The short story form in allowing the possibility of presenting a ‘slice of life’ is significant with respect to the comparison of diasporas. It provides evidence of further signifiers of the 'continuous process of identification’ (Stuart Hall, Cultural Identity and Diaspora) especially in the consideration of lives in a post-immigration phase; early diaspora studies concentrating on presenting transoceanic identities based on significant ‘nodes’ of the past give way to focussing upon the present states of realising the falsity of hopes of a better future. In this respect, representation of a ‘slice of life’ in the cityscape offers a voyeuristic gaze into efforts to cope (or the inability to cope) with the realisation of this futility.
Dionne Brand’s Blossom- Priestess of Oya, Goddess of Winds, Storms and Waterfall provides a crucible of such emotions; it’s scope widened by the presence of a female protagonist creating a bifocal perspective: Blossom is not only an immigrant and a part of the wider cultural identity of the ‘black Atlantic’, but she also searches for self sufficiency against the challenges of gender based oppressions. Her repeated failures in her efforts at adjusting to the ‘rational’ society leads to an imagining of a Dionysian alter ego which in turn is created through a reawakening of memories of a forgotten culture and its language: “Oya was a big spirit Blossom known from home.”
The image of Oya itself contrasts the state of limbo with an unshackling of the body and spirit to find a ‘power to feel pain and the power to heal’. This juxtaposition of the Apollonian and the Dionysian states is observed in the breakdown of the short story structure in itself; the static structure of prose is commingled with semblance of performance poetry that can be traced to the voices in the poems of Una Marson and Louise Bennet. Therefore, language as the instrument of translating reality and as a repository of culture is observed as well. Both Blossom’s persona and the form of the short story undergo a metamorphosis to accommodate the memories of culture and her refashioning of the self on the lines of her ancestry. It allows a 'double consciousness' (W.E.B Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk) balancing the Apollonian and the Dionysian strands so that the immigrant woman can make sense her hyphenated identity as a part of ‘rational’ modernity and as an heir to the ‘black Atlantic’ cultural identity.
Austin Clarke’s Canadian Experience presents the other side- the inability to accommodate oneself, resulting in a complete subversion of the spatial-temporal flow wherein the clock itself serves the function of a mere reminder of futility. In the preference given to the pronoun ‘he’ rather than a definite name is enmeshed the proof of shredding of notions of a definitive identity. The frequent references to his laugh itself echoes out of darkest corners of existential pathos, while the attempts to mould a ‘white mask’ perspective with his ‘black skin’ only aggravates the dark humour . Within the state of limbo, the only companion he has is an actress: both linked by the common factor of ‘decrepitude’ and failure, resulting in a larger common identity of their own. In fact, the dark humour coupled with his warm memories creates a twilight moment at six-thirty and is followed by a characteristically modernist twist; the fact that Pat finds a job creates a sensation of feeling betrayed, of being left alone in the bubble world of their rooms that can no longer contain the darkness growing within him. Hence, he performs the ‘act’ of throwing her out of his life until the leitmotif of the laugh of existential pathos overcomes him, merging the darkness within him with the light of the oncoming train.
This element of nihilism serves as a signifier in the process of identification, stretching the cultural identity of the Canadian-Caribbean immigrants and the ‘black Atlantic’ identity to a larger web that encompasses the ‘girmit consciousness’ (Vijay Mishra, The Girmit Ideology Reconsidered) of the Fiji-Indian diaspora. In this respect, Subramani’s Marigolds provides a ‘slice of life’ that allows a comparison with the short stories of Dionne Brand and Austin Clarke; Blossoms attempts to realign herself with reality can be juxtaposed with the protagonist’s efforts at creating a garden of utopia to escape the pains of rationality, while the protagonist of Austin Clarke’s short story could certainly have voiced the expressions of a ‘pathetic freedom’ and the search for ‘diurnal sounds that signal the passage of hours.’ It is also significant to note the in spite of the unity of content, the three short stories bear a diversity of perspectives: the third person narrative of Dionne Brand and Austin Clarke’s stories offer a contrast to the first person narrative of Subramani’s Marigolds.
The marigolds serve as a physical substitute for imaginary notions of escape into a utopia -the ‘girmit consciousness’ or “falsification of reality… (which) was necessary to keep the psychic totality of these displaced Indians intact” (Vijay Mishra) .That Dharma does not accept the marigold together with the speaker’s failure to raise a garden represent the breakdown of all essential communication and the shattering of hopes of sharing and nourishing the imaginary utopia- an escape from the persistent state of dystopia. Subramani pulls the voyeur into the personal spaces of their relation, focussing on the inner world of consciences and the silent chaos raging within it; in order to distinguish between dreams and real existence, the actions of the protagonist seek a confirmation of being alive in the sights, sounds and sensations of a wasteland coupled with a struggle to articulate resulting in anguish and anger. Whether the anguish arises from the inherited nihilism as children of indentured labour ("everything, history and customs, had prepared me for this impasse") or whether it is a self-deception akin to figure of the 'angry young man' cannot be accurately apprehended. Nevertheless, both have their sources in the state of limbo, a ‘hopeless gulf’, that is also shared and experienced by Blossom and the identity-less character of the two other short stories. Moreover, Subramani’s short story throws up the significant question of new margins for the consideration of a larger cultural identity based on post-immigration mindscapes.
Moinak Choudhury
PG 1
No comments:
Post a Comment