Daniel Robison

28 June 2006

Research Posting #2:  South Asian Literature for Young Adults

            In my last research posting, I explored East Asian literature for young adults, and found quite a bit of literature in professional journals about this topic; however, these same journals were quite silent when it came to South Asia.  So, in trying to discover more about this literature for my very multi-ethnic classroom, I would not be able to support what I found with professional academic discussion on the subject.  I think that this is largely due to the fact that South Asians are a relatively new immigrant group when compared to East Asians.  Fortunately, I was able to find several web sites that explicitly discuss this issue.  My search began with an organization called DesiLit, which is a group of South Asian readers and writers working to support South Asian literature in America.  It is here that I first heard of the South Asian diaspora.  This lead me to Pooja Makhijani, a woman dedicated to bringing to our attention the need for young adult literature by and about South Asians.  Finally and serendipitously, I came back to a young woman whose short but notorious career I have followed for the past several months, Kaavya Viswanathan.

            Diaspora is a term that we have been using in class recently, mostly to describe the Jewish Diasporas and the Black American diaspora, but South Asians consider the recent emigration from the region to be a diaspora as well.  The organization DesiLit states that it “was founded in 2004, and works to build support for South Asian and diaspora writers […].”  In order to support these people, DesiLit has a magazine and sponsors festivals and chapter groups, but for my purposes, they have booklists, which unusually includes lists for kids.  The South Asian Women’s Network (SAWNET) created one such list and organized it by age group so that teachers from elementary school through high school will have a great place to start when looking for books to bring into their classrooms.  These books are not by the authors that we have heard about in class this year, but they do make for a promising start (especially the ones with SAWNET reviews) for any teacher attempting to bring multi-ethnic literature into the classroom.

            A second booklist on DesiLit’s site was the one created by Pooja Makhijani.  This site was most impressive for its depth in aiding teachers.  First she defines South Asia for us: 

South Asia is a subregion of Asia, usually taken as comprising the modern countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The concept of "South Asia" is useful when referring to the countries of the region as a group. The descriptor can be useful when discussing issues that affect the common history, culture, etc. of the countries.

She, like DesiLit, refers to the South Asian diaspora.  This allows her to talk directly about writers abroad writing in English rather than writers living in India writing in English.  Just as with SAWNET, Makhijani includes a booklist, but she includes non-Asian writers who are writing about South Asia.  I am not sure how kosher this is, but I would hate to think that we would limit writers to only writing about people of the same race and gender and age and religion and nationality, etc. as the writers themselves.  But what is most helpful about the site is her argument for South Asian literature for young adults.  She discusses her efforts to read about others like herself and how difficult it was.  She was limited to The Secret Garden and The Jungle Book.  Not exactly a great variety.  For teachers who only teach the “classics” to young adults, they don’t realize the importance of students like Makhijani reading about themselves.  She states, “Finding themselves in books gives children a sense of their culture, history, and importance - especially when their cultures and experiences have been marginalized by the mainstream.”  Our non-Anglo students need to have this sense of self.  Even if we as teachers don’t “teach” these books, we can be aware of them, talk about them, make them available.  It will be appreciated.

            One of the points that Makhijani makes was and is the difficulty in finding these texts, especially young adult books that feature South Asians in contemporary settings (and probably more so books for boys).  Kaavya Viswanathan claims to have had this problem, and it is what more than anything led her to write her debut novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life.  Apparently, she, like so many young people, wanted to read books about people like herself.  As has been well publicized, this attempt was made possible by a clear and wide use of plagiarism.  Budhos argues, though, that this statement about the lack of South Asian writing for young adults does not hold up.  She points out many of the writers that appear on both of the above book lists.  She even discusses how the literature has become “a challenging, fascinating form” that is becoming more and more respected in the literary world.  Furthermore, Budhos points out that Opal isn’t really Indian-American, and my understanding is that that is because Opal could be exchanged for any girl in America.  This does make me return to a discussion I made in my last posting concerning multi-ethic vs. melting pot literature.  Having to look beyond just literary merit and to the ethnic identity merit is something else that we as teachers need to consider when either teaching or promoting specific books.  And it is something that will be difficult and take time to navigate.

            Working with as wide a variety of students as I do can be challenging.  In the past, teachers had book lists of classics ready to go and really didn’t have to worry too much about how to update their department libraries, but today we do have such a wide variety of students and, even more, a great desire to reach them with reading and to get our Anglo students to share in and appreciate other cultures.  The sites above have provided me with great lists, with justification, and with questions.  As I continue to teach and grow and work with my students, I am sure that I will discover even more that will enable me to provide as open a world as possible.

Works Cited

Budhos, Marina.  “Scandal Points to Real Teenage Story of Mimicry.”  Startribune.Com 1 June 2006. 24 June 2006 <http://www.startribune.com/389/story/457799.html>.

DesiLit.  2004.  DesiLit.  24 June 2006 <http://www.desilit.org/>.

South Asia and the South Asian Diaspora in Children’s Literature.  2006.  Pooja Makhijani. 24 June 2006 <http://www.poojamakhijani.com/sakidlit.html>.