FUNNY BOY AS BILDUNGSROMAN Pigs Cant Fly Aunty

FUNNY BOY AS BILDUNGSROMAN Pigs Can’t Fly Aunty Radha Shyam Selvadurai

Annie John & Funny Boy Annie John Story of Growth of a girl leaving home Revision of Family structure Same Sex Relations Funny Boy Story of Growth of a boy, in relation to his family members leaving home, civil war Queer Identity Queer Diaspora Revision Queering & Intersectionality Diaspora & Intersectionality

Outline • Introduction: the author, the book and Sri Lanka • “Pigs Can’t Fly” • I. Childhood Games and Social System • II. Deterritorialization of spaces of Power and Gender • “Aunty Radha” • I. “adults”: Radha, Anil vs. the other adults • II. Supporters and Obstacles between Radha & Anil • III. Arjie’s growth from chap 1 to 2.

The Author: Shyam Selvadurai • Born: Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1963 • Father Tamil, mother Sinhalese • Immigrated to Canada, 1984. his family forced into exile after the 1983 racial riot against the Tamil in Colombo. Education: York University, Toronto. • Funny Boy: A Novel in Six Stories --read by the Sri Lankan President and prompted a national debate on the need to repeal the antisodomy law in the country (Salgado 100)

Selvadurai about Funny Boy • “I’m gay and Arjie’s gay and both families left Sri Lanka, but that’s where it ends. • Arjie’s first experience and acceptance of himself happened in Sri Lanka and mine happened in Canada. • My family is also much more liberal. My father is Sinhalese and my mother is Tamil which was a huge thing at the time of their marriage so we were brought up differently from other kids. There was a lot of tolerance for difference. ” (source)

Postcolonial Revision (1): Funny Boy Genre: six stories Societies/ Imperialism Memory Identity “Self Other ed” Queering Process displacement Gender --Education: ambivalent, “un learning” imperialist culture Growth: Protracted displacement trauma; diasporic & transcultural* “Childhood”

Queer ing • Queer: “a term that challenged the normalizing mechanisms of state power to name its sexual subjects: male or female, married or single, heterosexual or homosexual, natural or perverse. Given its commitment to interrogating the social processes that not only produced and recognized but also normalized and sustained identity, the political promise of the term resided specifically in its broad critique of multiple social antagonisms, including race, gender, class, nationality, and religion, in addition to sexuality. …[Today’s renewed queer studies should stay] vigilant to the fact that sexuality is intersectional”* (Eng 1)

Queer ing • The contingency of the term*(1) • Remaining open to a continuing critique of its exclusionary operations Normalization Intersectionality of Queering Race, Class, Gender & Sexuality*(2)

Queer ing: How? 1) Disclose multiple causality and how various factors interact with one another* (1) 2) Challenge authorities & binary oppositions by introducing the third, or fourth roles 3) Mobilization & Deterritorialization of identities: “By means of tactical deterritorialisation, we are able to challenge the restrictive binary of the local/global identity” (Pecic 8)* (2) identity/sexuality: not essence, not timeless, it is also not fixed in place

1. MULTIPLE FACTORS: RACE IN SRI LANKA more here Area: 65, 610 km 2 1. 82 of Taiwan

Tamil vs. Sinhalese（僧伽羅人）migrated from Northern India to Sri Lanka since 5 th 6 th century BCE, while Tamil (坦 米爾人) came from Southern India around since 2 th BCE. Sinhalese Buddhism Tamil Hinduism, more sent to Sri Lanka by the British government and supported by the latter. Since its independence as Ceylon (i 948), the Sinhalese (80% majority) put forth “Sinhala Only Law” (in 1956) in support of their political power, which causes discontent among the Tamil people (20%).

Documentary 1. 3: 00 – Tamil imported to Sri Lanka by the British 2. Sinhalese rise to power after Independence 3. Civil War: 4: 00 the burning of the library 5: 19 1983 retaliation of Tamils 4. History updated: 1983 -2006 civil war (4 peace talks, 100, 000 people dead) 2004 – striken by South Asian tsunami –about 35, 000 dead 2009 -- LTTE defeated

Funny Boy: Structure • Funny Boy – set against the increasing violence between a between Sinhalese and Tamil in Sri Lank, culminating in the civil war which lasted for almost a decade(1983 1991). The protagonist, "Arjie" Chelvaratnam, is the second son of a privileged middle class Tamil family in Colombo facing the need to conform to the government’s imposition of Sinhala only policy and the growing racial conflicts.

Funny Boy Connected stories of how Arjie is continually isolated from his family and then exiled from his society because of his gender orientation and the society’s racial tensions and despite attempts at breaking boundaries and rebellion. • "Pigs Can't Fly”-- Arjie's early childhood and his gravitation towards the imaginative games his female cousins play as opposed to his male cousins' beloved game of cricket. • "Radha Aunty" Arjie's Aunt Radha, and her doomed affair with a Sinhalese man.

Funny Boy • "See No Evil, Hear No Evil“-- his mother's extra marital affair with a childhood sweetheart. • "Small Choices" chronicles one of Arjie's first crushes a puppy love obsession with a young man employed by his Father • “The Best School of All” – Arjie’s experience of the conflicts between colonial education and Sinhalese nativism, between his need to conform and his love for Shehan Zoysa. • "Riot Journal" – first hand accounts of anti Tamil violence. (Black July, 1983)

“Pigs Can’t Fly” • Gender Hierarchy in games + the West “Radha Aunty” • Gender Hierarchy in marriage+ Immigrants + Tamil vs. Sinhalese ( Burgher) “See No Evil, Hear No Evil“ • Mother’s Love Affair + Hotel & the West + Burgher + government control “Small Choices” • Hotel Business + Father’s Friend + A’s love + Tamil vs. Sinhalese “The Best School of All” • Arjie at school and in love + colonial/gender education + nativism “Riot Journal • Tamil vs. Sinhalese

l How is childhood presented? Anything you can relate to? l Growth in Social Constraints, Hierarchy & Beyond. CENTRAL l What’s Queer-ed? QUESTIONS

Childhood & Children in Chap 1 Ammachi/Appachi Amma/Father Janaki Bride Aunt Kanthi Her Fatness Cricket Games Arjie Sonali Diggy Muruges Meena, Sanjay Leaving the safe harbor of childhood (5)

Adult Characters in Chap 2 Tamil vs. Sinhalese vs. Burgher Ammachi Father (RAJAN) Aunt Radha Anil Aunt Kanthi, Mala, Aunt Doris Arjie Janaki Disillusioned about wedding

Discussion Questions I. Childhood Games and Social System • Direct cruelty (6) vs. Kanthi Aunty seething anger beneath a guile (8) • Territory & Leadership: How are the boys' game and girls' game divided up and located? Describe the other parts of Grandma’s house (p. 3)* What are the rules of the boys' cricket game and the girls' Bride? Do these rules make sense? Do these groups' structure reflect that of adults, or not? How are “leaders” chosen in the children’s games and social games? What does the title mean?

Discussion Questions II. Battle for Power & Gender Boundaries • Her Fatness vs. Arjie • How does Her Fatness fight for attention & power? • What gender roles do Arjie and Her Fatness take respectively in their power struggle? • Cricket vs. Bride-Bride: • How does Arjie cross gender boundaries? Who else does so, too? • What roles do the adults (parents, Aunt Kanthi, grandma, Janaki) play? • What does the ending mean?

The title Funny either humorous or strange (17); disgust But Meena also crosses gender boundaries in playing the cricket game. The other girls do, too, in the bride game. The mother’s purpose in allowing Arjie in her room when she dresses herself? Arjie’s view of being a bride (5) and jewel and sari (15) “Pigs Can’t Fly” the story is about the ideological system (the sky), and the power struggles within it. the mother’s use of the phrase twice, the 2 nd time sounding weary

“PIGS CAN’T FLY”

I. Children’s World and Their Views of the Adults • Avoid Mamachi (2) and Janaki • Fear: The dark corridor (2) chap 2: the great grandfather’s photo (59; 85) • Territoriality and leadership (3) • Girls’ territory potential for free play of fantasy (4)

The Girls’ Game Arjie as the leader because of “the force of his imagination”(p. 4) His imagination– allows him to "leave the constraints of [his] self and ascend into another, more brilliant, more beautiful self" (5). Still conditioned by the goddesses of the Sinhalese and Tamil cinema (breaking the racial boundary). chap 2: his images of wedding (43) A world for girls – the groom the most useless (p. 6) Arjie’s role as a groom (31)

The Boy’s Game—Cricket • Competition with winning as the goal; • trading players • less powerful ones: e. g. Sanjay • girlie boy: Arjie • the batting order – p. 26 • Numbers marked in the sand for the players to step on; • The older and better ones play first (rule of tradition)

II. The Children’s Struggle for Power Her Fatness – in need of attention › An outsider pp. 6 › Kanthi Aunt – her anger (pp. 7 8) Wins attention › by lying about not having a friend & appealing to adult authority (7) › by showing off the dolls (p. 8) –which is less powerful than the bride game; › by playing a loud groom (9) › by appealing to traditional gender boundaries (11) “A girl must be the bride. ”

Arjie’s Fight back & Failure • Play by the rule: Insisting on the rule to be the first one to play so that he becomes offensive and can run away • His use of the sari: • Kept in the bag as a weapon • later his Sari is gone – so is his power. • In chap 2, his “sari” (bed sheet & curtain) looks pitiful (51) • Agrees to play the groom, and then attracts the other girls’ attention. • Chap 2: finds that he’s left this world far behind

Ending: The Sea vs. the System • Amachi and her cane p. 38 • The seaside and the tall building as a mirage p. 38 • Exiled, facing the sea waves as a sign of fluidity

“RADHA AUNTY”

Discussion Questions I. The Adults’ world: • What roles do Ammachi, Amma, Aunt Doris, Aunt Mala and Aunt Kanthi play respectively? • How are Radha and Anil different, as adults, from the others? • Why is Radha close to Arjie? Why does she distance herself from Anil? II. Arjie’s growth: How does Arjie grow up and change in this part of the story? • His view of Radha; of bride; • His knowledge of racism; fear for the future • His being an accomplice of Radha • His view of wedding

Ammachi & Amma • Ammachi • Supporter of Tamil tiger (60) • rigid discipline of her daughters, keeping them within the racial confine of Tamil • not wanting Radha to be picked up by a “Sinhalese boy” (56) • going to warn Anil’s family (60) • mad when the two are found together in a restaurant: call it “illicit relations”(74) • Amma • answers Arjie’s questions but in short sentences • Forgets when she’s supposed to pick up Arjie

Mala Aunty and Kanthi Aunty • see Radha in a restaurant with Anil • Radha cries: “I’m practically married. ” (71) • their intervention bring the two closer. • It is actually the racial riots that “normalize” Radha and bring her back to her own community.

Arjie’s growth • Changed his views of Radha and Anil • Radha: not like a bride in his imagination (45) changes his views because of her friendliness(47) playing makeup and make her “the bestest bride” (50) finds her beautiful • Anil: not like a lover (66) • disillusioned, he turns away from Radha’s wedding

Boundaries disclosed & blurred • between men and women • between different races (Tamils, Sinhalese and Burghers); customs and Western culture • The role of Western culture such as The King and I?

The King and I • Arjie envies children in the play Pied Piper because they can wear makeup and costume. • no mixed race marriage, according to Amma • brings Radha and Anil together • also the performance (of Radha as a slave girl) shows they are broken apart

REFERENCE (1): Mukkuthi [nose ornament]

REFERENCES (2) love story of Mani lal and Sakuntala

MANIPURI SILK SARI PITTU Source: (1), (2)

Works Cited • Eng, David, Judith Halberstam and Jose Esteban Muños. ‘What’s Queer about Queer Studies Now? ’, Social Text 84– 85 (2005), 23(3– 4): 1– 17. • Pecic, Z. Queer Narratives of the Caribbean Diaspora Exploring Tactics. Palgrave Macmillan; 2013.