In the wake of the steady expansion and more recent explosion of Anglo-Indian and Indo-Anglian writing, and following the success of Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, the literature of the Indian diaspora has become the object of close attention. As a body of literature, it simultaneously represents an important multicultural perspective within individual 'national' literatures (such as those of Canada or Australia) as well as a more global perspective taking in the phenomena of transculturalism and diaspora. However, while readers may share an interest in the writing of the Indian diaspora, they do not always interpret the notion of 'Indian diaspora' in the same way. Indeed, there has been much debate in recent years about the appropriateness of terms such as diaspora and exile. Should these terms be reserved for the specifically historical nature of problems encountered in the process of acquiring new nationality and citizenship, or can they be extended to the writing of literature itself or used to describe 'economic' migration arising out of privilege?
As a response to these debates, Shifting Continents/Colliding Cultures explores the aftermath of British colonialism on the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, including the resulting diaspora. The essays also examine zones of intersection between theories of postcolonial writing and models of diaspora and the nation. Particular lines of investigation include: how South-Asian identity is negotiated in Western spaces, and its reverse, how Western identity is negotiated in South-Asian space; reading identity by privileging history; the role of diasporic women in the (Western) nation; how diaspora affects the literary canon; and how diaspora is used in the production of alternative identities in films such as Gurinder Chadha's Bhaji on the Beach.
Contents: Introduction. Ralph J. CRANE & Radhika MOHANRAM: Constructing the Diasporic Body. Ralph J. CRANE: "Who ... am ... I?" Displacement and identity in Leena Dhingra's Amritvela. Chandani LOKUGÉ: "We must laugh at one another, or die". Yasmine Gooneratne's A Change of Skies and South-Asian migrant identities. Satendra NANDAN: Migration, Dispossession, Exile and the Diasporic Consciousness. The body politic of Fiji. Nilufer E. BHARUCHA: Imaging the Parsi Diaspora. Narratives on the wings of fire. Susheila NASTA: Homes Without Walls. South-Asian writing in Britain. Debjani GANGULY: Transgressing Sacred Visions. Taslima, Rushdie and the Indian subcontinent. C. VIJAYASREE: Alter-Nativity, Migration, Marginality and Narrative. The case of Indian women writers settled in the West. Zohreh T. SULLIVAN: Managing Migrancy. Narratives of exile and diaspora from Aimé Césaire to Bharati Mukherjee. Susan SPEARY: Shifting Continents/Colliding Cultures. Spatial odysseys in diaspora writing. Radhika MOHANRAM: Postcoloniality and the Canon. Bharati Mukherjee's The Holder of the World. R. RAJ RAO: "Because most people marry their own kind". A reading of Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy. Jane ROSCOE: From Bombay to Blackpool. The construction of Indian femininity in Bhaji on the Beach. Isabel SANTAOLALLA: Cinematic Journeys to Insular England. Horace Ové's Playing Away and Gurinder Chadha's Bhaji on the Beach. Afterword. Makarand PARANJAPE: What About Those Who Stayed Back Home? Interrogating the privileging of diasporic writing. Works Cited. Notes on Contributors.
As a response to these debates, Shifting Continents/Colliding Cultures explores the aftermath of British colonialism on the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka, including the resulting diaspora. The essays also examine zones of intersection between theories of postcolonial writing and models of diaspora and the nation. Particular lines of investigation include: how South-Asian identity is negotiated in Western spaces, and its reverse, how Western identity is negotiated in South-Asian space; reading identity by privileging history; the role of diasporic women in the (Western) nation; how diaspora affects the literary canon; and how diaspora is used in the production of alternative identities in films such as Gurinder Chadha's Bhaji on the Beach.
Contents: Introduction. Ralph J. CRANE & Radhika MOHANRAM: Constructing the Diasporic Body. Ralph J. CRANE: "Who ... am ... I?" Displacement and identity in Leena Dhingra's Amritvela. Chandani LOKUGÉ: "We must laugh at one another, or die". Yasmine Gooneratne's A Change of Skies and South-Asian migrant identities. Satendra NANDAN: Migration, Dispossession, Exile and the Diasporic Consciousness. The body politic of Fiji. Nilufer E. BHARUCHA: Imaging the Parsi Diaspora. Narratives on the wings of fire. Susheila NASTA: Homes Without Walls. South-Asian writing in Britain. Debjani GANGULY: Transgressing Sacred Visions. Taslima, Rushdie and the Indian subcontinent. C. VIJAYASREE: Alter-Nativity, Migration, Marginality and Narrative. The case of Indian women writers settled in the West. Zohreh T. SULLIVAN: Managing Migrancy. Narratives of exile and diaspora from Aimé Césaire to Bharati Mukherjee. Susan SPEARY: Shifting Continents/Colliding Cultures. Spatial odysseys in diaspora writing. Radhika MOHANRAM: Postcoloniality and the Canon. Bharati Mukherjee's The Holder of the World. R. RAJ RAO: "Because most people marry their own kind". A reading of Shyam Selvadurai's Funny Boy. Jane ROSCOE: From Bombay to Blackpool. The construction of Indian femininity in Bhaji on the Beach. Isabel SANTAOLALLA: Cinematic Journeys to Insular England. Horace Ové's Playing Away and Gurinder Chadha's Bhaji on the Beach. Afterword. Makarand PARANJAPE: What About Those Who Stayed Back Home? Interrogating the privileging of diasporic writing. Works Cited. Notes on Contributors.