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Breaking three generations of silence : a translation of racism, sexism, and classism, in the lives of three Punjabi women in Canada

University of British Columbia

From the margins of discourse, this autobiographical work disrupts the traditional HEGEMONIC narratives of THEIR INSTITUTIONS and challenges the conventional notions of the genre of autobiography through its form and content. It uncovers and upsets both WESTERN and Punjabi PATRIArchal definitions of THEIR/Their CULTure: Furthermore, it undermines linguistic norms by using a mix of English, Punjabi and some French. Through narratives, prose, poetry, transparent language/languages my words break the long kept silences of three Punjabi women living amidst racism, sexism and classism in THEIR/Their SOCIety Public and private History of THEIR/Their CULTure, fiction and fantasy are juxtaposed through mixed genres and mixed codes, and the fragmented units are not necessarily presented as chronologically linear. Unlike typical autobiographies, I braid together the restrictive lives and painful experiences of my mother, my grandmother, and myself in an attempt to show how THEIR/Their oppressive History and CULTure shape and have shaped our life/lives, our acceptance and our resistance. In doing so I begin to see parallels between the oppression of women and untouchables in Indian Society and the exploitation of minority women and minorities in CANADIAN SOCIETY. My experiment with structure and typography helps me, a semi-trilingual, working/middle class minority woman and EDUCAtor, to construct and deconstruct my personal self and selves in a more meaningful way. This type of meaning making takes precedence over conventional stylistic or established structures. My identity cannot be separated from the languages, CULTures, in which I wander endlessly or from the oppressive conditions of those whose lives have shaped and continue to shape me. Despite the pressure, I cannot choose between these identities. As a result I am forced to continue to negotiate between my identities and live an intricate web of shifting power relations. I realise that the non-contradictory self is impossible.Therefore I must go beyond and create something new. Something that is more than the mere bringing together of identities ~ it is something in the beyond, kithe uther ~ gahan. From my third space I call upon minority women, white women, EDUCators, readers and writers to also go beyond and find a THIRD Space from which to work together in order to reposition the positions of POWER that have been placed upon us through centuries of Oppression and EXPLOITATION. Only by speaking out in my languages, my words, my experiences, my poet's voice, my storying voice, my minority woman's voice, my TEACHer's voice, my fragmented voices, will I begin to overcome the tradition of silence and continue the necessary resistance.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-05-04

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/7813

Language and Literacy Education

University of British Columbia

UBCV

DSpace