Abstract
“Border” beyond its geographical logic becomes a topic of discussion in the transnational studies from the late twentieth century which challenges the established notion of the nation-state. The rhetoric of border as Anzaldua (1987) calls “borderlands” and “Nueva Conciencia Mestiza” allow transnational feminists to enter into the new discourse to re-think the terms such as nation, homeland and border in a transnational writing. Fundamentally using the transnational and feminist approach, the paper will look into the negotiation of un/belongingness of a South Asian, transnational brown woman between the “imagined homelands” through a fictional novel French Lover (2002) written by Taslima Nasreen. In this piece of study, the term “imagined homeland” is an experiment but at the same time, it explains the meaning of the space which this term tries to explain. These “imagined homelands” are not merely spatial homelands which could be a land of origin or land of residence. These homelands are metaphorically constructed on the ideology of the collective groups in a “borderless” and “post-national” world. The paper will critically examine the construction of different “imagined homelands” calling them, global feminist group and brown community in this case study, and the negotiation of a south Asian transnational brown woman between these imagined homelands.”
Highlights
Nilanjana moves to Europe (France) from Asia (India) with her husband in the last decade of the twentieth century
The protagonist of the novel French Lover (2002), changes her home and homeland after her marriage. The moment she touches the other land and home, her new life begins which both connects and disconnects her from the home and homeland which she has left behind. When she crosses the border from India to France, her Third World identity, her colour, her gender and her nationality collide with a different colour, religion and European identity
She stands on the threshold of two homelands, physically and metaphorically: between the land of origin and the land of residence, between the metaphorical spaces of two different colours, nationalities and religions
Summary
Nilanjana moves to Europe (France) from Asia (India) with her husband in the last decade of the twentieth century. “foreign” women come from Asia, Africa and Latin America The differentiation among these groups as European women and other women reconstructs the colonial difference between Europe and the Third World as the “West” and the “rest.” To return to French Lover, despite Nilanjana’s complex positioning, she is essentialised and racialised as the “other” within the “global feminist group”. These two groups: the “global feminist group” and the “brown community” follow similar nationalist ideologies which go beyond geographical boundaries and territorial spaces Within these two situations, as a Third World, transnational, brown woman, Nilanjana must remain as either the sexualised or racialised “other”. Her stand at the in-between position is her movement towards the consciousness of her “othered” identity
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