Postcolonial Narratives And
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CIRCULATING STORlES: POSTCOLONIAL NARRATIVES AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Danielle Mina Dadras, Master ofArts in English ***** The Ohio State University 2008 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Dr. Chadwick Allen, Adviser Dr. James Phelan Dr. Pranav Jani Adviser Graduate Program in English ABSTRACT Many postcolonial scholars assert that there has been a shift away from the global dominance of the nation-state system toward the so-called postnational. Why, then, do such a large number of popular and provocative postcolonial narratives, both through their rhetorical intent and through their circulation histories, indicate that the nation remains a primary site of textual negotiation? And why does the nation remain a central facet of international marketing and distribution campaigns? In an effort to answer these questions, my dissertation attends to both what narrative texts marketed to an international audience do (rhetorically, aesthetically, and politically) and what is done with these narratives in the processes of circulation and distribution. I demonstrate the benefits of this dual model of reading by offering three chapter-length case studies from various genres, regions, and post/colonial conditions. “Circulating Stories: Postcolonial Narratives and International Markets” borrows from the methodologies of rhetorical narrative theory and cultural studies as well as from the important theoretical distinction between postcolonialism and postcoloniality, formulated by Graham Huggan in The Postcolonial Exotic (2001). Huggan defines ii postcolonialism as textual and cultural agencies of resistance and postcoloniality as the late-capitalist system of global cultural exchange that inevitably manipulates and perverts texts through channels of distribution and reception. My analytic strategy in each chapter is to confront the “entanglement” of these two tendencies, and then to extricate postcolonialism from postcoloniality in order to accomplish the following two purposes: (1) to better understand the complex designs and potential effects of postcolonial texts and (2) to consider how authors and filmmakers committed to postcolonialism seek to navigate the treacherous waters of postcoloniality. My goal is to respect the voices and visions of postcolonial artists and, at the same time, resist perpetuating critical naiveté about the possibility of unmediated or “authentic” rhetorical exchange between postcolonial artists and their audiences. iii To my Baba and my Mother, for their love and support iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation could not have been completed without the sage advice, never- ending patience, guidance, inspiration, and friendship of my dissertation committee – Dr. Chadwick Allen, Dr. Jim Phelan, and Dr. Pranav Jani. To them, I owe all my thanks. I also want to say a special thank you to three dear friends and colleagues – Aaron McKain, Tiffani Clyburn, and Kristen Hartman. Hours of conversation over wine or coffee allowed my ideas to develop, and their support and understanding during the hard times made the completion of this project possible. A particular thanks to Aaron for getting me out of an intellectional slump when I needed it most. Finally, I want to thank my partner, Jeff Beech, for tolerating me at my worst and allowing me the time and space to pursue this project and my Ph.D. v VITA August 30, 1978…………………….Born – Wilmington, Deleware June 2000…………………………....B.A. English, Ohio University Certificate in Women’s Studies, Ohio University June 2003……………………………M.A. English, Ohio State University 2003-2006…………………………...Ph.D. Student and Graduate Teaching Assistant, Ohio State University 2006-2008…………………………...Ph.D. Candidate and Graduate Teaching Assistant, Ohio State University August 2008-present………………...Assistant Professor of World Literature and Cultural Studies, Philadelphia University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: English Secondary Fields: Postcolonial Studies, Film Studies, Narrative Theory, Cultural Studies vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………ii Dedication………………………………………………………………………………...iv Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………………………v Vita………………………………………………………………………………………..vi Chapters: 1. Introduction, Circulating Stories…………………………………………………..1 2. Chapter 1, Man, Myth, Nation: Raoul Peck’s Two Lumumbas………………….29 3. Chapter 2, “Only Connect”: Zadie Smith’s Twenty-FirstCentury Optimism and the Global Culture Market…………………………………………………..86 4. Chapter 3, Communicating Kurdistan: Non-State Cinema and the International Market……………………………………………………153 5. Conclusion, Postcolonial Narratives and International Markets………………..241 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………282 vii INTRODUCTION CIRCULATING STORIES From the conspiracy theories surrounding Shakespeare’s authorship to the revelation that James Frey fabricated many of the details in his best selling memoir A Million Little Pieces (2003), literary scandals provide provocative and illuminating forums for the discussion of literature, authorship, and ethics in the public sphere.1 Since the birth of the field of postcolonial literary studies in the late 1970s and early 1980s, two major literary scandals have created broad, public interest in texts written by authors from the formerly colonized world. The first and most famous of these scandals is the “Rushdie Affair” and concerns the fatwa on Salman Rushdie2, issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after the publication of The Satanic Verses in 1989.3 The second scandal is only slightly less well known and concerns the allegations surrounding the testimonío of Guatemalan author, activist, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú.4 I begin this introduction by providing a brief examination of the Rigoberta Menchú controversy – a controversy that I argue is indicative of larger trends within postcolonial studies that constitute the subject of this dissertation. The Menchú scandal 1 usefully illuminates the often conflicting relationship between many postcolonial authors’ aesthetic and political purposes and the reception and interpretation of postcolonial texts as they circulate in the international culture market, raising questions such as the following: How does Menchú use narrative, generally, and the genre of the testimonío, specifically, in order to speak on behalf of her people to an international audience, and what are the ethical implications of this communicative transaction? How has the circulation of Menchú’s text, and its reception within academia and the public sphere, been shaped by various discourses about Indigenous peoples, and in what ways has this structured the Menchú scandal? The Menchú scandal demonstrates the dialectical relationship between what a text does and what is done with a text, and it is precisely this relationship between the aesthetic and/or political purpose of a text and the ways in which that text is acted upon in the context of circulation that constitutes the focus of “Circulating Stories: Postcolonial Narratives and International Markets.” I, Rigoberta Menchú, the testimonío that skyrocketed Menchú to international fame, was first published in Spanish in 1983 as Me Llamo Rigoberta Menchú Y Asi Me Nacio La Conciencia and has been translated into dozens of languages. While the text is frequently referred to as an autobiography, a designation particularly prevalent among Menchú’s detractors, it is more properly classified as a testimonío. John Beverley, a scholar of Latin American literature, is the most well-known theorist of the genre, which he defines in Against Literature as follows: a novel or novella length narrative…told in the first person by a narrator who is also the real protagonist or witness of the events she or he recounts….Since, in many cases the narrator is someone who is either functionally illiterate or, if literate, not a professional writer, the production of a testimonío often involves the 2 tape recording and then the transcription and editing of an oral account by a interlocutor who is an intellectual, journalist, or writer. (70-71) Most testimoníos address human rights violations or other political trauma and injustice and position the narrator as a representative and spokesperson for a marginalized community. In Reading Autobiography: A Guide to Interpreting Life Narratives, Julia Watson and Sidonie Smith usefully add to Beverley’s definition: “testimoníos inscribe a collective ‘I’ that voices stories of repression and calls for resistance in ways that have influenced political struggle around the globe” (107). Within literary criticism, Menchú’s narrative has been viewed as the paradigmatic testimonío. The opening lines of Menchú’s story invoke the genre by calling attention to the articulation of communal experience and by implicitly emphasizing the political stakes of the narrative: My name is Rigoberta Menchú. I am twenty three years old. This is my testimony. I didn’t learn it from a book and I didn’t learn it alone. I’d like to stress that it isn’t only my life, it’s also the testimony of my people….The important thing is that what has happened to me has happened to many other people too: My story is the story of all poor Guatemalans. My personal experience is the reality of a whole people. (1) In the case of Menchú’s testimonío, the Venezuelan-French anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray took hours of taped interviews from a discussion with Menchú