Contemporary South Asian American Women’s Fiction: the “difference” Shashikala Muthumal Assella, BA, MA Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy DECEMBER 2015 Abstract This thesis critically explores the “difference” of contemporary South Asian American women’s fiction and their fictional narratives of women’s lives, away from the ethnic postcolonial depictions of diasporic women. The selected novels of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Amulya Malladi, Bharti Kirchner, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Nayomi Munaweera, Nausheen Pasha-Zaidi and Shaila Abdullah studied here interrogate the depiction of South Asian women characters both within diasporic American locations and in South Asian settings. These writers establish individual identities that defy homogeneity assigned to regional identities and establish heterogeneous characters that are influenced through transnational travel. This dissertation’s engagement with exotic identities, foodways, ethno-social identities and diasporic and native socio-cultural pressures for women, offers a “different” reading of contemporary South Asian women’s fiction. The identities that are being reinvented by the selected Indian, Sri Lankan and Pakistani American women writers destabilise established boundaries for women’s identity in South Asian American women’s fiction by using old and new tropes such as folkloric myths, nostalgia, food and ethnic relationships. The transnational cosmopolitan locations that enable the re- negotiation of identities enable the women characters to fashion their own uniqueness. I argue that a “difference” in South Asian American women’s contemporary writing has emerged in recent times, that looks beyond ethno-social diasporic identities. These changes not only advance the already established tropes in women’s literature, but also address important issues of individuality, personal choices and societal pressure affecting self-reinvention and reception of these women i within their societies. The analysis of under-researched yet powerful contemporary women writers makes this an important addition to the existing literary debates on varied women’s identities in fiction. I identify existing trends and evolving trends which help to map the emerging changes, making it a significant contribution to the understanding of the development of contemporary South Asian American women’s literature as a distinct body of work. ii Acknowledgements This research wouldn’t have become a reality without the kind guidance, patience and support extended to me by my wonderful supervisors; Professor Judie Newman and Dr Ruth Maxey. Thank you very much for encouraging me, and pushing me when I was too lazy to go the extra mile. I wish to extend my gratitude to the University of Nottingham Vice Chancellor’s scholarship, School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies’ postgraduate funding and Sir Richard Stapley Trust for providing me the necessary financial support to carry out my research and attend conferences. Conference panels and audiences at the Scottish Association for the study of America (SASA) conference 2012, Young South Asian Scholars Meet (YSASM) 2012, British Association for American Studies (BAAS) 2013, Memory Studies symposium at the University of Nottingham 2013 and South Asia by the Bay: Feminist Interventions; on Gender and South Asia 2014 have helped me enormously with their feedback and suggestions for various parts of my research. I have benefitted greatly from all the discussions and comments. I am also grateful for the conference organisers of YSASM and South Asia by the Bay for providing me with the necessary funding to attend the conferences and present papers. My gratitude goes to the journal editors of Phoenix: Journal of Commonwealth Studies of Sri Lanka, the editor of the Encyclopedia of Asian American Culture: From Anime to Tiger Moms (ABC Clio publication) and the editor of the essay collection, Exploring Gender in the Literature of the Indian Diaspora, for accepting iii my work for publication and for offering me valuable feedback which enhanced not only the sections submitted for publication, but also the larger project. I am thankful for the support and camaraderie of my fellow postgraduate students and academic staff at the Department of American and Canadian Studies. I could not think of a more encouraging community. Crucial were the support of the academic staff and administrative staff at the School of Cultures Languages and Area Studies and other friends whom I had the pleasure of meeting during my stay in Nottingham. You all made this journey worthwhile. I owe my wonderful housemates, for being the best one could have. My special thanks go to Prof Rajiva, for believing in me long before I knew what I could do, to Dinali, for being there every time, and for putting up with my frequent emails, to Sriparna, for friendship and feedback on my work and to Toshini, for being a true ‘sister of my heart’. Most of all, I wouldn’t have had the courage and freedom to come this far without the love and support of my wonderful family: Amma, Appachchi and Malli. This is for you. iv CONTENTS Abstract i Acknowledgements iii Introduction 1 Chapter One: Re-fashioning new identities in Chitra Divakaruni’s novels 39 Chapter Two: You are what you decide to cook... 108 Chapter Three: Sri Lankan women writers writing the difference 172 Chapter Four: The Other sisters: Pakistani American women writers 223 Conclusion 260 Works Cited 278 v Introduction I am the one who always goes away. Because I must – With my home intact But always changing So the windows don’t match The doors anymore – the colours Clash in the garden – And the ocean lives in the bedroom. I am the one Who always goes Away with my home Which can only stay inside in my blood – my home which does not fit with any geography.1 This research argues for a “different”2 reading of contemporary South Asian American women’s fiction3 that has been published between 1999 and 2012. The narratives of women that “went away with their homes intact” to chart their own histories and niches in “different shores,” to use Ronald Takaki’s phrase4 are explored in this study in relation to their transnational and hybrid identities that have been created, through the means of sisterly bonds, memories, food and other ethno- social identities. This study argues that the diasporic cultural locations and the re- 1 Sujata Bhatt, “The one who goes Away,” The Stinking Rose (Manchester: Carcanet,1995) 3-4. 2 I am borrowing this term from Ronald Takaki’s Strangers from a Different shore (1989) and Lisa Lau’s “Making the Difference: The differing presentations and Representations of South Asia” (2005). My use of the term “difference” will be elaborated later in the Introduction. 3 The fiction ranges from Sister of My Heart published in 1999 to Oleander Girl published in 2012. The reason for their particular selection will be elaborated later in the Introduction. 4 See Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different shore: A History of Asian Americans (Boston: Little, 1989) 1 negotiated identities created by women, using both socio-cultural affiliations as well as individual desires, enable the analysed women characters in the fiction of Chitra Divakaruni, Amulya Malladi, Bharti Kirchner, V.V. Ganeshananthan, Nayomi Munaweera, Nausheen Pasha-Zaidi and Shaila Abdullah to carve their own niches in the larger tapestry of South Asian diasporic fiction. Despite the use of traditional tropes of memory, food and ethnic identities, the writers and the novels examined throughout this thesis create unique identities for the women characters that debunk stereotypes and insist on their “difference” through a “different” reading of the same tropes. Contemporary writers ranging from Chitra Divakaruni, of Indian origin, to Nayomi Munaweera, of Sri Lankan origin, explore their ethnic and national differences through fiction produced within a diasporic American setting. The novels range from exotic renditions of motherlands, nostalgic recollections of lands left behind to contemporary negotiations of identity in America. But their main difference lies not only in their contemporary time frame, their immigrant identity, their gender or their different treatment of plots and subject matter. They also differentiate their writing and interests through an analysis of the diverse individual identity formations that mould contemporary South Asian American women characters. The fictions that are being analysed have very few narrative or plot intricacies, travel between the dichotomies of margins and the mainstream, and the writers selected for this study discuss the complexities of occupying such liminal spaces. The individual struggles of women to establish individual identities through personal choices, food rituals, memories and recollected narratives make these 2 fictions “different” from that of their Other counterparts produced in South Asia or in other diasporic locations5 inhabited by South Asians. In these fictions, women become agents of change and take control of their identities that extend beyond cultural and social stereotypes. The analyses of these novels which range from an exploration of the exoticised eastern spaces and cultural narratives to memories of pain (and individual pasts) attempt to read South Asian American women’s fiction away from the east-west binaries. These novels seek out individual identities that assert regional, ethnic and religious differences in the face of amalgamated identities of Americanised