Because she was a girl: Gender Identity and the Postcolonial in James Joyces Eveline, in Studies: Celebrating James

Joyce, ummer, !""#, $ages !"%&!%'

BECAUSE SHE WAS A GIRL: GENDER IDENTITY AND THE POSTCOLONIAL IN JAMES JOYCES EVELINE

That postcolonial studies has become a seminal part of academic life is now beyond debate. Indeed, the very term postcolonial has become the latest catchall term to dazzle the academic mind (Jacoby, 1 !, "#$ by becomin% part of the

intellectual&academic industry ta'in% as its topic the colonial division of the world ((myth, 1 !, )*$. +t an epistemolo%ical level, however, there has been considerable

debate as to the epistemolo%ical status of postcolonialism,

such has been the elasticity of the concept postcolonial that in recent years some commentators have be%un to e-press an-iety that there may be a dan%er of it implodin% as an analytic concept with any real cuttin% ed%e. (.oore/0ilbert, 1 *, 11$

+ further level of comple-ity is introduced into this debate when the matter of Ireland is considered. 1u'e 0ibbons has speculated that the problem with Ireland and postcolonial studies is simply that a native population which happened to be white was an affront to the very idea of 2white mans burden3, and threw into disarray some of the constitutive cate%ories of colonial discourse (0ibbons, 1 academic opinion has diver%ed considerably on this issue.1 There has been on%oin% debate about this topic within the academy, with some theorists, notably 7ill +shcroft, 0areth 0riffiths and 6elen Tiffin, in The Empire Writes Back, Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures and in The PostColonial Studies Reader, ar%uin% that Ireland was complicit in the colonizin% of other 4, 15 $. 6owever,

because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

cultures and hence cannot be seen as part of the postcolonial paradi%m. The point here is that the complicity of Irish soldiers in the 7ritish colonial enterprise ma'es the Irish seem more colonizer than colonized, and ma'es it difficult for colonized peoples outside 7ritain to accept their identity as post/colonial (+shcroft et al, 1 8 , ""$. 1iam 9ennedy ma'es a similar point, su%%estin% that, Ireland, in effect, was a :unior partner in that vast e-ploitative enterprise 'nown as the 7ritish ;mpire (9ennedy 1 4, 1*4$. <eclan 9iberd, however, demurs from this position, notin% that

The Empire Writes Back, passes over the Irish case very swiftly, perhaps because the authors find these white ;uropeans too stran%e an instance to :ustify their sustained attention (9iberd, 1 4, !$. 9iberds point is well ta'en, and =aitr>ona .oloney and

6elen Thompson have made the relevant su%%estion that, in order for Ireland to be considered part of the postcolonial paradi%m, the paradi%m itself must chan%e (.oloney and Thompson, )###, 5$. ?erhaps this is the 'ey to the point at issue. There can be no doubtin% the value of postcolonial theory as an instrument of criti@ue. =olin 0raham ma'es the valid point that,
It is these abilities to read culture as ideolo%ical, while criticisin% the homo%eneity of ideolo%y, and to prioritise cultural interchan%e within a colonial structure, which ma'es postcolonial theory an essential critical tool for understandin% Irish culture. (0raham, )##1, "$.

6owever, if postcolonial writin% is not to leave itself open to a tu quoque char%e of settin% up its own, inverted .anichean alle%ory, ) then the complications involved in the constitution of any form of hybridity or liminality must be ta'en into account. The matter of Ireland, especially the wor' of the canonical writers Aeats and Joyce, has profound implications for the epistemolo%ical status of the postcolonial paradi%m. Bhile Aeats can be seen as a poet of empire, as a central part of the canon of ;n%lish literature, he can also be sees, as demonstrated by ;dward (aids su%%estion that while Aeats has been almost completely assimilated into the canons of modern

because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

;n%lish 1iterature and ;uropean hi%h modernism, can nevertheless be seen as belon%in% to the tradition of the colonial world ruled by ;uropean imperialism ((aid, 1 #, 4 $.

?erhaps the most interestin% conclusion that can be drawn from (aids ar%ument is that there can really be no simple either&or choice underlyin% the postcolonial paradi%m if that paradi%m is to perform any sort of transformative criti@ue of current and past colonial enterprises." +s +nia 1oomba notes, the @uestion is now bein% as'ed of postcolonial theory as to whether, in the process of e-posin% the ideolo%ical and historical functionin% of such binaries, we are in dan%er of reproducin% them (1oomba, 1 8, 1#5$. Instead of this either&or choice, what is

needed is a more nuanced form of interaction between selfhood and alterity, between colonizer and colonized. This is a form of criti@ue which has been advocated by Jac@ues <errida, who, spea'in% about his early neolo%ism, diffrance, notes that it is neither this nor thatC but rather this and that (e.%. the act of differin% and of deferrin%$ without bein% reducible to a dialectical lo%ic either (<errida, 1 81, 141$. In terms of an investi%ation of postcoloniality, one can loo' no further than Joyce to problematize the epistemolo%ical status of the postcolonial while at the same time enhancin% the validity of postcoloniality as an informed mode of criti@ue. The notion that postcoloniality is some form of all/embracin% metanarrative is deconstructed alon% %ender lines in this boo' as the e-perience of the male characters is vastly different from that of the female characters, a point that will become clear on an even cursory e-amination of any of the stories. The focal point of this essay will be Joyces e-ploration of female sub:ectivity in u!liners, specifically in the fourth

story from that collection, ;veline. In a boo' whose structure has been the topic of much discussion, the role of the female characters has been surprisin%ly ne%lected.

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because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

There has been comparatively none %iven to the development of female sub:ectivity in u!liners. Bhat we will see is that Joyce is in the process of tracin%

how the e-perience of women within the le!ens"elt of colonial <ublin differed from that of men, and this should stri'e a chord with the postcolonial paradi%m %iven its particularist stance and its reluctance to accept overarchin% totalizations. 5 The

importance of lan%ua%e in the construction of sub:ectivity is a concern shared by Joyce and one of his more influential critics, the Drench psychoanalytic theorist, Jac@ues 1acan. Dor 1acan, sub:ectivity is centred on the interaction of the developin% e%o with what he terms the other. Dor 1acan, the identity of the human sub:ect comes about throu%h a number of interactions between the individual and two orders of meanin% which he has termed the ima%inary and the symbolic. 1acan su%%ests that self/ reco%nition, or to put it more correctly misreco%nition ( mconnaissance$, is constitutive of the development of the human sub:ect. In the mirror sta%e, 1acan postulates a child seein% its ima%e in a mirror and becomin% fi-ated on the ima%e, which is both unified and coherent, as opposed to the childs own inchoate motor development. 6owever, the ima%e is also two/dimensional as opposed to three/ dimensional. The fra%mented infant identifies with, and desires to be li'e, an ima%e of such wholeness, a process which 1acan sees as seminal to the ima%inary order. Dor 1acan, desire is the prime a%ency of human sub:ective development, and it is always directed at some form of otherness. +s he puts it, writin% about The function and field of speech and lan%ua%e in psychoanalysis, the first ob:ect of desire is to be reco%nized by the other (1acan, 1 **, !8$. Dor 1acan, the very nature of desire means that it is always unfulfilled, I always find my desire outside of me, because what I desire is always somethin% that I lac', that is other to me ((arup,

because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

), 48/4 $. In the establishment of the e%o the desire for some form of identity is

paramount. Drom infancy, we see' to be desired and loved by the Ether, a term which, as 7racher notes, alters as we develop. Initially, at the be%innin% of life, this desi%nation refers to the mother, then both parents, later ones peers, and finally any number of bodies or fi%ures of authority, includin% 0od, (ociety and nature (7racher, 1 ", )5$. In many ways, it is the %rowth and development of our notion of the other

that structures the type of identity which we develop, and lan%ua%e is the material dimension where such development can ta'e place. This is true at both a conscious and an unconscious level, %iven 1acans oft/@uoted ma-im that what the psychoanalytic e-perience discovers in the unconscious is the whole structure of lan%ua%e (1acan, 1 **, 15*$. In the world of <ubliners, this other is very different for men and women. =onsider the case of ;veline 6ill, the eponymous heroine of the fourth story in u!liners. 6er sub:ectivity, in 1acanian terms, is defined in terms of her own

personal and social other, and it becomes clear that her position is far worse than that of her male family members. In a parallel of the Dreudian repetition comple-, her life, by the end of the story, will be seen to repeat many of the destructive patterns of her mothers before her. 6er sense of self is predicated on a reflection in the men of her life at present, and in reflected memories of her past in terms of women and children. In terms of the mirror sta%e, her desire to be of some worth is located throu%h the male %aze, whether that of her brother, her father or her fellow, Dran'. (pea'in% of the moment at which the mirror sta%e comes to an end, 1acan says, it is this moment that decisively tips the whole of human 'nowled%e into mediatization throu%h the desire of the other (1acan, 1 8 , 4$. Dor 1acan, the notion of the other be%ins with an identification with an ob:ect different from itself,

because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

usually the mother, and then develops into the (ymbolic other, or the real father (Fa%land (ullivan, 1 84, 14$. Dor 1acan, the initial ob:ect of desire is the identification with the ima%e of the self in the mirror, a process symbolic of the identification with the ideal/I. In 1acanian desire, there is an o!#et petit a, or an ob:ect that satiates need, which is already lost. Dor instance, the breast of the mother is lost to her child and never can be re%ained. The lost character of the o!#et petit a means that the sub:ect can never re%ain the feelin% of bein% whole. Thus, desire can never be satisfied by the ob:ect of its need, and its ob:ect is always elsewhere. The demand for love always e-ceeds the possibility of its satisfaction. In other words, the possibility of fulfillin% desire

throu%h the procurement of a needed ob:ect falls away, and you are left with desire of the other in and of itself. Thus ;veline desired to have a boyfriend before she desired Dran' personally, in terms of a validation of her selfhood, the notion that she is now seen as mature, GfHirst of all it had been an e-citement for her to have a fellow and then she had be%un to li'e him (Joyce, 1 5, )8$. Dran' is both her ob:ect of

desire and at the same time, the si%nifier throu%h which she comes to a form of full identity as herself. In a manner redolent of $thello, Dran' woos her by tellin% stories of adventures in far/flun% destinations, of how he started as a dec' boy at a pound a month on a ship of the +llan 1ine %oin% out to =anada, how he had sailed throu%h the (traits of .a%ellan and he told her stories of the terrible ?ata%onians, and how he had fallen on his feet in 7uenos +ires (Joyce, 1 5, )8/ $. The contrast of this much/

travelled male with the static ;veline could not be star'er. Be are reminded of how the story be%ins, with a seated ;veline watchin% the evenin% invade the avenue (Joyce, 1 5, )4$. 6er desire is achieved in bein% the ob:ect of Dran's desire, he is

active while she is passive I he has the ability, throu%h his %ender/sanctioned role, to

because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

escape from colonial Ireland, while her only escape is to %o to the (aturday evenin% mar'et to buy food for the family, havin% mana%ed to wrin% some of her own money bac' from an increasin%ly abusive father. In postcolonial terms, his ran%e of options and choices is far %reater than hers, and thus the %ender aspect of the postcolonial paradi%m is brou%ht to the fore, with these characters standin% as metonyms for the %endered mediation of the postcolonial e-perience.! It is interestin% that the role of the father is so important in this story as for 1acan, the development of sub:ectivity throu%h lan%ua%e is predicated on the what he terms the Jame/of/the/Dather. In what is basically a lin%uistic reinterpretation of the Dreudian Eedipus =omple-, he sees the metaphor of the Jame of the father substitutin% for the desire of the mother. Thus, the initial mirror sta%e, where the child, in the ima%inary order, identifies with both its own ideal ima%e and with the mother as the satisfier of all infantile demands. Bith the advent of entry into the (ymbolic order, the Jame/of/the/Dather substitutes for the presence of the mother, with the attendant sense of unfulfilled desire. Dor ;veline, her relationship with her mother has been foreclosed by death, and the sense of loss may be the reason for her perceived passivity. This relationship has also been temporally frozen. ;velines memories of her mother are specifically related to illness and death. The final hours of her mothers life repeat in ;velines mind, specifically as she sits ponderin% her own decision. 6ere the repression of woman in this society becomes almost a pattern. The sound of the or%an reminds her of the same sound at the time of her mothers death, and this in turn reminds her of the life her mother lead, the pitiful vision of her mothers life laid its spell on the very @uic' of her bein% I that life of commonplace sacrifices closin% in final

because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

craziness (Joyce, 1

5, ) /"#$. The cause of that craziness has been hinted at earlier

in the story, when evidence of her self/delusional lo%ic is brou%ht to the fore,
Then she would be married I she, ;veline. ?eople would treat her with respect then. (he would not be treated as her mother had been. ;ven now, thou%h she was over nineteen, she sometimes felt herself in dan%er of her fatherKs violence. (he 'new it was that that had %iven her the ?alpitations. Bhen they were %rowin% up he had never %one for her, li'e he used to %o for 6arry and ;rnest, because she was a %irlC but latterly he had be%un to threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her dead mothers sa'e. (Joyce, 1 5, )*$

+s noted earlier, Dran' provides the means throu%h which ;veline can satisfy her desire, a desire that has been societally enculturated within her, namely, to be married. The :u-taposition of the pronoun and proper noun in the above @uotation she, ;veline enacts the sense of ima%inary fullness that she believes marria%e will brin%, only throu%h becomin% Dran's wife can she completely valorise her female identity. Enly then will she achieve that sense of wholeness that 1acan sees as essential to our sub:ectivity. Enly then would she %et respect. In a very real sense, ;veline is a commodity in this story. 6er star' choice here is to remain the dau%hter of one man, a violent man who had driven her mother to her death, or else to become the wife of another man who is lar%ely un'nown to her.4 Dor ;veline, her desire to be loved by her father is an important aspect of her sub:ective development. ;ven as she describes an obviously violent man, she is at the same time ma'in% e-cuses,
;ven now, thou%h she was over nineteen, she sometimes felt herself in dan%er of her fathers violence. (he 'new it was that that had %iven her the ?alpitations. Bhen they were %rowin% up he had never %one for her, li'e he used to %o for 6arry and ;rnest, because she was a %irlC but latterly he had be%un to threaten her and say what he would do to her only for her dead mothers sa'e. +nd now she had nobody to protect her, ;rnest was dead and 6arry, who was in the church decoratin% business, was nearly always down somewhere in the country. (Joyce, 1 5, )4/*$

6er sense of self, reflected in the mirror of a father who was first introduced as wieldin% a blac'thorn stic' (Joyce, 1 5, )4$, is passive in the e-treme. Just as she

because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

is compared with the dynamic Dran', so her father is seen as active an dynamic, while she is in need of protection. This passivity is further underscored by the wee'ly row over money when, havin% handed her father her total wee's wa%es (seven shillin%s$ she had to endure a haran%uin% about thrift from her father before he would dei%n to return some of that money to her so she could shop for %roceries. =learly, ;veline is not hi%hly prized by him, nor, %iven that this is her sense of selfhood, does she value herself hi%hly. Dran' is a different mirror ima%e with whom she can identify. +s already noted, at first, ;veline is not interested in Dran' qua Dran'C rather is she interested in havin% a fellow and then she had be%un to li'e him. Bhat we see here is the desire to be valued by the other. 6er relationship with her father, despite her best efforts in attenuatin% his levels of violence, is based on fear. 6er passivity is a%ain fore%rounded as her brothers, as males, were in the position of escapin% from the violent attentions of her father. Interestin%ly, despite the fact that ;veline wor's in the (tores and earns seven shillin%s a wee', which she %ives up to her father (Joyce, 1 5, )8$, and that her father is no lon%er depicted

as havin% any earnin% power, nevertheless, it is ;veline who is depicted as havin% to as' for money to %o shoppin% for %roceries on a (aturday ni%ht. .eanwhile, her father is seen twice in the story %ivin% money, once in the wee'ly wran%le with ;veline, as he returns a portion of hr wa%es to her, and secondly, in the memory of the last ni%ht of her mothers illness,
she was a%ain in the close, dar' room at the other side of the hall and outside she heard a melancholy air of Italy. The or%an/player had been ordered to %o away and %iven si-pence. (he remembered her father struttin% bac' into the sic'/room sayin%, <amned ItaliansL comin% over hereL (Joyce, 1 5, ) $

In terms of the power of money as an inde- of self worth, her father and Dran', who bou%ht the tic'ets for the boat, are both seen as powerful and %enerous. =learly their

because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

ran%e of choices is lar%er than that of ;veline who can 'eep house for her father in <ublin, or in 7uenos +ires with Dran'. In terms of livin% in a colonial society, there is very little overt reference to be found in either this story or the collection as a whole. +ll of these characters are wor'in% class, and all have become comodified by the colonial process, albeit to different de%rees. ;mpire, by placin% men in a he%emonic position, attempts to displace any form of rebellion by allowin% men far more freedom than women, and also by placin% men in the position of authority over women. Thus, the women in these stories are repressed by their men who are, in turn, repressed by a colonial and class system which condemns them to menial :obs. ;velines father maintains his sense of selfhood throu%h the threat of violence and a mi-ture of miso%ynistic and -enophobic attitudes. 6e also attempts to e-ert a form of epistemolo%ical as well as financial control over ;veline, who still has never been told the name of the priest whose photo%raph has been on the wall since her birth,
+nd yet durin% all those years she had never found out the name of the priest whose yellowin% photo%raph hun% on the wall above the bro'en harmonium beside the coloured print of the promises made to 7lessed .ar%aret .ary +laco@ue. 6e had been a school friend of her father. Bhenever he showed the photo%raph to a visitor her father used to pass it with a casual word, 6e is in .elbourne now. (Joyce, 1 5, )*$

;velines function is to dust this picture, but not to be part of its epistemolo%ical conte-t. This e-ample stresses that there are subtle hierarchies of power to be found within this seemin%ly amorphous body of wor'in% class <ubliners. Dran' has, throu%h emi%ration, mana%ed to escape some of the claustrophobic atmosphere which has made .r 6ill become cruel and violent. of course, in becomin% a sailor, Dran' has become interpellated, in an +lthusserian sense, into precisely the role re@uired of a youn% Irishman by the 7ritish ;mpire I merchant navy canon fodder. 6e is

1#

because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

providin% the manpower for the on%oin% rulin% of the waves by 7ritannia, and in so doin%, achievin% more personal freedom and empowerment than will ever be open to ;veline. 1i'e 6arry, the church/painter, Dran' is defined in terms of selfhood by his :obC %ender definition is not enou%h, there must be a more %raded sense of selfhood associated with occupation. ;veline, on the other hand, is not. This is abundantly clear in her comments on the son% about the lass that loved a sailor (Joyce, 1 )8$, Dran' is defined by his social occupation while ;veline is %ender/defined. ?erhaps the most si%nificant de%ree of %ender difference pointed up in this story is in the area of choice. Drom the outset, the mail characters have choices, and more importantly, e-ercise levels of control over the choices of the women in their lives. Eur first view of ;velines father is of his comin% to end the play of the children, his stic' standin% as a metonym of the violence throu%h which he holds sway in his family. ;velines brother, 6arry, e-ercises the choice of movin% away from the home somewhere down the country (Joyce, 1 5, )*$. Dran' e-ercises 5,

choice throu%hout the story, finally choosin% to leave ;veline in the end. The choices of women, on the other hand, are clearly attenuated. ;velines mother has

circumscribed ;velines own life/choices by interpellatin% her into the traditional role of carer by as'in% her to 'eep the home to%ether for as lon% as she could (Joyce, 1 5, ) $. Dor ;veline, part of her reflective mirror is that hauntin% promise made to

a dyin% womanC it has fi-ed her in a passive state and refuses to allow her to develop alon% the lines cited by 7racher above, when he itemises how %rowth is predicated on a development of the other in our lives. The e-perience of ;veline is passive, a fact instantiated in the circular lo%ic of the story. (he is seen sittin% down, in the openin% lines, leanin% a%ainst a window, and dwellin% on the past of her childhood, a memory process itself which is maimed,

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because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

featurin% ima%es of violence and physical disability. 6er story ends as she %rips with both hands at the iron railin% of the Jorth Ball harbour terminal, refusin% to move. 6er complete inability to communicate with Dran' at this crucial :uncture amidst the seas she sent a cry of an%uish is eerily redolent of her mothers final words, the oft cited <erevaun (eraunL <erevaun (eraunL (Joyce 1 5, "#$. To attempt to translate

these lines into Irish is futile, and totally misses the point of the Joycean encapsulation of the e-perience of women in this story. Just as 1acan sees lan%ua%e, and the oscillation between the ima%inary and symbolic orders, as central to sub:ectivity, so in this world, where such development is forcibly stunted in the case of women, lan%ua%e itself loses its ability to communicate and becomes almost autistic, as both mother and dau%hter re%ress into incomprehension and non/verbal sound respectively, in the face of the crises of their lives. Thou%h ;veline sees her %ender role as a blessin%, as her father had never %one for her li'e he used to %o for 6arry and ;rnest, because she was a %irl (Joyce, 1 5, )*$, in actual fact, it completely circumscribes her actions, choices and personal

development. Bhat Joyce has %iven us in this e-emplary te-t, is a %raphic account of the dialectics and hierarchies of power that accrue in a wor'in% class, colonial culture. Dar from bein% an undifferentiated %roup, the men and women of u!liners each

inhabit different discursive and e-istential re%imes. Bhat a 1acanian and postcolonial readin% of this te-t reveal are the nuances delineated by Joyce in terms of the %ender politics of the time. Bhatever problems are faced by the men in the story, both women are reduced to an inability to communicate. +s Dran' leaves, the final picture of ;veline is less than human, she set her white face to him, passive, li'e a helpless

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because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

animal. 6er eyes %ave him no si%n of love or farewell or reco%nition (Joyce, 1 "1$C and this is, so the story would indicate, because she was a %irl.

5,

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Jacoby, Fussell, 1 !. .ar%inal Feturns, The Trouble with ?ostcolonial Theory, Lin(ua .ranca, (eptember&Ectober, "#/"*.

Jan.ohamed, +bdul, 1 !. The ;conomy of the .anichean +lle%ory, The Postcolonial Studies Reader 1 !. edited by 7ill +shcroft, 0areth 0riffiths and 6elen Tiffin. 1ondon, Foutled%e, pa%es 18/)". Eri%inally published as The ;conomy of the .anichean +lle%ory, The Dunction of Facial <ifference in =olonialist 1iterature, Critical ,nquiry, (1 8!$ 1), 1, pa%es ! /8*. Joyce, James, 1 5. u!liners. Introduction by +nthony 7ur%ess. 1ondon, (ec'er and Barbur%. Dirst published 1 15. 9ennedy, 1iam, 1 4. Colonialism' Reli(ion and /ationalism in ,reland . 7elfast, The Nueens Mniversity of 7elfast. 9iberd, <eclan, 1 4. ,n0entin( ,reland) The Literature of a +odern /ation . 1ondon, Ointa%e. 1acan, Jac@ues, 1 **. 1crits - * Selection% Translated by +lan (heridan. 1ondon, Tavistoc'. 1acan, Jac@ues, 1 8 . The Lan(ua(e of the Self) The .unction of Lan(ua(e in Psychoanalysis% Translated by +nthony Bilden. 7altimore, Johns 6op'ins ?ress. 1oomba, +nia, 1 8. Colonialism2Postcolonialism. /e" Critical idiom Series. ;ditor John <ra'a'is. 1ondon, Foutled%e. .oloney, =aitriona, and 6elen Thompson (eds$, )###. Introduction, 27order Traffic3 &ournal of Common"ealth and Postcolonial Studies) Special ,ssue) ,reland as Postcolonial. Ool.*, Jo.1, (prin%, "/15. .oore/0ilbert, 7art, 1 *. Postcolonial Theory) Conte-ts' Practises' Politics . Oerso, 1ondon and Jew Aor'.

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because she was a girl: Eugene OBrien, Mary Immaculate College , University of Limerick

E7rien, ;u%ene, )##". Seamus 3eaney and the Place of Writin(. 0ainesville, Mniversity ?ress of Dlorida. Fa%land/(ullivan, ;llie, 1 84. &acques Lacan and the Philosophy of Psychoanalysis . 1ondon, =room 6elm. (aid, ;dward, 1 #. Aeats and <ecolonization. /ationalism' Colonialism' and Literature. .inneapolis, Mniversity of .innesota ?ress, 4 / !. (arup, .adan (1 )$ Jac@ues 1acan. 6emel 6empsted, 6arvester Bheatsheaf. (myth, 0erry, 1 !. The ?ast, the ?ost, and the Mtterly =han%ed, Intellectual Fesponsibility and Irish =ultural =riticism, Irish (tudies Feview. Jo.1#, )!/ ) . (piva', 0ayatri =ha'ravorty, 1 8!. =an the (ubaltern (pea'P, (peculations on Bidow (acrifice, Bed%e *(8$ (Binter&(prin%$ , pa%es 1)#/1"#.

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+ thorou%h discussion of the usa%e of this term in a specifically Irish conte-t is to be found in Semicolonial &oyce% +bdul Jan.ohameds seminal article, The ;conomy of the .anichean +lle%ory, The Dunction of Facial <ifference in =olonialist 1iterature. Jan.ohameds thesis (referrin% to a " rd century ?ersian cult which saw 0od and (atan as absolutely separate and loc'ed in eternal conflict$ is that colonial literature subverts the traditional dialectic of self and Ether (Jan.ohamed, 1 !, 18$, and sets up a fetishized nondialectical fi-ed opposition between the self and the native (Jan.ohamed, 1 !, 1 $. =olonization, as an ideolo%y, power relationship and discourse, endorses such a fi-ed binary opposition, with the colonized self bein% defined in contradistinction to the colonized other, and thus Jan.ohameds point is well ta'en. I thin', %iven the e-amples cited, that this is a real dan%er for the postcolonial paradi%m. To allow oppositions to become reified is to attenuate the possibilities of influence, interaction, intersection and ultimately, transformation. It is also to predicate ones theoretical premises on the past as opposed to the future. If the colonizer&colonized opposition is seen as definitive within a culture, even thou%h, as in Ireland, the initial acts of colonization occurred hundreds of years a%o, then ipso facto, developments in the fields of politics, society and culture are limited by this reified definition of self and other. Issues of identity are ultimately settled by reference to this terminus a quo from which all such identificatory politics derives. (uch a perspective narrows the theoretical scope of postcolonial discourse, and oversimplifies comple- issues of interaction and influence (E7rien, )##", 1"8$. Ene of the 'ey %enerative te-ts of the postcolonial paradi%m is 0ayatri =ha'ravorty (piva's much/antholo%ized essay =an the (ubaltern (pea'. Indeed, this essay has %iven a name to a particular sub/%enre of postcolonialism, namely (ubaltern (tudies. 6owever, what is interestin% is that the full title of this essay is seldom seen, namely, =an the (ubaltern (pea'P, (peculations on Bidow (acrifice. Ene of the 'ey %enerative te-ts of the postcolonial paradi%m is 0ayatri =ha'ravorty (piva's much/antholo%ized essay =an the (ubaltern (pea'. Indeed, this essay has %iven a name to a particular sub/%enre of postcolonialism, namely (ubaltern (tudies. 6owever, what is interestin% is that the full title of this essay is seldom seen, namely, =an the (ubaltern (pea'P, (peculations on Bidow (acrifice. The ori%inal focus on this most essentialist silencin% of a %endered subaltern has often been lost in the on%oin% success of (piva's ar%ument. Dor an informative and wide/ran%in% discussion of Joyce and colonialism see Semicolonial &oyce. 6u%h 9enner has famously su%%ested that the destination that Dran' has in mind is more li'ely to be 1iverpool rather than 7uenos +ires, underlinin% the almost complete lac' of information %iven about Dran' in this story.