Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 10:11 EDT
Subject: reference for kureishi;hindu-muslim conflict; east is east


The reference for Kureishi's essay on growing up in England during the days
of Enoch is the intro to the collection of his two plays. the book is titled

My Beautiful Laundrette and The Rainbow Sign

pub. Faber and Faber

isbn ; 0-571-13981-7

In terms of Josna's comment about Pakistan being evoked in the 30's. It
could be an error (which probably it is) but in the spirit of "mistaken"
readings (as proposed by Spivak) one could do a lot with this (mis)placed
evocation of a nation not yet a nation in terms of immigrants rewriting
history nostalgically. The shock of disrecognition forced upon us by the
knowledge that Pakistan did not exist as a place in the 30's may force us to
consider the legacy of communal conflict that predates the partition and
and reexamine the whole issue of secular India and the failure of a
Nehruvian socialism.


As for the gay brother etc the film even as it evokes South Asian immigrant
generational conflict also plays with late 60's-70's Britain pop culture
which came out in the dress and music. Very Kureishian I thought in some ways.

At the risk of tooting my own horn--I talk a lot about the rise and force of
a "Hindu" India in my book titled "En-Gendering india: Woman and Nation in
Colonial and Postcolonial Narratives" that came out of Duke University in
June. Its in paperback and if you cannot patronize local bookstores its
avaialable at amazon.com.



Sangeeta RAY
Associate Professor
Dept. of English
Univ. of Maryland
College Park MD 20740
Email:Sangeeta_RAY-AT-umail.umd.edu (sr42)
Phone: 301-405-3807


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