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ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Racing Through Adolescence: Becoming and Belonging in the Narratives of Second Generation South Asian Girls By Mythili Rajiva, B.A., M.A. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociology and Anthropology Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario October 21, 2004 Copyright © 2004 Mythili Rajiva Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. 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Abstract This dissertation argues that modem western adolescence is a crucial period in the making of racialized subjects. It contends that age is a relation of power that intersects with other social relations (i.e. gender, race, or class), to create certain types of marginalized selves. None of the existing literature on youth has provided an adequate framework f or e xamining h ow e veryday i nteractions p osition c ertain s ubj ects a s b eing outside the bounds of normative adolescence. In countless ways, subjects have to negotiate being “spoken into difference” by the gaze of the peer group. Despite a surface recognition of the importance of peer relations in adolescence, scholars have not explicitly theorized how racialized identities are formed during this developmental period. In part, this is because of a mistaken reliance on the identity/difference binary. This tired dualism constructs a fixed ontological relationship between self and other that takes for granted the existence of a fully formed subject who exists in relation to clearly identified Others. However, children and adolescents are in the process of identity formation and, thus, have a fluid and incomplete understanding of themselves and others. In modem western societies, adolescence, in particular, has been constructed and lived as a period where subjects are intensely concerned with carving out an identity, while at the same time trying to be part of peer culture. Therefore, one of the central contributions of this thesis is to reconceptualize identity/difference , as a more agonistic relationship between becoming someone and belonging somewhere. In order to explore how this interaction plays out in everyday contexts of difference-making, I constructed a framework o f a nalysis t hat c ombined p ost-structural c oncepts o f d iscourse a nd s ubject positioning with a notion of selfhood as a narrative or biographical project. As my case study, I chose to examine the adolescent experiences of second generation South Asian girls in Canada. This group offers a particularly rich vein of exploration for researchers interested in the complex links among race, gender, age and generation. Although there has been a great deal of feminist research on immigrant South Asian women in Canada, not enough work has been done on the experiences of non-immigrant women and girls, whose struggles to be ‘Canadian’ are compromised by mainstream racializing practices, as well as their gendered location in diasporic communities as the “bearers of culture”. Using feminist qualitative methods, I conducted 10 in-depth, unstructured interviews with subjects who had experienced or were currently experiencing adolescence in a Canadian cultural context. My analysis of the interviews offers critical insights into racialized girlhood in the following areas: the specific discourses through which girls are positioned as Other; the turning points or “boundary events” where this Othering happens; the strategies that girls use to handle being Othered; the role of family and community in the creation and maintenance of difference; and finally the significance of adolescent experiences of difference-making in terms of adult subjectivities. These insights reveal the tightly woven relationship between becoming and belonging that characterizes the process of racializing in adolescence. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, the corollary to that is, it takes a community to get someone through a Ph.D. There is noway that I would have finished this monumental task without the support, commitment and incredible patience of the following people: Bruce Curtis, one of the smartest people I know, who has probably never realized the extent to which his respect mattered to me, from the time that I first arrived at Carleton and long before he became my supervisor. I especially appreciate his patience towards the end, when dealing with the vagaries of graduate student neurosis. In the months leading up to submission, he tirelessly read and re-read my work, going through it with a fine-tooth comb, and his comments and criticisms made the thesis so much stronger. Finally, I want to thank him for building my confidence by always engaging with me as if I was an equal rather than a student. My Committee members: Tim Stanley and Robynne Neugebauer. Tim’s questions about my work were perhaps the most thoughtful that I received and, naturally, the hardest to answer. He really challenged me to question my categories and the way I was working concepts such as race, nation etc. I also appreciate his great sense of humour about the whole process, which encouraged me to keep perspective at some of the harder times. Robynne, w ho joined my committee at a later stage, offered unconditional support and genuine interest in my work, and made me feel like there was actually something worth doing here. Caroline Andrew, my M.A. supervisor, whose incredible support for me over the years has gone above and beyond the call o f duty. She is a shining example o f the kind o f feminist mentor that I aspire to be, one day, to my own students. The support staff in the department, particularly Nazira Conroy, the graduate secretary, who so often had to call or email me to remind me of deadlines and other information that I was too absent- minded to keep track o f myself. Various professors in the department that I took courses with, as well as those who were just generally very supportive o f me during my time there. In particular, those faculty who wrote reference letters for me: Wally Clement, Daiva Stasiulis, and Bill Skidmore (who was also, incidentally, the best professor I ever TAed for). My graduate student community. People often find grad school a lonely, competitive atmosphere but I was lucky enough to meet several bright, talented and really supportive people: Melanie White (always encouraging and ready to offer really sound advice about getting through), Pum Van Veldhoven (especially in tire months leading up to the end, just an absolute rock of support), Sharan Samagh (who lent me all her books on race and nationalism), and Chris Powell. I especially want to thank my Friday night Cafe Paradiso ‘study group’ with whom I shared all the trials, tribulations and occasional joys o f being a doctoral student: Kelly Landon, Serena Petrella and Kim Elliott.