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Tese Versão Final 23/5/2016 UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS DEPARTAMENTO DE LETRAS MODERNAS PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM ESTUDOS LINGUÍSTICOS E LITERÁRIOS EM INGLÊS AMITAV GHOSH’S SEA OF POPPIES (2008): A WEB OF GENDER, CULTURAL AND MYTHIC RELATIONS IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY COLONIAL INDIA REGIANE CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA RAMOS Versão Corrigida São Paulo — 2016 UNIVERSIDADE DE SÃO PAULO FACULDADE DE FILOSOFIA, LETRAS E CIÊNCIAS HUMANAS DEPARTAMENTO DE LETRAS MODERNAS PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM ESTUDOS LINGUÍSTICOS E LITERÁRIOS EM INGLÊS AMITAV GHOSH’S SEA OF POPPIES (2008): A WEB OF GENDER, CULTURAL AND MYTHIC RELATIONS IN THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY COLONIAL INDIA REGIANE CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA RAMOS Tese de Doutorado apresentada ao Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Linguísticos e Literários em Inglês do Departamento de Letras Modernas da Faculdade de Filosofia Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo sob orientação da Profa Dra Laura Patricia Zuntini de Izarra. De acordo Versão Corrigida São Paulo — 2016 !iii Name: Ramos, Regiane Corrêa de Oliveira Title: Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008): A Web of Gender, Cultural and Mythic Relations in the Nineteenth-Century Colonial India Doctoral thesis submitted to Department of English at the University of São Paulo has been approved by Thesis Committee Advisor: Laura Patricia Zuntini de Izarra Institution: University of São Paulo Signature: ____________________ Thesis Committee Reader: ____________________ Institution: ____________________ Signature: ____________________ Thesis Committee Reader: ____________________ Institution: ____________________ Signature: ____________________ Thesis Committee Reader: ____________________ Institution: ____________________ Signature: ____________________ Thesis Committee Reader: ____________________ Institution: ____________________ Signature: ____________________ !iv For Mom and Daddy !v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I could not have written this thesis without the financial, intellectual, and emotional support of many institutions and people. Financially, I am indebted to CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) for providing the funding that allowed me to undertake this research and for awarding me a sandwich PhD scholarship 2012/2013 (BEX 10438/12-2) to Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi - India. I am particularly grateful to the Postgraduate Program of Linguistics and Literary Studies in English and to the English Department of the University of São Paulo for giving me extracurricular academic opportunities and for their generous financial contributions towards research expenses, conference attendance, and other academic activities. Warm thanks go to the staff and students of the Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, especially Ashis Kumar Das, Dale Luis Menezes, Kanika Sahil Pabby, and Larah Rai. During this time I attended classes, collected materials, and was alerted to different viewpoints, all of which had an enormous impact on the writing of this thesis. Intellectually, my primary debt is to Professor Laura Patricia Zuntini de Izarra, my supervisor, for sharing her great expertise, for her guidance and always spot-on criticism. I am deeply grateful for her unfailing support and for the trust and the encouragement to build my own patterns for the past five years, for giving me the chance of spending a year at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and accompanying me there for two months, for opening my way into research and teaching, and, last but not least, for encouraging my interest in Indian literature. I feel profoundly indebted to her valuable guidance and friendship. I would like to thank Prof. Marcos Natali, always part of my vivas, for his valuable criticism and for his fascinating lectures at the University of São Paulo. I am indebted to him who taught me to think about the relation between Literature and Ethics; Prof. Makarand R. Paranjape for receiving me in the English Department at the Jawaharlal Nehru University during my sandwich year. I remain indebted to him for this tremendous opportunity; Prof. G Arunima from the Center for Women’s Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University for letting me participate in her Feminist Theory and Social Research course; Prof. Mallarika Sinha Roy !vi from the Centre for Women’s Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University for letting me participate in her Gender and Social Movements: Exploring Postcolonial Situations course; Prof. Jyoti Atwal from the Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University for letting me participate in her Women in Colonial India course; Prof. M. S. .S. Pandian from the Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University for letting me participate in his Caste, Community, and Culture: An Alternative Intellectual History of Modern India course; Prof. Mridula Mukherjee from the Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University for letting me participate in her National Movement course; Prof. Bhagwan Josh from the Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University for letting me participate in his Histories of Partition course; and Prof. Pius Malekandathil for giving me the opportunity to teach Portuguese in the Centre for Historical Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. I have also received great intellectual and emotional support from my friends. Of these, they deserve special mention. Maria Gisela Bonavoglia Carvalho Mota for her maternal love; Regina Bertholdo and Salvador Tedd Jr. for their unconditional love and for being bookangels; Sandip Ain for sharing all his knowledge on Amitav Ghosh and on Indian Literature with me; Solange Pinheiro (Wonderful) for her tireless help and our long-standing friendship; Rema Nagarajan and Sumit Ray for paving the way for me and for facilitating my stay in Delhi; Bhanu Rana and Kaushalya Bohara for taking care of me in my house in Munirka Enclave and for making me feel at home in Delhi. Shobhan Saxena for editing this thesis and for sharing his knowledge on Indian Politics with me, and The research group “Narrativas e Identidades nos Espaços Diaspóricos de Língua Inglesa” coordinated by Professor Laura Patricia Zuntini de Izarra for generating heated discussions about literature and for introducing me to a great circle of friends, especially, Andrea Mateus, Mariana Bolfarine, and Rose Yukiko Sugiyama. My husband, Jasdeep Singh, for his love and patience. My brother, Ricardo Ramos, for his love and inspiration. Last but not least Amitav Ghosh for a conversation over dinner in his house in Aldona, Goa, in the early stages of my research and for encouraging my interest in Indian Literature and !vii South Asian Studies. I thank Ghosh for granting me an interview at The Bertram Inn on 23 September 2015 in Boston, MA. !viii CONTENTS ABSTRACT ix RESUMO x RESUMO EXPANDIDO xi INTRODUCTION 15 Portraying Amitav Ghosh 31 CHAPTER I: STRATEGIES OF SURVIVAL 50 Sati: The Indian Perspective 52 Bengal Renaissance: ‘The New Woman’ 58 Violence against Body and Soul 60 Male rape: The Untold Story 76 CHAPTER II: MOVING ACROSS THE INDIAN OCEAN 85 The Departure 88 What Stratum of Life Do They Come from? 107 The Middle Passage and the Crossers of the Kala Pani 113 The West in the East: The Eurasian 126 The convict 132 CHAPTER III: TRANSGENDER AND MYTHS 135 Mythic Narratives 139 Rewriting the Myth of Transformation 148 CONCLUSION 164 APPENDIX I: Ardhanararishvara (picture) 168 WORKS CITED 169 !ix ABSTRACT This doctoral dissertation focuses on Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008) to investigate, from a postcolonial perspective, the way in which the writer deconstructs gender in the nineteenth-century India. In Chapter I, I analyze men and women within the Indian familial space in the nineteenth century, demonstrating how both are subjected to the disempowering effects of traditional rituals (such as sati), structures of Brahminical morality and patriarchal violence. The main character pair — Deeti and Kalua — is an example of how the persons are sexually assaulted (rape) and then silenced by an oppressive system. Chapter II, I examine men and women within the British colonial space, indicating how they are effected by the opium cultivation in the Indian hinterland. The peripheral characters — peasants, eurasian and convicts — are highlighted to show how they are uprooted from homeland and forced to be taken across the seas by the colonial administration to work as indentured labour. In Chapter III, I investigate the gender roles ascribed to Indians by the British colonizers. The secondary character pair — Nob Kissin and Taramony — shows how Ghosh deconstructs gender with the use of Indian mythology and storytelling. In the conclusion, I point out how Indian mythology is retrieved as an instrument of resistance. Keywords: Amitav Ghosh, Indian English Literature, Indian myths !x RESUMO Esta tese de doutorado tem como objetivo investigar, sob a luz do questionamento pós- colonial, como Amitav Ghosh em Sea of Poppies (2008) desconstrói a narrativa colonial sobre gênero na Índia colonial no século XIX. No Capítulo I, analiso homens e mulheres dentro do espaço familiar indiano, demonstrando como ambos estão sujeitos aos efeitos de desempoderamento dos rituais (como sati), da moralidade bramânica e da violência patriarcal. As personagens — Deeti e Kalua — exemplificam como os sujeitos, vítimas de violência sexual (estupro), são silenciados pelo sistema opressor. No Capítulo II, examino homens e mulheres dentro do espaço colonial
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