Gender Dysphoria and Gendered Diaspora: Love, Sex and Empire in Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies

Abstract

A central element of Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies is the manifestation of gender at sea, which distorts dualistic notions of domestic and commercial spheres of influence. The centrepiece of Ghosh's novel – a ship – seems initially presented as a predominately masculine and heteronormative space, but for the presence of a few Indian passengers en route to Mauritius. However, an examination of the social dynamics on board the Ibis reveals that both passengers and crew are engaged in a variety of attempts to utilize and express their gender and sexuality in ways that undermine the hegemonic narrative described by Celia Freeman, in which the sphere of international commerce is ‘masculinized’; for example, the manner in which members of the crew use gendered items of clothing to navigate their way around the enforcements of normativity, and create spaces in which gender and sexual fluidity are possible. The liminal, multicultural world of the sailboat opens up queer possibilities inaccessible on land due to the prevailing impositions of empire. Taking into account Jesse Ransley's claim that ‘the gendering of the maritime sphere as male, and the construction of male versus female… is modern, Western and dualistic’, I argue that Sea of Poppies is concerned with the ways that love, sexuality and gender effectively shape international politics and trade. Ghosh's depiction of the way romantic love operates within the world of nineteenth century maritime trade – specifically with regard to the character Baboo Nob Kissin – works at once to destabilize Western constructions of masculinity at sea, and to undermine assumptions of an innately secular Western queerness – assumptions Jasbir Puar dubs ‘homonationalism’, and denounces for their role in twisting the ideals of LGBT liberation to further the goals of empire.