Suicide and Transformative Agency in Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance

• 발행기관: 한국영미어문학회
• 저자명: Sukjoo Sohn
• 간행물 정보: 『영미어문학』영미어문학 제118호, 127~142쪽, 전체 16쪽
• 주제분류: 어문학 > 영어와문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2015.09.30

영문 초록

This paper explores the ways in which Maneck’s suicide in Rohinton Mistry’s novel, A Fine Balance works as a viable strategy for resisting and transforming the hegemonic order of postcolonial India. Rather than a mere sequence or repetition of events, Maneck’s death on the railway establishes a critical point of grounding and creates the metaphorical effects of a new community. The highlight of this research is to illustrate how oppression or abjection can be transformed into a mode of agency in the circulatory, recursive structure of transgression and protest. To that end, by arguing the importance of strategic essentialism coupled with everyday practice I emphasize the need to problematize the dominant concept of space and time so as to explore the potential reterritorialization of space and the repossession of time. Among others, I draw attention to how a carnivalesque gathering in Dina’s kitchen following Maneck’s suicide serves as a powerful metaphor for reasserting a place within the governing space. To explore suicide as a mode of resistance and transformation, I appropriate the theories of Bhaktin, Foucault, Bhabha, Ashcroft, and de Certeau.

목차

1. Introduction

2. Returning and Agency

3. Carnivalesque Subversion and Reterritorialization

4. Remembering and Rebirth

5. Conclusion

키워드

Rohinton Mistry A Fine Balance suicide agency reterritorialization carnivalesque returning postcolonial