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London Seen Through the Eyes of the Female Other University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2013-06-20 London Seen Through the Eyes of the Female Other Al-Azawi, Basma Al-Azawi, B. (2013). London Seen Through the Eyes of the Female Other (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26781 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/760 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY London Seen Through the Eyes of the Female Other by Basma Harbi Mahdi Al-Azawi A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA JUNE, 2013 © Basma Harbi Mahdi Al-Azawi 2013 Abstract This study aims at examining the portrayal of London by different generations of women writers, who see place and nation with an eye of otherness. The study demonstrates how leaving their homelands and immigrating to London enables these women writers, specifically the first-generation writers, to portray London through the lens of a new level of racial, class, and gender understanding and awareness. The women writers whose works I discuss here - Jean Rhys (Voyage in the Dark), Doris Lessing (In Pursuit of the English), Buchi Emecheta (Second Class Citizen), Joan Riley (Waiting in the Twilight), Monica Ali (Brick Lane), and Zadie Smith (White Teeth) demonstrate that there is a break between the London most contemporary people imagine and the London that really is. Their real experiences of the city reveal an antithesis and an image contradictory to that of their imagination. Moreover, London is represented as a place over-determined by imperial history and power hierarchies. London becomes socially and economically an oppressive place. I argue that discussing cultural changes across different generations and in different historical moments helps map the shifting situations in different eras, and give a better understanding of how concepts like otherness, cultural difference, and hybridity have been experienced and conceptualized at those historical moments. The discussion of the novels raises questions about the position of non-western immigrants, and specifically women, in the metropolitan city; whether their position there is really one of empowerment, and whether academic theories adequately take into consideration economic conditions and historically imposed forms of oppression; racial, colonial, and sexual. ii Examined in the light of Edward Said’s concept of “otherness” and Homi Bhabha’s concept of “hybridity,” the novels reveal that the experience of immigrants in London is still characterized by binarism and inequity. The repetition of the same ending for the characters discussed across generations leads me to conclude that non-western people have been conditioned by their difference and otherness, a status that eternally relegates them to a position of marginality. Discrimination and racial prejudice are still practiced, and they have been carried on unchallenged across generations. In this way, I argue that these novels represent a challenge to Bhabha’s assumption that immigration is an enabling state. The “Third Space” is a reduced space: a space of ambivalence and disorientation. Demonstration of hybridity does not help create new identities. The hybrid individuals become indecisive about their identity. None of the major characters in the novels, even the second-generation characters, succeeds in negotiating between opposite poles. It is concluded that within the world portrayed in these novels, it is impossible for the Other, hybrid or not, to fully integrate into Western society, as displayed by the constant struggles and attempts made by the second generation. They remain the Other, marginalized, never the centre, as the British culture is unable to embrace other values as the new British identity. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I thank God who inspired and guided me to complete this goal. I am really indebted to many people who have helped me finished my dissertation. First, I am sincerely and truly grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Harry Vandervlist, for his constant guidance, significant time, and care he has invested in me throughout my dissertation writing. This dissertation would not have been possible without his prompt feedback and thoughtful comments. I would like to express my sincerest thanks to my dissertation committee members: Dr. Pamela McCallum and Dr. Shaobo Xie. Dr. McCallum, many thanks for your invaluable comments on the initial proposal drafts. Dr. Xie, many thanks for discussing and explaining to me issues and complexities related to postcolonial theory. If there is one person without whose inspiration and help this dissertation would not have begun, it is Dr. Ann McWhir. Her help and inspiration have been absolutely invaluable to me. I thank my husband, Haitham, for his support, encouragement, and patience. I dedicate this dissertation to my son, Mohammed, who has been a blessing, brightening my life with joy and love. I would like to show my deepest appreciation to my brother and sisters, especially, Raghad, who have supported me in many ways and encouraged me to persevere. Finally, special thanks to my close friends, Mahdieh Salmasi, Rua Salih, and Hind Naji, for their words of encouragement and support. iv Dedication For my wonderful parents Who instilled within me a zeal for reading and learning v Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ iv Dedication ............................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………… 1 Chapter One: “In Pursuit of the “Grail”” ………………………………………………. 25 Chapter Two: “Sorry no coloureds” ….………………………………………………… 70 Chapter Three: “England, My England” ………………………………………...……..114 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………..168 Works Cited …………………………………………………………………….…....... 179 vi vii Introduction The dissertation provides an examination of the concept of “Otherness” in texts by six British women writers from colonized cultures. Each of these writers sees her place and nation with an eye of otherness, and each represents a different generation. My focus on different generations helps map the shifting situations in different eras, which in turn helps understand the changing conditions that have shaped representations of British culture over the twentieth century, moving from the epoch of empire towards a multicultural country. The women writers discussed and analyzed here --Jean Rhys, Doris Lessing, Buchi Emecheta, Joan Riley, Monica Ali, and Zadie Smith--are either immigrants or exiles, except Zadie Smith who was born in Britain. She is, nonetheless, the product of past migrations. These women writers are treated as the Other in their new socio-cultural context, London. They are in a way hybrided Others. They articulate, to use W. E. B. Du Bois’s concept, a “double consciousness.” They are simultaneously inside Western culture and outside of it. In providing literary analysis of each writer’s work, I examine the means by which these writers attempt to negotiate a space between two cultures, dominant and marginalized, to find a place from which to write. Thus, these women writers are linked by the metropolitan city, London, and by the shared negotiation to claim their place within the metropolitan city. Being writers from non- western countries, these women writers are “caught between the problems of race and gender and the practice of literature” (Minh-ha 6). The women writers’ reception in and responses to the metropolitan city, which in turn affect their portrayal of London, are the focus of this work. Living in London helps them to 1 rewrite meanings and experiences of the metropolitan city as imagined and lived. How do these women writers, especially the older generation, see London which was once a “mythologized object of dream and desire” (Ball 6) and which has become, as de Certeau asserts, “liberated [space] which can be occupied and redefined” (qtd. in Ball 9)? In their works, these writers demonstrate that there is a break between the London most contemporary people imagine and the London that really is. These writers have chosen to uncover a struggle, which their protagonists face as they negotiate their identities between two worlds, two cultures, and two values. Still, choosing to write about these selected women writers as a group does not mean that I have overlooked the individual differences in their experiences. However, in spite of their diverse backgrounds and cultures, I find that they share a unique perspective; they live and write on boundaries. They share the “interstitial passage between fixed identifications,” where “the temporal
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