Desicritics Comments on What Is 'National Identity'?

Comment by DesiGirl

Mon, 6 Nov 2006 04:22:12 EST

Pallavi, Your post sounds a bit like the intro to the 'Media, Culture and Society' course offered by U of Essex!! "How do we come to terms with phenomena such as Thai boxing by Moroccan girls in Amsterdam, Asian rap in London, Irish bagels, Chinese tacos...or Mexican schoolgirls dressed in togas dancing in the style of Isodora Duncan?" http://www.essex.ac.uk/sociology/postgraduates/ma_mediacult.shtm

Comment by latinas

Mon, 6 Nov 2006 03:54:12 EST

Cool. With this site, my quest for Internet knowledge is for a short time over. Life is good again. http://isquare.com/personal_pages/PhotoAlbum/latina.html#latina

Comment by Pallavi

Thu, 2 Nov 2006 15:29:39 EST

Hi Temporal, Thanks for the comment. Whilst I agree that the language has lost its colonial undertones (and we have a right to use it now as our own), the cultural implications of it do still baffle me. Some things get lost in translation (idioms etc), but Indian English has certainly established itself despite that by creating new ways of filling the signifying gap.

Comment by temporal

Thu, 2 Nov 2006 14:38:10 EST

Pallavi: a very thoughtful and sobering post....(sigh)...with nary a comment... I would like to pick on this:

I am finding that my own writing keeps coming back to the issue of nationality. What I am trying to understand is the new kind of identity that is emerging from multi-culturalism: the multi-culturalism which influences the personal and political spaces of 'British Indians' or 'American Indians' or the like. Even now, we have to keep going back to the fact of colonisation to explain what kind of 'nationality' we represent. Culture is a better word, less loaded with territorial division, but in this context, culture is almost synonymous with nationhood.

relegate the impact of colonialism on (our) english for a moment ( I do think it is over-beaten and has lost significance)...much water has flown under the proverbial bridges... (in context of the language).... what was inherited at some time in the past is now adopted as the primary language...and imho any recent writing ought to be seen its cultural context more than its national context to reiterate above: all of these write/wrote in english – desani, lahiri, rushdi, mistry etc.... but to understand and critique them effectively their cultural orientation would yield greater critical depth