Wandering Souls: The Predicament of Post-Colonial Identity in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss

• Main Authors: Ling-lian Hsu, 徐菱蓮
• Other Authors: Yau-ling Hsieh
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/35563872886344477772

碩士 === 東吳大學 === 英文學系   === 101 === This thesis is concerned with the predicament of postcolonial identity in terms of the themes of race, class, and gender in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss. It has always been an intractable issue for postcolonial subjects to seek for a fixed identity in the context of postcolonial and globalized period. In the novel, Desai utilizes her insightful observation to illustrate how the so-called civilization becomes a catalyst to trigger the natives’ sense of rootlessness and estrangement from their origins, and how their identity are shattered by the obsession with the myth of whiteness. This thesis is divided into five chapters, focusing on the predicament in constructing self-identity and subjectivity by viewing a coterie of western-oriented postcolonial subjects who are trapped between the Western and the native culture. In Chapter One, a brief introduction to the motivation of the thesis, the author and the summary of the novel, and the theories applied to the thesis will be given. The second chapter, by means of Fanon’s postcolonial psychoanalysis theory, aims at examining the predicament of searching for a white identity in the West by analyzing two leading characters, Judge Jemubhai and Biju. In Chapter Three, concept of “subalterns” derived from Spivak will be applied to examine the class conflicts between the privileged group and the underprivileged group both in India and the West. Then, in Chapter Four, the radical feminist thought, especially Kate Millett’s ideas, will be employed to scrutinize how patriarchy has conditioned women to be submissive and inferior to men. Besides, Spviak’s notion of “subaltern” will also be applied to examine how patriarchy and imperialism make the colored women become the double minority. The conclusion will reintegrate the themes of race, class and gender discussed in previous chapters.