Date: Fri, 06 Dec 1996 09:45:52 +1000 From: Julia Ravell <jravell-AT-looksmart.com> Subject: Re: migrant literature > > Liam, I was interested in this book and am going to try and > get to it - > > I'm looking at Sri lankan poco expatriate writers andam > currently > > struggling with the notion that expat writers (Ondaatje, > Selvadurai, > > Gunesekera, Yasmine Gooneratne et al) all middleclass > elites somehow > > manage to present a *less* truthful account of SL than the > people who > > stayed behind (also English educated elites). I've been > keeping the > > shattered mirrors metaphor in kind, but now a couple of > colleagues I was > > talking to are suggesting that perhaps the expatriates too > have their own > > *truths* (I've been trying to work out how emigration made > a difference, > > going into the homeland/identity/etc suitcases. Any > thoughts you have > > will be much appreciated. Tina > > Liam Connell > > ________________________________________ > Liam,The point you raise about essentialism and its relation to "authenticity" comes up frequnetly in p-col discussions and I think deserves some further comments since oppositional politics often rely on essentialised notions of identity. Spivak's point about "strategic essentialism" acknowledges both the difficulties of basing identity on homogenised/reified categories such as race, gender, class, ethnicity etc and the necessity of such categories as a means of combatting oppression. Rey Chow also has some interesting things to say about "endangered authenticities" and "invented histories" (see also Eric Hobsbawn) mobilised by pcol authors and their role in maintaining binarist models of subjectivity. Related questions are, Who has the right to speak for the (post)colonial subject? What ideological function does "truth" perform in the narratives Christina's investigating, and in Orientalist historiographies in general? I hope this adds something. cheers, Julia Ravell, Uni of Melbourne. --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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