Between the Home and the World

• Main Authors: Sheng-peng Wu, 吳聖鵬
• Other Authors: Ping-hui Liao
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2001
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/55419649872445684823

碩士 === 國立清華大學 === 外國語文學系 === 89 === Since a certain degree of imitation of alien ways seems to be unavoidable, could this wave of imitation be allowed to enter our homes? Would that not destroy our inner identity? In this thesis, I wish to explore the identity problems of the diasporic intellectuals. How do the mentally diasporic intellectuals, who have already trespassed the borderlines between native/foreign, home/world, or self/other, form their own hybrid identity in the bilingual or multilateral social milieu? In current epoch of globalization, shall we still draw the line between the home and the world? Grounding on the discussions and intricate phases of Satyajit Ray's The Home and the World, I will further investigate these border-crossing problems along with the reflections of the postcolonial critics upon their frequently questioned loyalty to their countries. Adopting Partha Chatterjee's brief model upon the home/world division, I will try to examine the identity politics that challenge the characters in this film, the filmmaker Satyajit Ray, and the film reviewers as well. On the growing trend of global capitalism today, we can hardly suppress the exotic influences exerted over us. The formation of the world market was dominated by the economies and cultures of powerful nation-states, and we suffer increasingly from a process of historical amnesia. Would Partha Chatterjee's model solve the knotty problems of the diasporic or multilingual intellectuals? How do other postcolonial critics regard their own identity problems? In this essay, I will try to delve into more detailed discussions and reflections upon this issue. To move deeper into further discussions, I will divide my thesis as follows. In the introductory chapter, I would deal with the historical and social background of the Swadeshi Movement, review some critical essays about Satyajit Ray's The Home and the World, and protrude the significance of this film. I would also demonstrate the major issues that would be investigated in the later parts of this essay. In the second chapter, I will adopt Karen Horney's model of the neurotic traits in her book, Neurosis and Human Growth, to analyze the unusual behaviors of Bimala, Sandip, and Nikhil in this film. Starting out from the inner battlefield of mankind, I wish to explore the mentality of the characters first from a probably universal analytic angle, and to reveal the inner spiritual diaspora as one's real self alienates from his/her ideal self. In the third chapter, I will take the stand of Partha Chatterjee as a pivot to turn around. Grounding on the social milieu of the Swadeshi movement presented in The Home and the World, I wish to delve into the intricate phases of patriotism, racial discrimination, and the mental status of the characters, filmmaker, and the film reviewers from the postcolonial perspective. Comparing Chatterjee's model in his The Nation and Its Fragments with the other self-defensive essays written by the diasporic intellectuals, we could move further on to the main problematic of the this thesis: how do we draw the line between self/other, or home/world? In the fourth chapter, we would further go on with the formation of one's self-identity. Paul Gilroy's perspective in his "British Cultural Studies and the Pitfalls of Identity" will be adopted to support my arguments. The problem of how to receive the authorization to represent the whole community will be explored. Could a person accuse another member in the same community as a traitor? Is there anyone qualified to do so? Is the accusation truth or simply a valid claim? We will continue with the relationship between woman and nation in this chapter. We will try to examine how the colonizers and the colonized "worship" the Third World females, and the postcolonial nationalist's as well as feminist's strategies of survival. In the concluding chapter, we will reexamine the conflicts between the home and the world. Regarding the cinema industry as a more powerful tool of print-capitalism (Benedict Anderson's term), how do we find the best way out of this dilemma between globalization and localization? How do we form "our own" imagined community today? Last but not the least, I wish to institute a synthetic survey of how a group of people bear the sense of attachment to each other and generate the idea of forming a community, and "love it."