from Colonialism-Postcolonialism
(Routledge, 1998)
by Ania Loomba
I feel that one of the most important points that Loomba raises in the article is the arbitrary nature of social classification. The quote from Stuart Hall is very interesting: "the black subject and black experience are... [also] constructed historically, culturally, politically." Although it seems like a simple statement, it has so many implications in terms of how we look at "race." Loomba writes,
"The term 'ethnicity' has dominantly been used to indicate biologically and culturally stable identities, but Hall asks us to decouple it from its imperial, racist or nationalist deployment and to appropriate it to designate identity as a constructed process rather than a given essence"
The push towards "process" seems to be a fundamental step in reshaping the way that people view difference. It really makes me wonder about the state of post-apartheid poetry, since poetry is quite good for dealing with issues of process and liminality. I will have to read some of the South African poets!
The end of My Son's
Story, with the switch in genre from prose to poetry, is interesting in
terms of process and "in-betweenness." Ending in poetry, a more
accessible form of writing during the struggle, Gordimer draws attention to the
different functions of poetry and prose. In class we discussed how prose
requires space, a "room of one's own." I like the idea this book
being something that Will "can't publish" because it cannot represent
identity. The family's coloured identity is not stable.
When we find out at the end that the entire story was
constructed through Will's eyes, it changes the meaning of identity in the
book. Loomba criticises Bhabha's idea that a hybrid identity is automatically
subversive (177). I think that Gordimer also addresses this issue through the
political activism in the novel. The black freedom fighters don't fully trust
Sonny because he is coloured and
associated with the whites. This idea of "in-betweenness" is
complicated, as Loomba shows:
"The point, then is not to simply pit the themes of
migrancy, exile and hybridity against rootedness, nation and authenticity, but
to locate and evaluate their ideological, political and emotional valencies, as
well as their intersections in the multiple histories of colonialism and
postcoloniality" (183).
The coloured identity embodies liminality.