Minority Cosmopolitanism SUSAN KOSHY thni Canons and Cosmopolitan Fictions HE GESTALT OF SCALE” THAT SHAPES OU ty and the cosmopolitan is due fh the global isconcsives 1st the former snd por reston, past and present roductonin networks al ocala sn sae f cosmopolitan, coacinsgetleiumstenscnom ——apoitn fords are treated with salutary neglect—countedin bib bterogen cations th ethnic here she diversity born in fewin Ha Seo cov Twoductioing canons icky business, bas only Become topography ofliter transformed a wt taught and tranlted i Sea Hagedon “Asian American short tin, Cha ‘Dead (993), and a reviewer forthe Nev York ofethni oversueth hat herebecome aterm can squeeze in under o Biker i word ertare—iteuntenaiity 25 tile for first collection —auggerts the diiesly of (general eader—revel the gap between then ternatonaization ofthc erry produ andthe nation enti eeterla for organizing counapolitanism the sequel volume, Charlie Chan Is Dead 2, pb shed a decade ater. blazed ons cover isthe subtitle At Home in the World. nthe ig ec etoanert and ex plore wh we areas Aslans, Asian Americans, Her persis: tent engagement with cosmon for reflect the continuing his framework a the cosmopolitan visions “The ambivaes analytics im ethnicthe marginalisation of race, elhnicity ‘non-Western cultures indi ropolitanisi, The pos of eos the new ifnatin centrifugal energis—Is centripetal cap inten afiiations of race culture and ts centrifuga versions of cosmopolitan theorizt though the main characters inthe ores cover a range of eat iran, refugee, reside a racial minoritys ion cin er dv he oppoion between the ethnic anc va thecale tices oft the storie foeas 09 focus ingore “thenone andthe che sndato tunbor ‘on Thee erpthe everyday ho ton, snsetle the given mea ‘snd belonging (257) ish the ele traversing aspects of everday pro (On the one and, ft r00m in on sal happenings sod Circumscribed settings, nantning a sata yehorn and = formal and thematic con the light, and lee le Theylight up seg). On the other by racing indivdoal sd storie agaist a ever siting cosmopel tan horizon of meaning ception ofits ootes osmopolitanism. Tae locale shits constant offering glimpses of constellation of characters Indian, Ame ‘an, and Indian America, living in or mov ing between the Ualted State, India, and Britain, Racal and national difleesces, often ‘etion, a chance encounters, exemplary of Lahiri’: stsof ethale orn univer fects rviewer ki To court single lence, 2nd single fe aris, dispersed es have crated the background for ys experiences een South Asi, ined, disp permeates moderns nity toan unusual degree, 's characters are educated middleclass Indians who migrate to or a ed in the tween politcal mape and affective com, niles and between places places of belo oatot incongruence between instead of being perceived at refugees Sacro forthe asa resource for rethinking thet tional membership. Inthe ein, another dia spore Bengal writer, Amierpreter of Maladies, respondence o lag betwee hip characterize both ends political body with sovereign jon over a territory) in both locales Js omphasizod in narratives of characters who srhave formal cient \ excluded from of tangeatal sion, rac, class and vexulty configure the oem of proper stirenship. oe whose sorbitan ctizens. ginces of ave typically been viewed fs suspect by sates, 1 argue that exorbitant titivenhip fers a imaginings of commun ing My use invokes the conntations of wildness, extravagance, abrermality, ex Tous instance ying scope of law” (Exorbtat"). perience of spre lata dap of displacement iter of Maladies, dasporlc hip embodies a subseraatc alien ss actoss generations and geog ional identity. Thus, the dasporic en becomes a vehicle for mi sropolitanism by eeconfiguring "imperfect rl mt isasa mode of the earth. The stores train the ie aspect of et ‘enship, on the processes of detachment and reattachment o astaral soto question the inDissporie citizenship offers Lah cle for exploring emerge as Bruce Robbins observe, toward emergent forms of tanssatonal connectivity hee field framce ate captured in the unusual ven ec bec. which many of het ons mach dian American ke immigrant orf Bangladesh visor ther home, ahondred- gee tate the subject of La ‘year-old White American landlady and her Labiet's stories explore naturalization Indian tenant, an Indian img 0 sa formal proces by whi ship is that ext shlepat practic nace Havth the piv herfcthip is acquired but also a¢ 2 social process purpos turns of cre snd tonal hee fiction: "Humao natare any more than a potato, replanted, inthe sme worn-ot soil My had other birthplaces, a es the native-stranger binary sn om af the passage s pensive, ing distinction between ing Hawthorne's hopeful for place, 2 minority coe stories in Unaceuconeed rounded in dasporc citizen acer wo extend Oe our guides, door Tools into Wnaccustomed guests care workers, and tema tarth”becomesin Lait space of uncertain tlonay force undercut by theerated guest ‘whose welcome wens thin asthe community ial stato is evident inher is nat only an 2 figure eho exposes the het gendered codes that structure cyand agelaywastethe iy, and her ob Thowg ral ercumstances this ‘was no job fra worn, she honored there mine Furthermore, lyand possessions in thetur- nd abt ines of amily, rope ‘through which belonging racraize, Her uproot tthe storys mobility, may belong to ‘nly in name. The The ioe ie further re Sanjeev’ ought the besa won a perente ucging, balks the ems out oftheir ome. les delight in and Sanjecr’s aver: 1 0 the Christian knickkeacks disallow Horward reading of naturalization to cordon off and preserve his ty his home while ‘outside tare defeated bh tries and his wifes resistance. On the other hhand, her giddy pleasure in the mementos sd her img m suggest ‘svoidanc from the dilemmas of alien | | L reners Ch the party b matter int espace a other aust Tome even ndleavesti in which he mn is negotiate. At the end, Sanjeev is esignod to ving the thrty pound silver displayed on their mantelpiece, i confidence that ownership secures og gives way toa weary ucktowledg ‘meat ofthe limits of his authority. ‘A seane of hosp the paty begin, an exhausted spectator. ases on dramatic cognitions of ‘unhomelines expressed in shock tersoe, expected “pang of fet for Twinkle indicates bis revgoltion of the mesy entanglements of tac necessary imperction of sb home even at home. ‘he feling of not being thome isa marke of dasporic Bork subjets inde beewsen nations culturally. The ste the latent of displacement on rangement aod ordinary affect of everyday stroctuzal shift associated wth gebliaton, reer of Maladies, "The Third andSoy comepotanin [paca i effete te er modes of| the pressures of accommodation of ctizenship a tranogress the Is les and strangers through the familiar Kentty categories of Ibu, wie mother, American, and whereas oma charged “sexy” and “romantic” “Sexy” the and thvazt the striking married Indien lover compl es of intercultural invoked ony tobe undermined the beterosexual exemplary relegated its onsip to his tion of one kind of inimacy (romantic love) into tw others (hast tenant bond, arranged cho m8 fe The transport es deny thematic cent ‘nd ironize its palit the ethics of hos Second, and more focuses naturalization through the cosmo: obliquely, Lahr rerissthe narrative cone: suse aioturt with a bond w ‘sore toothboth plots knew wl involving Mes. Croft and Mala are point- caught up but they ae nr describes the tnorofhis utter {American fag moon landing) and swerves its prefered abject. hen ‘splendid The Wocut rand takes the for ae Bro on when Mala tad up “The quickening ofthe naseators sympathy es hie days sa ee action. Hs epiy infuses with felng the word with which she Int ever taught him to speak his admir eA stunned as Twas, Tle Iheambiguty of ay” suggests oth the mais ofthe repetition ofthe word (Uinew ‘what had tsp) andthe inner compulsion (tem ofer an allegory for aecive energies it marks the detached tone inhi ‘ives way tothe ebdued amazer bes: "Tknoe tht my achlevemet is have caten, each pes inwhich have lepe As ordinary ast 98). The se of anapho force of afets that sw tween Mala and Mrs, Ce counters the archetypal grant love a romantic desire ‘hor for iseigrton paturaliation ie establishes “unvomantic—ala turns ava fom hi her patents and he reads his guidebook by asi bers loving sine qua non of mart propriate exprestes individal rather than that the indivi attachment 10 is wife {nd his new country have taken root from ts beginnings. Te ten to other scros diferences, an to chal the implicit heteronormaivty of conven jet force of her fanates to scramble the hierarchy of ales, bringing the sm unexpected relation tothe rowing ala expectations ox of iter. For ‘inal Continent the epic short story Wit toro stands in fora generat flass pos-1965 Indian male immigrant, y sccompaniedo followed by wives, the sted mo heme sentoft numerab everyday theteivla ransore posible Sion tore ssryaffe the dase sf ecoaor or. Thgin their place “each mi each pers in which Iba let.” This attention ko enexpay ie brings into view the dislocations proguced by migratio froma perspective far rowers else, inthe wold isnot de everyday though typically as ‘he tril repetitive, and commonplace con ity becauee it "eveals transformed, reveals the tree, tnd tensions ofthe prese tary atlects a labor. She melds the the daspoic citizen tothe figure o worker to ender vse the urhomaly acs ‘economic migration and low-end affective labor. The disporic citizen as care worker apoting ako eeval the centrality structures tothe mm by compasing ndertheoried aspect ofthe 1985 Im ‘Act: the connection between the inks the affective pre le like the Seas to those o and the sory probes the conta fictions and displaced effects ofthese ar rangements by considering who Active labor at what cot, and fo he new global economy. The mar through which the subjective pres Stes ofa postmodern economy ae exploreates unspo kin and st nd home position as of ahouse key marks se mari hers. Ds ft quinteseendally American form: sympathe story that ing of age. The paral ‘hed | foregroum ‘casing 3 shadow over Mrs. Sea, ion to independence. The story | backgro husband « workin workplace Mrs Sen, tal arang Famosos ial Wee nebneen Mis. Sen's | sficaments i affirmed through the | | female heates unspoken sification ofthis loss through the isltion of the conjugal elaionship, which i masked by snd homie are redrawn through Mrs. Sen's sporadic attentiveness, absence, an rogate parent andhost.worker. Hee refusal. as arged space ofthe home, two work ing methers encounter each ather—one 8 mother who works, the other a worker who mothers, The tensions of the exchange are manage by the ternative el "Affective labor, pid vides a ‘unpaid, pro where the ethical and econor Imperatives of care collide in x postmodera productivity as scemingly distant and disparate as Et and Mrs, Sen tral network teen the home kin and stranger. The jaxtape ebrough ts cross-cutting pet ‘Mr. Sen's marriage Mir. Sen ana changes, Mrs Sen and Eliot's mothers worl Mes, Sen, the afestve ack tal arrangements of tfny kindy nother tendo word inthe ening fr lhe seghtorbood women brings josie thio and then ey it nan enormous cide onthe et four bald Inthsplcewhesbin eohestegitme 1 Hesbetween these character, Labi expha ‘ant wimetmes dein iomach sence” sizes the importance of mapping the ‘he darpted denies contained indi renew word spd the inten- spor cizenship resident lien immigrant,tenon to the every and aoc of ae shape the ef natealization brings of containing fn etizensip without remainder. sted of simply resolving the problem ofbelonging by fserting a claim to ational membership het Stories also ttend to the cosmopoltas ethical ned in an unomely i sMoaned cath” Reversing the ri m embraces Being at Works Creo163] Scmkaty Go eg ty 5