LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 10 : 1 January 2010
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         K. Karunakaran, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.

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Displaced Diasporic Identities -
A Case Study of Mordecai Richler's
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

J. Samuel Kirubahar, M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed., Ph.D.
Ms. Beulah Mary Rosalene, M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil.

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down,
Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion … (Psalm 137:1)

The heartrending theme of the Diasporic identity had its recorded origin in these verses in the Book of Psalms, and continues down the ages of the history of mankind. The Jewish Diaspora has seen an endless progression and the scattered Jews contribute to the literary world, the meaning of this deep concept.

Closer home, a great modern Tamil poet, Subramania Bharathi, wrote a passionate poem in 1920's depicting the hard living conditions of Tamil migrants to the sugar plantations in the Fiji Islands.

M. K. Gandhi, long before he came to be known Mahatma, submitted his resolutions to the 1901 Indian National Congress session in Calcutta support of the Indian Diaspora in South Africa and elsewhere. In every nation in this world, there is always concern expressed about the conditions of their own diaspora (http://www.languageinindia.com/april2005/earlygandhi1.html)

Diaspora and Location of Cultures

Homi K. Babha in his book Location of Cultures echoes this when he writes about 'the great history of the languages and landscapes of migration and Diaspora' where the new identity is born.

The literature on the subject of the migrants, the colonised or the political refugees could take on the mission of dislocating conventional ways of accepted wisdom about the world and discovering the hybridity, and the divergence that exists within.

Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz explores the life of Duddy in a diasporic location. Living in a borrowed culture the character needs to know who he is, where he is and where he stands in that specific location. The rigidity between local, regional and diasporic identities is vital to Richler's writings.

The Idea of Home

There is a need to probe deeper into the idea of home to establish a diasporic identity.

1. What is the idea of 'home' for migrants who live far from the land of their birth and their ancestors?

2. Does the migrant occupy a displaced position?

3. What are the transformations wrought by the experience of migrancy?

4. Does it bring fragmentation, discontinuity and displacement for the migrant?

5. What about the less tangible matters of beliefs, traditions, customs, behaviours and values.

This paper explores the work of fiction by Mordecai Richler with reference to these observations.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Linguistic Purism and Language Planning in a Multilingual Context | The Problems of Teaching/Learning Tenses | Language and Literature: An Exposition - Papers Presented in Karunya University International Seminar | Similes in Meghduta - The Absolute Craftsmanship in Language | Culture of the Tamil Society as Portrayed in Ponniyin Selvan | Deconstructing Human Society: An Appreciation of Amitav Ghosh's Sea Of Poppies | Enabling Students to Interpret Literary Texts Independently by Enhancing their Vocabulary | Coping with the Problems of Mixed Ability Students | Displaced Diasporic Identities - A Case Study of Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz | English Language Teaching in Developing Countries Error Analysis and Remedial Teaching Methods - An Overview | Diaspora Literature - A Hybrid or a Hybridized Product? | Anita Desai's Journey To Ithaca - A Manifestation of Vedantic Knowledge | A Study on the Physiological, Psychological and Spiritual Perspectives of Different Selves in a Self with Special Reference to Yann Martel's SELF | Conveniences and Complexities of Computer-Aided Language Learning | The Danger Lurking Within: The African American Woman in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye | Practices and Paradigms of Using Multimedia and Language Laboratory for Teaching Communication Skills to Technical Students | English: A Blessing in Disguise - A Study of Chinua Achebe's Technique of Hybridization | Language Teaching - The Present Day Challenges | Is Literature a Viable Medium for ESL Acquisition? | The Lord of The Rings : Galadriel, The Light Of Middle-Earth | Teaching Reading - A Challenge in Itself | The Silent Way | Translator as Reader: Phenomenology and Text Reception - An Investigation of Indulekha | The Dysfunctional Women in Mary Gordon'sThe Other Side | Utopia and Dystopia, Conflict Between Two Extremes - An Appraisal of Anita Desai's Cry, The Peacock | Reading 'god' Backwards | The Comic Vision in the Stories and Sketches of R.K.Narayan | My Responses to The English Teacher | 'Fall from Grace into Grief': Putting into Perspective the Outrages of Terrorism in Salman Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown | Style and Language in M. G. Vassanji's The Assassin's Song | Affirmation of Life in Lloyd C. Douglas' Magnificent Obsession | Effectiveness of Group Investigation Model and Simulation Model in Teaching English | A Mathematical Treatment of Feministic Literature for the Prediction of Social Trends | Multiple Intelligences and Second Language Learning | Amitav Ghosh's The Circle Of Reason - A Study of Diaspora | The Role of Multimedia in Teaching Writing in English | A PRINT VERSION OF ALL THE PAPERS OF JANUARY 2010 ISSUE IN BOOK FORMAT | HOME PAGE of January 2010 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR

J. Samuel Kirubahar, M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed., Ph.D.
Research Centre in English
V.H.N.S.N College
Virudhunagar
Tamilnadu, India

Ms. Beulah Mary Rosalene, M.A., M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil.
Department of English (Shift I)
Loyola College
Chennai - 34
Tamilnadu, India

 
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