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Diasporan vaiettuja tarinoita Ramabai Espinet’n romaanissa The Swinging Bridge

• Joel Kuortti Suomen Akatemia ja Joensuun yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30665/av.74629

Abstract

Over the Black Water: silenced stories of diaspora in Ramabai Espinet’s novel The Swinging Bridge

Diaspora literature and study have broadened rapidly during past few years due to the expansion of immigration. This article explores central questions concerning diaspora in Caribbean writing by considering especially the novel The Swingin Bridge (2003) by a Trinidadian-Canadian writer of Indian background, Ramabai Espinet. Espinet writes about diasporic experiences, the travels of immigrants from India to Trinidad, from there to Canada, and again back to Trinidad. Espinet’s novel is a part of the recent postcolonial women’s writing and women’s studies in her attempt at focusing on previously silenced themes, concerning especially the status of women.

The article explores Espinet’s novel against Avtar Brah’s diaspora theory. Brah emphasizes the contextuality of each diaspora. I will study the novel as a diaspora story and try to contextualize it in the Trinidadian-Canadian history. Furthermore, I will look at how the novel — instead of simplified binarisms — underlines heterogeneity.