Essay Topic

This week’s subject, Postcolonial Approaches and Global Intellectual History, came at perfect timing for my essay research. During the unconference last weekend, I decided to focus on theory and intellectual history that will help frame my later project. My project proposal is to research: In what ways have attitudes towards female bodies within the British Empire affected their role in hunger strikes over time? This question and early research have piqued my interest in the intersectionality of being a colonized individual and a woman, almost a double subaltern. Relating this idea to hunger strikes, Kevin Grant explained, “Like women, colonized men in Ireland and India turned to voluntary starvation as a way to combat a government that recognized their biological right to exist, but not their political standing.” I’m curious about the Indian and Irish subaltern within hierarchies of the British Empire, and then how that is two-fold for women. Some articles I am reading right now are:

Fasting for the public: Irish and Indian sources of Marion Wallace Dunlop’s 1909 hunger strike, Joseph Lennon 

Decentring empire : Britain, India, and the transcolonial world / edited by Durba Ghosh, Dane Kennedy. 

Subaltern Women’s Narratives: Strident Voices, Dissenting Bodies, Edited By Samraghni Bonnerjee 

From this, I decided my essay aim is to study postcolonial Ireland and India as the subaltern and what that means in a gender studies context to help frame my larger project.  Some threads of study I’m interested in are traditions of fasting in both Irish and Indian premodern culture, colonial experiences in Ireland and India, and postcolonial theory and orientalism focusing on the portrayal of subalterns (thank you Jemma for the suggestion!). As mentioned in my project proposal, hunger striking has gendered, feminized connotations and I’m interested in learning more about this idea in relation to bodily autonomy, agency, and fasting as a last resort of power.  

In addition, what makes Ireland and India particularly interesting to research is their long-term histories of fasting and famine. I am curious how a community that has experienced passive famine responds differently to hunger striking. There should be interesting links to government, and responsibilities of nourishment.

Speaking with Dr. Banerjee has directed me towards looking at the etymology of the word boycott, and its possible Irish origins. Looking at the etymology of terms such as boycott, striking, fasting, hunger, etc will likely enlighten their connotations and denotations. I am also planning to watch the 2008 movie Hunger, which is about the 1981 Irish hunger strikes, a topic of my project. Dr. Banerjee also directed me towards the works of Margaret Nivedita and James Cott.

I am super excited about this project. It will be a lot of reading! But I think (and hope!) that it will be engaging and rewarding. I requested the following books to be purchased by the library (who knew I could do that!) and look forward to diving in.

Imperial Affinities: Nineteenth-Century Analogies and Exchanges Between India and Ireland by S. B. Cook

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/463881358

Ireland and India : colonies, culture and empire by Tadhg Foley;  Maureen O’Connor

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1051434517

Enemies of Empire: New Perspectives on Imperialism, Literature and History. Eóin edt Flannery 

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1006131501

Indian suffragettes : female identities and transnational networks, Sumita Mukherjee

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1048391633