Language & Intercultural Communication
Editor: Dr John Corbett (University of Glasgow)
Associate Editor: Robert Crawshaw (Lancaster University)
Reviews and Criticism Editor: Dr Fiona J. Doloughan (University of Surrey)
Editorial Board: Gavin Jack (University of Stirling)
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Volume: 4 Number: 1&2 Page: 60–67
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The Paradox of Cultural Self-representation in Paule Marshall's Praisesong For The Widow
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Olabode Ibironke
Department of English, Michigan State University, USA
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In this paper, I examine how Paule Marshall's Praisesong For The Widow, fictionalizes ‘migrations of the subject’. I argue that Praisesong explores the threshold between displacement, exile and prodigality. The paradox elaborated in this analysis is located precisely in how self-questioning ends up in self-affirmation; how conceptualisations of multiple subjectivities: migration or diaspora-isation decentre the subject, but also reinvents ‘the coveted “private” realm’ or home ‘as the zone of “noninterference” that is off-limits’. Dans cette étude, j'analyse la façon dont la ‘migration du sujet’ estretranscrite de manière fictionnelle dans Praisesong for the Widow de Paule Marshall. Je démontre comment Praisesong explore la rencontre entre les notions de déplacement, d'exil et de reniement. Le paradoxe élaboré danscette analyse se situe précisément dans la façon dont le questionnement desoi devient affirmation de soi, dont la conceptualisation de subjectivités multiples (migration ou diaspora) décentre le sujet, mais réinvente par lamême “le domaine ‘privé’ désiré” ou terre natale ‘comme zone de “non-interférence” qu'il faut préserver.’
Keywords: subjectivity, migration, home, narrative, intercultural, postcolonial
© 2004 O. Ibironke
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