The Jahaji-Bhain Principle: A Critical Survey of the Indo-Caribbean Women’s Novel, 1990-2009  

Oleh:

Pirbhai, Mariam

Jenis: Article from Article
Dalam koleksi: The Journal of Commonwealth Literature vol. 45 no. 1 (Mar. 2010), page 37-56.
Topik: Indo-Caribbean literature; Caribbean women writers; Indian diaspora; jahaji-bhai; jahaji-bhain; indenture history; feminist poetics
Fulltext: The Jahaji-Bhain Principle-A Critical.pdf (193.82KB)

Isi artikel

This paper provides the first critical survey of the Indo-Caribbean women’s novel, a distinct sub-genre which now spans approximately two decades. The survey examines the way these novels critically map the trajectory of Indo-Caribbean women’s lives from the moment of colonial servitude to the post-colonial present, through highly individuated expressions of Indian female subjectivity, in a context where sexual and racial politics have so often overdetermined women’s lives. It anchors its discussion of these novels in the feminist poetics of the “jahaji-bhain principle of affiliation”, which advocates a more fluid and racially inclusive application of the ethics of community epitomized by jahaji-hood, a traditionally male-dominant and ethnocentric system of inter-relation borne out of the history of indentureship. Writers discussed include those who have published several or more works in the genre – namely Lakshmi Persaud, Jan Shinebourne, Shani Mootoo and Oonya Kempadoo – as well as first-time novelists Ramabai Espinet, Joy Mahabir, Niala Maharaj, Narmala Shewcharan, Ryhaan Shah and Andrea Gunraj.

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