Reading Beyond the Diaspora
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Reading Beyond the Diaspora: A Responsible Reading of Recent North American Fiction Outside the Ethnicity Frame Inaugural Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) am Fachbereich Philosophie und Geisteswissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin Graduiertenschule für Nordamerikastudien John-F.-Kennedy-Institut für Nordamerikastudien, Abteilung Literatur Vorgelegt von Mag. phil. Elisabeth Chavez Berlin, im März 2019 Gutachter: Erstgutachterin: Prof. Dr. Ulla Haselstein Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. Florian Sedlmeier Datum der Disputation 6. Juni 2019 Ehrenwörtliche Erklärung Ich erkläre hiermit ehrenwörtlich, dass ich die vorliegende Dissertation selbstständig und ohne fremde Hilfe angefertigt habe. Andere als die angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel wurden nicht benutzt. Die den benutzten Quellen wörtlich oder inhaltlich entnommenen Stellen sind als solche kenntlich gemacht worden. Ich habe bisher weder diese, noch eine andere Arbeit als Dissertation vorgelegt. Berlin, 05. März 2019 Elisabeth Chavez Reading Beyond the Diaspora: A Responsible Reading of Recent North American Fiction Outside the Ethnicity Frame Elisabeth Chavez Table of Contents Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................................ 7 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................................. 8 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 9 2 The fallacy of representative reading .............................................................................. 22 3 Setting the Socio-Cultural Stage ........................................................................................ 41 3.1 The Global(ized) Condition .................................................................................................. 41 3.2 The Problem of Diaspora ...................................................................................................... 45 3.2.1 The Possibilities of Diasporas .................................................................................................................. 54 3.2.2 The Futures of Diasporas and the Paradox of Collective Identities ........................................ 61 3.3 The Impossibility of the Recognition Project: Vulnerable Conviviality ................ 69 4 South Asian Heritage in North America: Diaspora and Beyond ............................. 77 4.1 The New Diaspora and its Literature ................................................................................ 86 4.1.1 After Politics – Cliché ................................................................................................................................... 93 4.1.2 Double Diasporas and Multi-Hyphenation ......................................................................................... 97 5 Widening the Politics of Diasporic Literature ............................................................ 104 5.1 Historiographic Fiction between Diaspora, Ethnicity, Postcolonialization and Globalization ................................................................................................................... 105 5.1.1 Alternative Divisions ................................................................................................................................. 107 5.1.2 Diaspora Divided ........................................................................................................................................ 116 5.2 The Always Troubled Second Generation ..................................................................... 123 5.2.1 The Bildungsroman ................................................................................................................................... 125 5.2.2 The Innocent Flamboyance of Difference ........................................................................................ 138 6 New Cosmopolitanism ......................................................................................................... 162 6.1 Cosmopolitan Detachment ................................................................................................. 163 6.1.1 Photography: The Apprehension of Life in the Art of Death ................................................... 172 6.2 Transience and Transgression: Abha Dawesar’s That Summer in Paris ............ 186 7 Family Configurations and the Impossibility of Care ............................................... 200 7.1 Impossible Care ...................................................................................................................... 204 7.2 The Ironic Grotesque Satire of Family Values .............................................................. 223 7.2.1 The Abject of “Belonging” ....................................................................................................................... 238 7.2.2 A distorted cultural heritage of betrayal .......................................................................................... 246 8 Fundamentally Dangerous Dialogues ........................................................................... 251 9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 277 10 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 285 Deutsche Zusammenfassung ...................................................................................................... 303 English Abstract .............................................................................................................................. 307 Curriculum Vitae ............................................................................................................................. 310 Abbreviations BB Rakesh Satyal, Blue Boy CHNC Anita Rau Badami, Can You Hear The Nightbird Call FV Abha Dawesar, Family Values MS Saleema Nawaz, Mother Superior RF Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist TSIP Abha Dawesar, That Summer In Paris UA Jhumpa Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth WTBR Shauna Singh Baldwin, What The Body Remembers 8 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my primary advisor, Prof. Dr. Ulla Haselstein for her insightful comments, critical questions, and immense knowledge, as well as her continued support of my research and her patience with my process. Furthermore, I want to sincerely thank my secondary advisory team, Prof. Dr. Florian Sedlmeier and Prof. em. Dr. Heinz Ickstadt for their time and helpful comments on my project. I also want to express my gratitude to the Graduate School of North American Studies (GSNAS) at the John F. Kennedy Institute of the Freie Universität Berlin and the entire team there, both faculty and staff. I would never have been able to complete my research without the environment granted to me through the Graduate School and the community of researchers there that provided both critical interventions as well as motivation and assistance. In conjunction, I also want to thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) for their generous funding of the Graduate School and the scholarship I received to enable my research. I furthermore want to acknowledge and thank the Dahlem Research School, the umbrella organization of the Graduate School, for the additional support and services extended to us during our years at the school. Finally, my sincere thanks also go the University of California, Irvine, for allowing me to use their resources and library during two research visits in 2011 and 2012. In particular, I am grateful to Prof. Rajagopalan Radhakrishnan for inviting me to participate in his graduate seminar, and Prof. Gabriele Schwab for her insightful comments and suggestions. Last but not least, I would like to thank Gabi Bodmeier (GSNAS) and Monika Cheng (Prüfungsbüro) for their continued assistance in all administrative matters. 9 1 Introduction Excuse me, sir, but may I be of assistance? Ah, I see I have alarmed you. Do not be frightened by my beard: I am a lover of America. I noticed that you were looking for something; more than looking, in fact, you seemed to be on a mission, and since I am both a native of this city and a speaker of your language, I thought I might offer you my services. (RF 1, emphasis in the original) These are the first lines the reader encounters in Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist, following the provocative title on the book-cover. A distinct voice addresses a person he identifies as American, reads him, if you will, his emotions of alarm and fright, reassures him, and offers guidance through an unfamiliar cultural terrain. Yet, the speaker also emphasizes that the other already approached this landscape with an agenda, that he “seemed to be on a mission”. The two attitudes are furthermore juxtaposed by the tone of voice, which is suffused with a teasing irony. An irony maybe not yet fully apparent in these first few lines, as the reader cautiously enters the text, not yet sure of where it might take him or her. But the irony becomes obvious, if not dominant, as we become more familiar with the narrative voice, prompting the reader to call everything stated into question, adding layers of ambiguity to a seemingly straightforward tale.