South-Indian American Women Writers (& Filmmakers)

Issues of Cultural Identity and Gender

Outline

The native mother’ perspectives: “The Mother”An Immigrant-mother+victim’s perspective: “

Management of Grief” Immigrants and their Cultural IdentitiesRelated Issues and Texts:

Experience of Hostility and their Survival Cultural pluralism “What is Worth Knowing?” Mother-daughter relationship Desperately Seeking

Helen

“Her Mother” : Gender issues

What is the most important question the mother asks of her daughter? How does she find out the answer? (the daughter’s change 134; the question: 133; process of discovery: 141 - )

What makes the mother similar to our mothers?Which parts of the mother make her “traditional”

mother? What aspects of her are “feminist” and unconventional?

How is the mother related to the daughter and her husband?

“Her Mother” : Contradictory Gender identities “traditional” mother—

1. Motherly advice: Eat, Bathe, Oil your hair, stay with Indians, go meet the good buy.(pp. 131; 134)

2. Views about marriage & Concern with the two daughters’ (135; )

3. Her own dream and collections (132) “feminist” –

1. Rebellious thoughts pp.132; 142

2. teach the daughter independence

3. Views of her husband (135), Indian men and American culture (138)

“Her Mother” : Contradictory Gender identities (2)

How is the mother related to the daughter and her husband?

The daughter’s being closer to the father, p133; different feminist views p. 135

The husband’s double standard; his sense of betrayal p. 138

“Her Mother” : Cultural Issues

How does the mother and the father look at the U.S. and India differently? What are the mother’s stereotypical views of “Westerners”?

--Stereotypical views—not clean, divorce, and racism (134; 135 )

“Her Mother” : Gender + Culture Issues

The daughter’s hair-cutting and leaving: How does the mother get to understand the daughter?

Grief + memory Significant clues: midnight encounter,

Rapunzel, handkerchief; pinched look

Sisterhood and Mother-daughter bonding: can they be strong enough support in a society dominated by men?

Bharati MukherjeeBorn in Calcutta, India, in

1940, she grew up in a wealthy traditional family.

Went to America in 1961 to attend the Iowa’s Writers Workshop

Married Canadian author Clark Blaise in 1963, immigrated to Canada

Found life as a "dark-skinned, non-European immigrant to Canada" very hard and moved to the U.S.

Sees immigration as a process of reincarnation, breaking away (killing) from the roots.

“The Management of Grief”: Background

June 22nd., 1985 Air India flight 182, leaving from Montreal for India, exploded and crashed into the Atlantic ocean off the Coast of Ireland.

329 people died. Suspects: Two Sikh nationalists.

But investigation still goes on. Consequence: p. 162

Why is Canadian government criticized? 1. Indifference – seen as “foreign” affair; 2. Incompetence:

Canadian government already informed: In early 1985, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi was getting ready to visit North America. India asked Canada and the United States to keep close tabs on Sikh militants who might pose a security threat. Many Sikhs around the world were furious over the Indian Government's 1984 assault on the Golden Temple at Amritsar, Sikhism's holiest shrine.

One person, Talwinder Singh Parmar, was put under strict surveillance. But around the time of the explosion, he managed to go untapped and unnoticed.(source)

How is Canadian government criticized in the story?

Who else are criticized in the story?

“The Management of Grief”

First question:

What’re the meanings of the title?

“The Management of Grief”: Different Ways of Management

-- The narrator (Mrs. Shaila Bhave), p. 160, 164, 169, 170 --with apparent calmness, lives in memory, final release 174;

-- Pam, escapes, feeling neglected, wanting to go to California, and ends up serving Orientals. p. 161, 169, 174

-- Kusum, accept fate, 163, 164, 173 -- Dr. Ranganathan, another kind of escape, while

keeping the connection p. 169, 170, 174, final break 174 -- the elderly couple leave it to their god; insist on their

own way and believe themselves "strong."

“The Management of Grief”: Different Ways of Management

The Canadian government -- evasive 159, indifferent 160.

<--> Irish 163-164, 165, 166 giving flowers and showing sympathy

<--> Her parents: not blaming on the whole group of people because of some individuals 167 (Sheila’s own limitation: p. 171)

Judith Templeton--considers them ignorant, a mess.

“The Management of Grief”: Different Ways of Management

Two kinds of bureaucracies:

1. Custom officers; --his image 167

2. Judith– signing papers pp. 162; 170; 172

“The Management of Grief”: Different Ways of Management

Theory:

1. Rejection, 2. depression, (Depressed Acceptance) 3. Acceptance, 4. reconstruction (p. 170)

What is not considered?

Need to keep hope, 167;

Need time to go through the process of guilt/regret,

prefers ignorance, or their own versions p. 163

mourning process: searching, waiting.

Different cultures’ views of grief and mourning.

Immigrants and their Cultural Identities

Immigration and its Push and Pull factorsFive kinds of diaspora:

Victim (e.g. Jews, Africans, Armenians), Labour (e.g.Indian, Chinese), Trade (e.g.Chinese and Lebanese), Imperial (e.g.the British, etc.), Cultural/Economic diasporas (the

Caribbean).

Routes of Recent Migrations from Indian Subcontinent

Rushdie, Imtiaz Dharker (back to India)

Air India

H. Bannerji;

B. Mukherjee, India-- U.S. –Canada -- U.S. Sujata Bhatt India – U.S. -- Germany

A. AppachanaC. Divakaruni

B. Mukherjee, Sujata Bhatt

Immigrants and Cultural Identity

Possible Choices But do they have a choice? Assimilation the myth of melting pot;

self-hatred (Pam in M, second-generation) Separation/isolation Discrimination,

Exclusion (.g. the elderly couple in M) Hyphenation (In-Between positions)

Multiculturalism = Isolation or Ghettoization (Sheila p. 168)

Cultural Identity: Multiple Influences

N ation; Patriarchy父 系 社 會 國 家 機 器 e.g.Laws (b irth contro l)

意 識 形 態 Ideology; R acismN ational C ulture and Econom y

Personal Identity:C ultura l,G ender,

N ational, and O thers

BodyD esire and the U nconscious

Experience and Mem oryW ork and Education

Identity

Family and other social unitsFamily and other social units

“Her Mother”“Paki, go home.”

“Management”

Cultural Identity and Gender Identity: Issues Related to

South Asian American Women (1)Cultural Identity in between country of

origin and the host nation – potted plant, empty baggage, umbilical cord

buried in the host nation -- how/whether to look back -- hyphenated or not (e.g. B. Mukherjee–

refused to be hyphenated)

Experience of Racism: Visible Minorities

e.g. Sari, food, religion,

Cultural Identity and Gender Identity: Issues Related to SAAW

(2) Cultural Identity influenced by Sexism of both

places (“Her Mother”)Experience of Racism and Sexism Combined in

both places. e.g. “Her Mother” “Management”Racism:

can happen because of lack of understanding,

subtle ones in the questions, harsher ones in racist slurs

Individual institutionalized Intensify or weaker mother-daughter bonding and

sisterhood

Cultural Identity and Gender Identity: Issues Related to

South Asian American Women (3)Two mothers experience different kinds

of loss; Carry on what they cherish and are

given.

Cultural Identity and Gender Identity: Issues Related to

South Asian American Women (4)

Experience of Racism & need for resistance -- “Paki Go Home”

In-between positions and cultural pluralism: “We the Indian Women in America” & “What is Worth Knowing?”

Mother-daughter relationships -- “To Sylvia Plath”

Desperately Seeking Helenby Eisha Marjara

Helen, . . ., is a sign of rebellion. Only she is also a role model, a vamp (the opposite to heroine) who turns out to be a combination of mother figure and Eisha Marjara’s need for resistance.

Another example—from the daughter’s perspective

Desperately Seeking Helenby Eisha Marjara

"Helen was a larger than life figure, the icon of Indian cinema which is the world's largest dream factory. More than a movie star, she was a glittering figure of desire and playfulness, the mistress of a thousand disguises, yet always herself,'' avers the film-maker who has written, directed and enacted the lead role in the film. (source)