2 This lack of stability means that language is in a constant state of flux as it adapts to its social environment. The way language was used in the 1970s, for example, is not the same as the way language is used now in 2020. This is a result of cultural products such as values, norms and attitudes changing and developing with language and discourse.3 Understanding discourse to be elements that make up our social world, theorist Michel Foucault argues that ‘in every society the production of discourse is at once controlled, selected, organised and redistributed.’4 This can be taken a step further by adding that the production of discourse is also hierarchical and that the dominant group in any given society manages how language and discourse is utilised, prioritised and serves their purpose. Those in control are responsible for deciding the inclusions and exclusions of discourses that serve their socio-economic interest. As such, language and discourse are ideologically driven. 1 Diah A. Arimbi and Deny A. Kwary. "Linguistic Turn and Gendering Language in the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary," English Language Teaching 9, no. 10 (January 1, 2016): 167, doi: 10.5539/elt.v9n10p166. 2 Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, ed. P.M.S Hacker, 4th ed. (Chicester: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2009). Jacques Derrida, ‘From Of Grammatology’, in The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, ed. Vincent B. Leitch (London: W.W Norton & Company, 2001). 3 Discourse in this thesis refers to interrelated elements that contribute to the understanding of our social reality as it produces, distributes and move to remain in existence. Unlike language which is a system of communication, discourse is defined by the context in which meanings are generated through the use of language. 4 Michel Foucault, ‘The Order of Discourse’, in Modern Literary Theory: A Reader, eds. Phillip Rice & Patricia Waugh, 3rd ed. (London: Arnold, 1996), 239. 6 Indeed the term ‘ideology’ is politically motivated in that it brings to surface the theoretical understanding that our views on language are inscripted by political and economic concerns and intrinsically by its relationship with domination and subjugation.5 Some linguists such as Newmeyer have argued that language is non-ideological and value-neutral.6 However, other linguists such as Joseph and Taylor have challenged this argument by mapping political history ranging from the fifteenth to the twentieth century and demonstrated how language was used then.7 Feminist linguists such as Dale Spender have also written about the way language creates and maintains power.8 Moreover, this is noticeably different when one observes and compares two different languages. In English-speaking countries, the English language will tend to incorporate not just grammatical conventions but also the norms,