Immigrant Ghosts and Haunted Heritages in Rani Manicka’s The Rice Mother

Abstract

ABSTRACT In Malaysia, even the ghosts are transnational. Rani Manicka’s 2002 debut novel The Rice Mother follows the intergenerational narratives of a diasporic Ceylonese family in Malaysia. As they reflect on the atrocities of the Second World War and Japanese Occupation – notably the abduction and presumed murder of the eldest daughter, Mohini, by Japanese soldiers – each family member shares their haunted relationship with Mohini’s ghost. While Avery Gordon and Kathleen Brogan have examined how hauntings can characterize social or ethnic loss, Mohini’s hauntings are unique to the Ceylonese diaspora in Malaysia. In addition to the family members encountering her ghost through dreams – significant connections to the spiritual world in Hindu mythology – Mohini’s character is inspired by the mohini pey, a legendary ghost from Southern India and Sri Lanka. However, the discrepancy between mohini the ghost and Mohini the character interrogates the malleability of memory across generations. How might hauntings – manifestations of the traumatic past – change as generations evolve and reaffiliate cultural memory over time? Drawing on Marianne Hirsch’s concept of postmemory, this paper examines the family’s evolving relationship with Mohini’s ghost and argues that the residual power of diasporic heritage inherited through storytelling provides a path for generational healing in a new homeland.