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FUNNY BOY(2): QUEERING POSTCOLONIAL SRI LANKA

FUNNY BOY(2): QUEERING POSTCOLONIAL SRI LANKA. Small Choices. See No Evil, Hear No Evil. Shyam Selvadurai. Outline. Introduction: Queering as intersection (of Gender, Race Colonial & National identities) Discussion Questions See No Evil, Hear No Evil Small Choices.

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FUNNY BOY(2): QUEERING POSTCOLONIAL SRI LANKA

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  1. FUNNY BOY(2): QUEERING POSTCOLONIAL SRI LANKA Small Choices See No Evil, Hear No Evil Shyam Selvadurai

  2. Outline • Introduction: Queering as intersection (of Gender, Race Colonial & National identities) • Discussion Questions • See No Evil, Hear No Evil • Small Choices

  3. Introduction: Narrative Continuity thru’ Fragments 1) Settings: home grandma’s house, theatre, hotel (Paradise Beach Resort) & country bungalow, Jeffna, Europe & Australia 2) Gender + Race Positions: Aunt Radha, mother, Uncle Daryl, Jegan, servant boy, staff members at the hotel 3) authorities: Grandma, Husband, A.S.P., hotel owner/government, lawyer, Sinhala as a sign of power

  4. Introduction: Narrative Continuity thru’ Fragments 4) Queered games: bride-bride, cricket game (1, 2) weddings, marriage, The King & I, hotel management, Little Women

  5. Introduction: Narrative Continuity thru’ Fragments • Politics & Language: • anti-Tamil riots as a main plot elements in chap 2, chap 4 (close to home), • government dictatorship in chap 3 (vs. Gandhians and the Tigers) • Game of invisibility[hiring their own people] P. 169 “ But we are a minority,and that' s a fact of 1ife,”my father said placatingly. “As a Tamil you have to learn how to play the game. Play it right and you can do very well for yourself. The trick is not to make yourself conspicuous. Go around quietly, make your money, and don't step on anyone's toes."

  6. Discussion Questions • Meanings of the titles? (137; 172) • “See No Evil, Hear No Evil”: How is the patriarchal family structure queered (broken and then re-established)? How is trauma introduced into this story? • “Small Choices”: How does Arjie develop his homosexual desire in this chapter; how is his family queered (extended to include Jegan, who is first well connected with both the father and Arjie, and then quickly excluded). Why? • What roles do racial conflicts & riots play in each part? • How does Arjie grow through the two chapters? • What role does journalism play in the 3rd & 4th stories, and hotel business play in the 4th?

  7. See No Evil, Hear No Evil

  8. Responses to the affair & death • Mother’s responses • Problems in Jeffna 118; Aunt Neliya’s warning 121; servant boy 127; A.S.P. 129-30; “something must be done” 133; 137 2) Arjie’s responses: • Fear: of discovery 114; of Daryl’s safety; phone being tapped 140; • sympathy 141; anger you are so selfish 144-45’ 148-49 3) References to Little Women 4) Endings of the first four chapters?

  9. Little Women • Seen as books for girls, but uncle Daryl gives him more of its series • Arjie’s dreams – • [leaving country house] Amma-Jo; him-Beth 115, fear of disclosure • [before going to Appadurai] Arjie – Jo; Amma – Beth 134, • [after the visit to the servant boy ] Amma & Arjie by the sea: facing a towering wave

  10. “Small Choices” • Hotels: • With the poor living around them • “other natural resource (167)

  11. “Small Choices”

  12. Hotel Business in free economy • “It's not just our luscious beaches that keep the tourist industry going, you know. We have other natural resources as well.“ (166-67) • The bottom levels in society: the boys on the beach, the servant boy at Daryl’s

  13. Jegan’s Joining the Family • resemblance to his father 154 • Evening drinks 160: father talked about his past • Defending Arjie 162 • Jegan and Arjie: jogging or walking to the beach together • Jegan tells him of his past with the Tigers 171-72

  14. Jegan’s Leaving the Family • Differences from the father • about posting political propaganda about referendum 163- 165 Jegan fighting (father: discreet; Arjie: admiring and uneasy) • about being Tamil: father “play the game” “not to make yourself conspicuous”) • suspects Jegan’s connections with Tigers; the father takes him to the police 173; Father “don’t be so sure about that” 177 • Newspaper report  hate note and phone calls  F wants to send Jegan away  sided with his other staff (185)

  15. Arjie’s Changes • further distanced from his siblings • used as an excuse for the mother’s meeting Uncle Daryl • close observation and companion of mother (as is with Aunt Radha) • physical changes 157; excited about Jegan’s living with them; finds him “investing the house with something extraordinary” • Jogging with him everyday • As Jegan is about to be sent away, he calls Arjie “just a boy” –200-01 • Understand his father (202-203)

  16. REFERENCE (1): Oberoi Hotel = Cinnamon Grand

  17. References • Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature Malashri Lal, Sukrita Paul Kumar Pearson Education India, 2007 • Impossible Desires: Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures Gayatri Gopinath Duke University Press, 2005

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