REPRESENTATIONS OF THE NATION THROUGH CORPOREAL NARRATIVITY IN CONTEMPORARY MULTICULTURAL BRITISH FICTION A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Gabriella Kecskes January, 2010 Advisory Committee: Robert L. Caserio Suzanne Gauch Sue-Im Lee Lewis R. Gordon i ABSTRACT Representations of the Nation through Corporeal Narrativity in Contemporary Multicultural British Fiction Gabriella Kecskes Doctor of Philosophy Temple University, 2010 Dr. Robert L. Caserio This dissertation focuses on the function of human bodies in articulations of the nation in contemporary British multicultural fiction, more specifically in novels by Salman Rushdie, V. S. Naipaul, Hanif Kureishi, and Monica Ali. Combining the Andersonean claim that narrative fiction is an especially sensitive medium for imagining the nation with Daniel Punday‘s assertion that the human body is the basic organizing principle of narrative structure, this study examines the ways in which corporeal representations in novels negotiate dominant paradigms of the national imaginary. Each chapter focuses on a key text from which it opens up the discussion to the authors‘ oeuvre. The study establishes the palimpsest as a mode of representation and interpretation of cultural and national identities showcased in Rushdie‘s The Moor‘s Last Sigh. The fragmentation of narrative and human subjectivity via the trope of the palimpsest in this novel is central to conceptualizations of the nation in Rushdie‘s oeuvre as well as in the other texts in this study. Based on the make-up of Rushdie‘s palimpsests, ii the characters‘ bodies manifest not a mixture of different elements but a conglomerate of often mutually exclusive, yet intrinsically combined alternatives. For V. S. Naipaul, the function of corporeality is the negotiation of the national imaginary via representations of narrative space. In The Enigma of Arrival as in his other novels, Naipaul uses circuitous movement and palimpsestic layering of the kinetic space to complicate agency for his characters, to emphasize the illusory nature of narrative authority, and to call attention to the ambiguous operations of national and postcolonial discourse. Hanif Kureishi‘s The Body among his other novels shows a ground-breaking attitude toward the possibilities of narrativity in the age of transmutable corporeality. His characters‘ diminishing corporeal presence is the source of their agency and their increasingly complex cultural identifications. In Brick Lane, Monica Ali‘s keen attention to kinetic space creates unexpected ripples in the narration and the protagonist‘s cultural identification, which shift the meaning of the novel from an optimistic ethnic/gender emancipation narrative to claiming agency by resisting cultural affiliations. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project is not simply a stepping stone in my professional development but a significant threshold in my whole life, especially my life in English. It would not have been accomplished without much, much input from my ―peops.‖ I want to thank everybody ―brushing against me‖ in their various ways during these years, but there are some friends who deserve much more than a simple ―thank you.‖ I want to thank Ellen Simmons for bringing me into her world, giving me shelter, introducing me to friends, and giving me a family. She has been my most loyal and forgiving audience, my language coach from the beginning, and an unrelenting believer in my intellectual abilities. Susan Ploeg, for providing much needed friendship, shelter, nourishment, and comic relief even at the most dire times. Shannon Miller, for becoming my true mentor in matters of profession and life, for taking me seriously even when I could not, and for being the champion of my cause. Richard Beards, for supporting me from the beginning and opening the door to this path. Ginny Beards, for her sharp observations and suggestions and for giving me the spark for this work. My flesh and blood family Mamoka and Robi, for loving me against all odds and sustaining me across the Atlantic. My advisors deserve special thanks for their trust in my abilities and for aiding me through this process. I want to express my gratitude to Robert Caserio for his unbelievable patience and understanding, and for his willingness to give up good coffee iv to meet with me in my favorite ice cream shop. He is the perfect intellectual father figure whose guidance and intellectual rigor I needed very much. I want to convey my appreciation to Suzanne Gauch for being one of the finest examples of what I could be and for unwittingly shining the light many times when I was ready to give up. To Sue-Im Lee, for her kind and frank support even if only for a short time and her sharp and inquisitive intellect. Finally, to Lewis Gordon, for his last minute but much appreciated pitch in the game and his encouraging and friendly attitude. v CONTENTS ABSTRACT …………………………………………………….... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ……………………………………... iv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ………………………………………... 1 2. SALMAN RUSHDIE AND THE MOOR‘S NEW PALIMPSEST ……………………………………... 29 3. NAIPAUL, CORPOREAL NARRATIVITY, AND THE ENIGMA OF POSTCOLONIAL SUBJECTIVITY ……... 79 4. HANIF KUREISHI‘S DISAPPEARING NARRATIVE BODIES …………………………………………………. 133 5. CORPOREAL NARRATIVITY AND MONICA ALI‘S CONFINED BODIES ……………………………. 173 6. CONCLUSION ………………………………………….. 208 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………………….. 213 vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The yearly nominations of Dames and Sirs is usually considered to be part of the quirky British celebrity business, but, last year, two nominees for members of the Order of the British Empire attracted more than usual attention internationally. Salman Rushdie‘s knighting generated a distant aftershock of the Fatwa in 1989: it prompted an official statement from Iran‘s government along with an early warning to the newly inaugurated Gordon Brown to conduct a more Muslim-friendly administration than had Tony Blair, whose cabinet was responsible for the decision about Rushdie‘s knighting. Hanif Kureishi‘s elevation to the title of Commander of the British Empire, even though it did not cause the same political ripple, still invited foreign critical attention. Receiving such honors from the Queen of England officially inaugurated Rushdie and Kureishi into the growing ranks of multicultural, ethnic, postcolonial writers and cultural figures who are acknowledged for their role in promoting and inscribing a new face of England. The fact that ex-colonials, post-colonials, and diasporic or ethnic minorities can earn such distinction suggests not only a generational shift in cultural politics toward ethnic minorities and immigrants but also a fundamental change in the self-image of the British nation. Obviously, the authorities who deemed Rushdie and Kureishi, and earlier V. S. Naipaul, worthy of such a distinction had decided that the symbolic gesture of their shaking the Queen‘s hand is appropriate and safe. They do not share the political 1 paranoia about ethnic minorities expressed in the political rhetoric of Enoch Powell in the 1960s and of other conservative state officials as recently as twenty years ago. However, as The New York Times Magazine described the responses of Kureishi‘s CBE, To many, Kureishi's CBE is a sign of needed change. His accolade, along with Salman Rushdie's knighthood in June, indicate that these writers "aren't voices from elsewhere, these are voices from here, these are our voices," says Hannah Rothschild, a friend of both writers and a documentary filmmaker. "There's no divide anymore. They are us, we are them." (Donadio 26, emphasis added) As opposed to earlier claims in previous decades that the new ethnicities of the metropole are culturally and racially so different that any attempt to incorporate them into the national body would bring disastrous results, as in arguments by Powell and Margaret Thatcher, the governments of the last three decades gradually moved beyond degrading welfare policies or enforced cultural integration initiatives to directly court the multicultural intelligentsia to invite them to national prestige circuits. Even the more mobile or cosmopolitan writers such as Rushdie and Zadie Smith who spend a considerable amount of time outside the Kingdom are claimed as British national cultural currency. Among those who stay closer to home, Kureishi‘s work is slowly incorporated into the national literary canon. The Buddha of Suburbia is now included in the literary curriculum throughout Britain (Donadio 27). Such distinction of minority literary figures has far reaching cultural and ideological motivations and effects, which is why it is important to take a careful look at their literary production and examine their engagement with the national imaginary of Britain. This, however, does not simply mean pointing out the binary oppositions 2 between the British postcolonial subject and its ―others.‖ This study focuses on variants of the negotiation of the postcolonial context by ethnic/postcolonial writers, namely, V. S. Naipaul, Rushdie, Kureishi, and Monica Ali. They occupy a particular space in the nomenclature of British literature because they cultivate new formulas of national and cultural identity in two directions: by projecting the new image of the ethnic ―other‖ onto the national imaginary and also by presenting new models of identity for ethnic minorities. These texts substantially influence the reading public and the critics both at home and abroad