Meera Syal’s “The Traveller”Its Feminist Allegory and Later Echoes

  1. Noemí Pereira-Ares
Journal:
Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos

ISSN: 0210-6124

Year of publication: 2020

Volume: 42

Issue: 1

Pages: 1-19

Type: Article

DOI: 10.28914/ATLANTIS-2020-42.1.01 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

More publications in: Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos

Abstract

Committed to the exploration of the female experience—specifically the South Asian female experience—Meera Syal has often woven a feminist subtext into the fabric of her works. This is probably nowhere more evident than in “The Traveller” (1988), an allegorical short story that constitutes Syal’s more sustained effort to produce a feminist text per se. However, whereas Syal’s novels and screenplays have been accorded considerable critical attention, “The Traveller” has been largely overlooked. This article aims to help rectify this imbalance by reassessing the importance of this text within Syal’s oeuvre. Drawing on feminist discourse, it also provides a detailed analysis of the story, unveiling and examining its feminist allegory. As I contend, “The Traveller” provides a critique of the universalising tendencies at the core of much Western feminism, whilst also enunciating the coming into being of Black British feminism in the 1970s and 1980s. This notwithstanding, through the figure of the “traveller,” a strong metaphor throughout, Syal’s story also creates common ground, highlighting the need to recognise both differences and commonalities and to build bridges amongst South Asian women living at both ends of the East-West divide.

€ View funding

Funding information

1 The research underpinning this article was funded by the research project “Intersections: Gender and Identity in the Short Fiction of Contemporary British Women Writers” (FEDER/AEI-FEM2017-83084-P).

Funders

Bibliographic References

  • Ahmad, Rukhsana and Kadija George, eds. 1993. Six Plays by Black and Asian Women Writers. London: Aurora Metro.
  • Ahmed, Rehana, ed. 2004. Walking a Tightrope: New Writing from Asian Britain. London: Young Picador.
  • Amiel, Jon et al., dirs. 1985-1987. Tandoori Nights. Channel Four.
  • Ang, Ien. 2001. On Not Speaking Chinese: Living between Asia and the West. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Asian Women Writers Workshop, eds. 1988. Right of Way: Prose and Poetry from the Asian Women Writers’ Workshop. London: Women’s Press.
  • Bhanot, Kavita, ed. 2011. Too Asian, Not Asian Enough: An Anthology of New British Asian Fiction. Birmingham: Tindal.
  • Brown, Julie. 2013a. “Introduction.” In Brown 2013b, xv-xxviii.
  • Brown, Julie. ed. 2013b. American Women Short Story Writers: A Collection of Critical Essays. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Carby, Hazel V. 1997. “White Woman Listen! Black Feminism and the Boundaries of Sisterhood.” In Mirza 1997b, 45-53.
  • Carter, Angela. 1984. Nights at the Circus. London. Chatto.
  • Chadha, Gurinder, dir. 1991. A Nice Arrangement. British Screen Productions and Film Four International.
  • Chadha, Gurinder, dir. Bhaji on the Beach. Channel Four Films and Umbi Films.
  • Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.
  • Cixous, Hélène. (1975) 1976. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Translated by Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen. Signs 1 (4): 875-93.
  • De Emmony, Andy, dir. 2005. Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee. BBC.
  • Dunant, Sarah, ed. 1994. The War of the Words: The Political Correctness Debate. London: Virago.
  • Eagleton, Mary and Emma Parker, eds. 2015. The History of British Women’s Writing. Vol 10, 1970-Present. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Forsas-Scott, Helena. 2014. Textual Liberation: European Feminist Writing in the Twentieth Century. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Franklin, Cynthia G. 1997. Writing Women’s Communities: The Politics and Poetics of Contemporary Multi-Genre Anthologies. Madison: U of Wisconsin P.
  • Frembgen, Jürgen Wasim. 2006. “Honour, Shame, and Bodily Mutilation. Cutting off the Nose among Tribal Societies in Pakistan.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 16 (3): 243-60.
  • Hanson, Claire. 1989a. “Introduction.” In Hanson 1989b, 1-9.
  • Hanson, Claire, ed. 1989b. Re-Reading the Short Story. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
  • Hussain, Yasmin. 2005. Writing Diaspora: South Asian Women, Culture and Ethnicity. Farnham: Ashgate.
  • Irigaray, Luce. 1993. Sexes and Genealogies. New York: Columbia UP.
  • Jervis, Terry et al., dirs. 1991-1996. The Real McCoy. BBC.
  • Kalra, Virinder S., Raminder Kaur and John Hutnyk. 2005. Diaspora and Hybridity. London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi: Sage.
  • Kandiyoti, Deniz. 1994. “Identity and Its Discontents: Women and the Nation.” In Williams and Chrisman 1994, 376-91.
  • Korte, Barbara and Laura Lojo-Rodríguez, eds. 2019. Borders and Border Crossings in the Contemporary British Short Story. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Mahfouz, Sabrina, ed. 2017. The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write. London: Saqi Books.
  • McCarthy, Karen, ed. 2003. Kin: New Fiction by Black and Asian Women. London: Serpent’s Tail.
  • Mercer, Kobena. 1994. Welcome to the Jungle: New Positions in Black Cultural Studies. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Mirza, Heidi Safia. 1997a. “Introduction: Mapping a Genealogy of Black British Feminism.” In Mirza 1997b, 1-28.
  • Mirza, Heidi Safia, ed. 1997b. Black British Feminism. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 1988. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse.” Feminist Review 30: 65-88.
  • Moraga, Cherríe and Gloria Anzaldúa, eds. 1991. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. New York: Women of Color.
  • Morgan, Robin. 1984a. “Planetary Feminism: The Politics of the 21st Century.” In Morgan 1984b, 1-37.
  • Morgan, Robin, ed. 1984b. Sisterhood is Global: The International Women’s Movement Anthology. New York: Anchor.
  • Morrison, Toni. 1977. Song of Solomon. New York: New American Library.
  • Namjoshi, Suniti. 1981. Feminist Fables. London: Sheba.
  • Parini, Jay, ed. 2012. British Writers: Supplement XIX. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
  • Pereira-Ares, Noemí. 2018. Fashion, Dress and Identity in South Asian Diaspora Narratives: From the Eighteenth Century to Monica Ali. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Pereira-Ares, Noemí. 2019. “Sartorial Borders and Border Crossing in Contemporary Multi-ethnic Short Stories.” In Korte and Lojo-Rodríguez 2019, 149-67.
  • Pimlott, Steven, dir. 2002. Bombay Dreams. Andrew Lloyd Webber.
  • Procter, James, ed. 2000. Writing Black Britain 1948-1998: An Interdisciplinary Anthology. Manchester: Manchester UP.
  • Ranasinha, Ruvani. 2007. South Asian Writers in Twentieth-Century Britain: Culture in Translation. Oxford: Clarendon.
  • Ranasinha, Ruvani. 2015. “Redefining Britishness: British Asian Fiction.” In Eagleton and Parker 2015, 229-46.
  • Reid, Barbara E. 2000. Parables for Preaches. Collegeville, MN: Liturgian.
  • Reiter, Rayna R., ed. 1975. Toward an Anthropology of Women. New York: Monthly Review.
  • Ross, Leone and Yvonne Brissett, eds. 2001. Whispers in the Walls: New Black and Asian Voices from Birmingham. Birmingham: Tindal Street.
  • Rubin, Gayle. 1975. “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex.” In Reiter 1975, 157-210.
  • Sánchez-Arce, Ana María. 2012. “Meera Syal.” In Parini 2012, 301-14.
  • Sargeant, Jan, Tim King and Nicholas Mallett, dirs. 1985. Black Silk. BBC.
  • Schreiner, Olive. 1887. “Three Dreams in a Desert.” Fortnightly Review 42: 198-203.
  • Shahraz, Qaisra. 1988. “A Pair of Jeans.” In SuAndi et al. 1988, 43-54.
  • Smith, Barbara, ed. 1983. Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. New York: Women of Color.
  • SuAndi et al. 1988. Holding Out: Short Stories by Women. Manchester: Crocus.
  • Suzuki, Shunryu. 1970. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. New York: Weatherhill.
  • Syal, Meera. 1988. “The Traveller.” In Asian Women Writers Workshop 1988, 96-105.
  • Syal, Meera. 1993a. “Auntie’s Revenge.” Unpublished play.
  • Syal, Meera. 1993b. “My Sister-Wife.” In Ahmad and George 1993, 111-59.
  • Syal, Meera. 1994. “PC: GLC.” In Dunant 1994, 116-32.
  • Syal, Meera. (1996) 1997. Anita and Me. London: Flamingo.
  • Syal, Meera. 1996. “Influences.” Interview. New Statesman and Society, 10 April, 21.
  • Syal, Meera. 2000. “Finding My Voice.” In Procter 2000, 252-55.
  • Syal, Meera. (1999) 2000. Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee. London: Anchor.
  • Syal, Meera. (2015) 2016. The House of Hidden Mothers. London: Black Swan.
  • Syal, Meera and Jacqueline Shapiro. 1983. “One of Us.” Unpublished play.
  • Williams, Patrick and Laura Chrisman, eds. 1994. Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory: A Reader. New York and London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
  • Wilson, Amrit. 1978. Finding a Voice: Asian Women in Britain. London: Virago.
  • Wilson, Amrit. 2006. Dreams, Questions, Struggles: South Asian Women in Britain. London: Pluto.
  • Wood, Nick and Gareth Carrivick, dirs. 1998-2001. Goodness Gracious Me. BBC.
  • Wyatt, Jean. 2017. Love and Narrative Form in Toni Morrison’s Later Novels. Athens: U of Georgia P.
Data source: Dialnet