Oxford University Press and The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to MELUS.http://www.jstor.orgIn Search of a Mother Tongue: Locating Home in Diaspora Author(s): Sophia Lehmann Source:MELUS, Vol. 23, No. 4, Theory, Culture and Criticism (Winter, 1998), pp. 101-118Published by: on behalf ofOxford University Press The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS)Stable URL:http://www.jstor.org/stable/467830Accessed: 03-08-2015 10:18 UTCYour use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jspJSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsIn Searchofa Mother Tongue:Locating Homein Diaspora Sophia Lehmann San Jose, California Placefor me takes theform of memory and language. -Ilan Stavan, "TheOtherVoice" The locus of truth is always extraterritorial; its diffusion is made clandestine by the barbedwire and watch-towers of national dogma. -George Steiner, "Our Homeland, The Text" ColonialismandtheHolocausthave jointlyconspired tocreatea legacy of globaldisplacement, inwhich people are robbedoftheir homelandandthe language in whichtheir culture hasbeenformed. Disparatediasporic communitiesarenowfacedwiththeshared struggle of articulating a cultural identity in which history and home residein language, rather than nation, andin which language itself mustberecreatedsoas to bespeak the specificity ofcultural experi- ence.The situationsof Jewish andCaribbean writersseema particu- larly usefulsourceof comparison, in that the Jewish-originated term diaspora becomesa significant onefor understanding Caribbean ex- periences, and theCaribbean ideaof language as homebecomesrec- iprocallyedifying with respect to Jewish American writing. Both Caribbean and Jewish Americancommunitiesstriveto mold English intoa language whichcanbecomea homewithin diaspora. For Caribbeanwomenwritersthetaskis doublychallenging: not only must theystruggle tosubvert aspects of the language whichare cul- turally alien, but they are further leftto grapple withthe patriarchal assumptions inwhich English isrooted. Jewish Americanwriters confront a different form of doublealienationin the form of a double diaspora: first from the symbolic and biblicalhomelandof Palestine, andthen again after theHolocaustandthedeathof bothGerman- Jewish and Yiddishculture. Theterm diaspora was originally coinedtodescribethecircum- stancesof the Jews wholivedoutsideof Palestineafter the Babylon- MELUS, Volume 23, Number4 (Winter 1998) This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsSOPHIALEHMANN ian exile.Since then, its application has been enlarged to include any group whohasbeenscatteredfar fromits homeland, particularly withreferencetothedescendantsof Africanswhoweretornfrom their nativecontinentand brought to the"NewWorld" as slavesbe- ginning in the seventeenth century. The linguisticyoking of diasporic Jews andBlacksisindicativeofthecommon problems they facein trying to create a senseof identity and cultural continuity in diaspora. Writersfromboth groups themselves openlyacknowledge the similarity ofthe problem that they face. Among Caribbeanwomen writers, MichelleCliff seemsto feel particularlykeenly the parallels betweenthe plight of the Jews andthat of Caribbean peoples. In The Land of Look Behind, she begins the poem "A Visit to the Secret Annex" witha comparison betweenthehorrorsoftheHolocaustandthose inflicted by colonialisminthe Caribbean, whichresultsina particu- lar senseof resonancebetweenherselfand AnneFrank: "I wasborn later / notintothis world. / The trees werenotthesame / The hor- rors notexact-butsimilar" (104). In Abeng as well, the narrator ap- proaches herownCaribbean historythroughlearning aboutthe Holocaust.For her, AnneFrank becomesa symbol of botha voice which survived, in writing, theculturalannihilationoftheHolo- caust, andalsoof a femalevoice strongenough to contestthe white, maleversionof history Cliff has beenhanded by her father. Jewish parallels resonatefor MichelleCliff not only in terms of the Holocaustbutalsointermsofthedilemmas posedby the ability to pass as white.In The Land of Look Behind, Cliff mentionsthe Maranos, the Jews infifteenth centurySpain whowereforcedto pretendthey hadconvertedto Christianity. In thesame text, shewritesof light- skinned Jamaicans like herselfwho"were able to pass into the white American world-saving their blacknessfor other Jamaicans or for trips home; insome cases, forgetting it altogether"(60). The danger of succumbing to the pressure to pass, both culturally and physically, andas a result forgetting, is what gives the urgency to Cliff's project of writing herselfback into her history andculture. Forgetting and isolation, thecircumstanceswhichboththeNazis andthecolonizerstriedto enforce, become self-imposed whenone passes as white. Passing for Cliff istantamountto being defined by others: "It wasnevera question of passing. It wasa question of hid- ing...I wouldbe whatever figure these foreign imaginations cared for meto be.It wouldbeso simple toletothersfillinfor me" (Land of Look Behind 71). Passing wasoftentantamounttosurvivalfor both Black ex-slavesand European Jews during theHolocaust. However, theresultof passing is not onlyforgetting, as Cliff indicates, but also being cutoff from one's community, the group withwhichonefeels 102 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsIN SEARCH OF A MOTHER TONGUE culturaland linguistic affinities:"It couldbecomea lifelivedwithin myself. A lifecut off" (Landof LookBehind 71). The paradox ofassimilationinthatittendstoexacerbaterather thanalleviatethesenseof marginality for whichit was supposed to be the cure. "Gentle readers," Cynthia Ozick writes, "may or may not be surprised atthis self-portrait ofa third-generation American Jew...perfectly at homeand yet perfectly insecure, perfectly accultur- atedand yetperfectlymarginal"(qtd. inShaked 169). Gershon Shakedrefers to the protagonists of Jewish diaspora literature which attempts to be universaland repudiates cultural specificity as "dera- cinated" (173), a term which implies botha lack of rootsandof race: In casting offor repressing one's"tribal" affiliation, onealsolosesa senseof roots-of history and tradition. Within boththe Jewish andCaribbean diaspora, theconditionsof diaspora are intensifiedwitheach subsequentgeneration. Contem- porary Jewish and Caribbean writers documentin their stories the in- creasedattenuationof community as youngergenerations move fromthe country or theshtetl community intothe anonymity ofthe city and thenabroad. AdrienneRich writes, The danger lies in forgetting what we had. The flow between genera- tions becomes a trickle, grandchildren tape-recordinggrandparents' memories on special occasions perhaps-no casual storytellingjogged by daily life, there being no shared daily life what with migrations, ex- iles, diasporas,rendings, the searchfor work. (78) Underthesecircumstancesof heightened isolation, the needto create communitythroughwriting and language becomesevenmore pressing. Living in diaspora, Afro-Caribbeanand Jewish American people are redefining thetermsofcommunal identity sothat nationality is notthefixedor definitivebasis. George Steiner writesthat Jewsare, "by definition, conscientious objector[s]: tothe vulgarmystique of the flag andthe anthem, to the sleep of reasonwhich proclaims'my country,right or wrong,' tothe pathos and eloquence ofcollective mendacitiesonwhichthenation-state-beit mass-consumermer- cantile technocracy or a totalitarian oligarchy-builds it power and aggression"(21).1 Rather, in diaspora,language worksbothto define andtocreatethissenseof commonality between people whoshare history and experience. Yet defining onefrontier or onebasefrom whichthese people can writein community is difficult, given thenatureof diaspora. Rhoda Reddock writes, "In an area consistingprimarily ofthedescendants 103 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsSOPHIA LEHMANN of migrants, thesearchfora national identitygoesbeyond the boundariesoftheindividual island, or indeedoftheCaribbeanre- gion as a whole" (62). Carole Boyce Davies expands onthe impossi- bility of imposinggeographic boundariesonCaribbean identity in Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject. She sug- gests that the veryconcept of"nation" is"a male formulation," and insteadworksfrom BenedictAnderson'sideaof "imagined commu- nities"which rely ona culturalbondratherthana racialor geo- graphic one (12-13). The notionof developing cultural allegiances isan important one, for it helps to overturn essentialistconstructionsof race and ethnicity. Racially relatedcultural practices are basedinlearned ideas, rather than geneticcomposition. If the boundarieswhichdefineoneculture and language are not rigidly defined, then neither are the boundaries whichdividethatculturefromotherculturesinsurmountable (Mintz Introduction). The American emphasis on difference worksto obscurethefactthatmostAmericans (includingpeople fromthe Caribbean) "share thecommon quality ofa foreignpast" anda con- temporarydiaspora(Mintz 2). Yet in countrieswhichare founded according to nationalist prin- ciples, a tensionarisesfor people whodefinethemselvesinterms of diaspora ratherthannation.Shakeddefinesthis problem through thenotionof"dual identity"(167): a Jewish identity indi- aspora which perforce includesa culturaland religious traditionat oddswiththe non-Jewish cultureand language ofthe country at large. The tensionbetweennationand culture is one whichCarole Boyce Davies emphasizes with respect to Afro-Caribbean people. Shere- places nationhood by theideaof "migratorysubjectivity," inwhich culturebecomesa concept which spansgeographic boundaries.An analog ofDavies' migratory subject isthe wandering Jew; theterm was initially a medievalChristian condemnationof the Jew whowas fatedtowalktheearthas punishment for scorning the crucifixion, yet it has becomea metaphor for the diasporic Jew whois continual- lyreformulating an identity in successiveexiles. Through the necessity of redefinition, diaspora itselfbecomesthe basisfor creating cultureand bridging culturaldifferences: The uni- formity ofa fixedor rigidly boundedcultureis replacedby more open andmutableoneinwhichthe spaces between languages and countriesbecomesitesof newcreation rather than marginality. For womenin the Caribbean, creating a language which expresses andembodiestheir history and experience isan arduousand ongo- ingprocess. Since thearrival of enslavedAfricansin theseventeenth 104 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsIN SEARCH OF A MOTHER TONGUE century, cultureintheCaribbeanhasbeena functionof migration and diaspora. To definethe experiencelinguistically, life began for the AfricanslaveswiththeMiddle Passage, a phrase which implies animmediate decentering and liminality, aswellasan ongoing process-motion, as opposed to fixity. Torn from different geograph- icareasanddifferent cultures, thecommon point of origin forthe slaveswasthis oceanic crossing. British colonizers sought to eclipse this fluiditybyimposing artifi- cially delineated geographic and linguistic boundaries. They referred to the Americasas the New World, a term whichservedto eclipse the continuing connectionwiththe"old worlds"from whichbothslaves andcolonizerscame.Not only didthetermrefuseto acknowledge thecultures already inexistenceinthe Americas, butit overlooked theoceanic passage and implied a clean break, a self-sufficientand new"world" unto itself, with clearly definedboundariesandnoun- ruly linksto other cultures. Concomitantwiththenotionofa NewWorld wasthe imposition of standard English, a language whichwas presented as globallyap- plicable withinthe parameters ofthisnew world, yet whichinfact expressed the historicalrealitiesof only a smallnumberof people in the Caribbean, and expressed thecurrent experiences of absolutely no one, the landitself being alien to pre-existingEnglishvocabulary. In thefour hundred years sincetheMiddle Passage, the challenge for peopleliving in the English-speaking Caribbean has beento sub- vertthe imposition ofstandard English andmoldit intoa language whichreflectstherealitiesoftheCaribbean peoples. AsMarlene Nourbese Philip writes, "In thevortexofNewWorld slavery, the African forged newanddifferent words, developedstrategies to im- press her experience onthe language. The formalstandard language was subverted, turned upside down, inside out, and evensometimes erased" (She Tries Her Tongue 17). Unlikethe codified, "standard" English, Caribbean demotics developedorally. Since African families andcommunitieshadbeenforced apart, therewasnocentrallocus forthis process. VariantsofCreole developed forthe necessity of communicationbetweenslavesandas part ofa rebellion against the imperialistimposition ofa language which denigrated ordenied Black existence. Philip describestheendeavortocreate a language whichis capa- bleof describing female, Caribbean reality asa searchfora mother tongue. BecauseconnectionswithAfricancivilizationshavebeen erasedor suppressed intheWestern European tradition, Philip writesthat she has becomean "epistemologicalorphan" ("Managing the Unmanageable"299). She feelsthat shehasnochoicebutto use 105 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsSOPHIA LEHMANN English as the base from whichshe works, but it is a father tongue for her, nota mother tongue; an international, written language rather than a localizedand personalized one (She TriesHer Tongue18). Writers suchas Merle Hodge haveturned to Creole as a solutionto the problemsposedbywriting in standard English. She definesCre- ole ("a fusionof West African syntax and the modified vocabulary of oneor another Europeanlanguage") as her mother tongue, in oppo- sitiontothe"international language" of English("Challenges"204). Yet the danger of usingonly a localor demotic language is boththat of repeating theartificial andenforcedboundarieswhichtheBritish tried to impose withthe introductionof standard English, and of iso- lating one'sselffromotherculturalcommunities.As Philip writes, "Too often [dialects] remaina parallel andclosed experience"(She TriesHer Tongue19). To phrase it differently, the goal is to create a language whichfunc- tionsas bothaninternational language, asstandard English does, and alsoas a "tribal" language-alanguage which expresses the par- ticularrealitiesofthe community withwhichoneidentifies (Ozick, "Toward a New Yiddish").Philip endeavorsto writefrom"the con- frontation betweenthe formal and the demotic," and asserts, "It is in the continuumof expression from standard to Caribbean English that the veracity of the experience lies" (She TriesHer Tongue18). To return to the metaphor of the Middle Passage: In a country whichhas been migratory sincethefirst slave ships arrived, it seems appropriate to createa language inthe spaces between conflicting culturesrather than withinthe rigid parameters of oneculture or country. The emphasis I have placed on fluidity is not meantto obscure the violenceof the process.Wrestling for the space in whichto speak and writeisan act which irrevocably alters bothinteractiveculturesand languages: a process akintoHomiBhabha's concept of hybridity, but, fromthe perspective ofCaribbean women, a hybridity ofvio- lenceand rupture rather than simplyexchange or mutualinfluence. Opal PalmerAdisausesthe metaphor "She scrape sheknee"tode- scribethe process: Womenwho scrape theirkneesare thosewho "dare to bemoreor otherthanwhat goodgirls are supposed to be" and continueto question and act in defianceof the lawsand language imposedby thosein power, in order to surviveand be heard (145). Creating a new language involvesboth reviving or reinterpreting oldforms and also creating newforms. In the Caribbean this often in- volvesthe pairing of African rhythms andmusicwith Creole/ Eng- lishwords.Kamau Brathwaite writes, 106 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsIN SEARCH OF A MOTHER TONGUE English [nation language] may be in terms of its lexicon, but it is not English in terms of its syntax. And English it certainly is not in terms of its rhythm and timbre, its own sound explosion.... Often it is an Eng- lish which is like a howl, or a shout, or a machine-gun, or the wind, or a wave.It isalsolikethe blues.Andsometimesit is English and Africanat the same time. (266) Musicsurvivedthe Middle Passage better than words, becauseof its ability to transcendcultural specificity and communicate experiences whichwerein other ways silenced. Orally, Caribbean languages subvertstandard Englishthrough the useof African rhythms. In writing,theydisrupt standard English lit- erary forms throughchallenging the linearity of the narrative. In her novel Angel, Merle Collins interrupts the sequence of chapters, which are titledinstandard English, withoutburstsof darklyprinted sec- tion headings in Grenadian Creole. Andin her theoretical workBlack Women, Writing and Identity, Carole Boyce Davies interrupts her own introductionwithwhatshecalls "migration horror stories": Thesenarrativeshave theirown separate textualities, and are deliberate attempts to break through the tiredness, fake linearity and posturing of academicdiscourse.Horror disrupts seamless narrativesof people and place. (4) Not only does non-linearityexpose the artificiality of"seamlessnar- ratives," butit incorporates an elementof orality-the notionsof in- teraction and of repetition-intowriting. Fluidity of contentand form seemsto be especially relevantto the experience and writing of women, from the time of slavery to the pre- sent.Thisis perhaps in part duetotheirexclusionfrommale Caribbean as wellas colonialistcultural expression. For womenwho areaccustomedto inhabitingmarginalspaces, the ability tocross boundariesisa relatedoccurrence.The tropes of bothMiddlePas- sage and margin thus become empowering rather than disempower- ing locations, despite the troubled history behindthem. As Philip in- sightfully remarks, onecould equally wellcall the margin a frontier, therebycasting it ina fittinglyrevolutionarylight and avoiding the negative connotations ("Managing" 300). Asis suggestedby the metaphor ofa mother tongue, thefemale body becomesan important sourcefor Caribbean womenintheen- deavorto create a language whichreflects their experience. Not only doesthe female body becomea sourceof agency and power different from that offeredin patriarchal paradigms, its usealso becomesa re- claiming of a body whichhas been appropriated and misread by both 107 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsSOPHIA LEHMANN menandwhites.The linking oftheAfrican-AmericanorAfro- Caribbean female body withissuesof slavery andfreedom originat- edinslavenarrativessuchasThe History of Mary Prince andHarriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Both Prince and Jacobs in- cludevividaccountsofthesexualbrutalizationwhich typified the treatmentof femaleslaves.Prince wasthe first Black womanto pub- licly articulatetheabusedshesufferedas a woman,and, as in most slave narratives, theattainmentof liberty and literacy are inextrica- bly linkedin her narrative. MarleneNourbese Philip, in her poem "Discourseonthe Logic of Language" refers back to the legacy of slavenarratives and the ques- tionof literacy and thefemale body. She creates a visceral image of a woman licking hernewbornchildasan evocationofthemeans by whichwomentransmit language; the image servesbothasa para- digm for a positive, female language, and as a reclaiming of the expe- rienceof Mary Prince (She Tries Her Tongue 56-59).Philip alsore- sponds to thecommunalvoicebehindslavenarratives. Henry Louis Gates writes, "There can belittledoubtthat, whentheex-slaveau- thor decidedto write hisor her story, he or she didso only after read- ing, and rereading, the telling storiesof other slaveauthors who pre- cededthem.In this process ofimitationand repetition, theblack slave'snarrativecameto bea communal utterance, a collective tale, rather than merely an individual's autobiography"(x). Prince makes the processexplicitthroughincorporating thevoicesofotherslaves withinher ownnarrative. At another level, her text becomescommu- nalinthatit isframed by thetestimoniesofitsabolitionisteditors. Philip,responding to the traditionof communalvoicewhilesimulta- neouslyinverting the hierarchy of power, includesinher poem on one page a slaveedictwritten by a British colonizer, theabove-men- tionedscenarioof motherand child, a medical description of the op- erationof language, anda monologue aboutthelossofa mother tongue andtherelated problems of usingEnglish. Howeverin Philip's text, unlikethat of Prince, it is she whodoesthefinal editing and framing. Perhaps onereason for the ability of Caribbean womento combine different voices, languages andmediatocreate onetextstemsfrom women'slinkwithorature. Although oral storytelling iscentralto bothmaleandfemaletextsof the Caribbean, womentrace their con- nectiontothe genrethrough a female lineage: theirmothersand grandmothers, andthenmore archetypally,Nanny ofthe Maroons, whorebelled against herenslaversandbecamea central figure in Caribbean folklore. Stories recount her physicallyrepelling attacks of bulletswithher buttocks, sending thebullets ricocheting backto- 108 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsIN SEARCH OF A MOTHER TONGUE ward her oppressors(Ford Smith 3). Her physical resistanceservesas a modelfor the linguistic rebellionoflaterCaribbean women, who likewiseseekto turn the oppressiveaspects of English back on those whoenforcedits practice. Inthis vein, LouiseBennettbecomesa morerecentmodelfor women writing inthe Caribbean, becauseof her insistentandrebel- lioususeof Creole, her refusal to write in standard English. In her po- etry, she adopts thevoicesofa wide range of Jamaican women, and showsthe strengththey havemanifestedoverthe ages: "An long be- foreOmanlib bruckout / Over foreign lan/Jamaica femalewasa work / Her liberated plan!" (22). It was largely through her work that Creolewasintroducedintotherealmof"serious" literature, as op- posed to remainingsequestered becauseof the taint of inferiority and illiteracy which clung to it. The boundariesof language are blurredfurther for womeninthe English-speaking Caribbean by their insistenceon interweaving "fic- tion" and "theory." Kamau Brathwaitedescribesa male paradigm of language, inwhichhedrawsa cleardistinctionbetweenthetwo modes:"Our novelistshave always beenconsciousof thesenativere- sources [of oral literature], butthecriticsandacademics have, as is oftenthe case, lagged farbehind" (268). WomenlikeMarlene Nourbese Philip and Michelle Cliff, by contrast, write poems and sto- ries whichdoubleas theoretical manifestos. The blurring of genre distinctions emphasizes the political charac- terof fiction; farfrom being removedfrom reality, thefictionof Caribbean writersisa political toolof self-empowerment andlibera- tion.Merle Hodge writes, "Fiction hasimmense politicalpower...I beganwriting, in my adult life, in protestagainstmy educationand the arrogant assumptionsupon whichit rested: that I and my world were nothing andthat to rescueourselvesfrom nothingness wehad bestseekadmissionto the worldof their storybook"(202). Similarly, Erna Brodber writesof her "twinning offictionandscience"as part ofher"activistintention"to spread information through which "blacks and particularly thoseof the diaspora will forge a closer uni- ty and, thus fused, beabletofacetherestoftheworldmoreconfi- dently"(167, 164). Fiction becomesa meansbothof resisting colonial cultural and linguistic domination, andalsoof creating community. The centrality of community is particularlystrong with respect to orature,which, becauseit isnottiedtoonefixed text, is readapted andreworkedwitheach telling as part ofa collaborationbetween speaker andaudiencewhichtakesitsformfromthe interplay be- tweenthem.Brathwaitewritesthattheoraltradition"makesde- mandsnot only on the poet butalsoontheaudienceto complete the 109 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsSOPHIALEHMANN community: the noiseand soundsthat the poet makesare responded to by theaudienceandare returnedto him.Hencewehavethecre- ation of a continuumwherethe meaningtruly resides" (273). In that language shouldservetomirror the reality ofone'sexis- tence, the political endsof resisting colonialistcultureand creating community are related.MarleneNourbese Philip, in describing the difficultiesof creating a text whichreflects the chaosof African expe- riencesin the"New World," writes, "The form of the poem becomes not only a more true reflection of the experience out of whichit came, butalsoas important as the content.The poem as a whole,therefore, becomesa moreaccurate mirror or thecircumstancesthat underpin it" ("Managing" 298). Subverting colonial images of daffodils (which dominatedthe primers fromwhichCaribbeanchildrenlearnedto read) by writing in language whichreflects life in the Caribbean both helps to provide Caribbeanreaderswithwordsand images tode- scribetheirown experience andalsovalidatestheir culture, as op- posed to leaving them withthe feeling that becauseit has not been in- cludedin literature, it is inferior to the imposed British culture. LikeCaribbean women, American Jewish writersare facedwith thedilemmaof creating a mother tongue, a tribal language which bothsubvertsandis moldedfrom standard English. Whereas for the Afro-Caribbean community the challenge liesin overturning British colonialist linguistic andcultural impositions, for American Jews the struggle isto express themselvesina language whichisbasedin Christianity. John Hollander writes, A poet whose language is English, whose wrestling grips are English hammerlocksand chanceries, has the English Bible built into the heart not only of the diction and syntax, but also the poetics of his language. The English Bible is a polemically Protestanttranslationof an ortho- dox Christianbook called the Old Testament, which is itself a Christian interpretive translation of the Torah.... Thus there is a profound and ever-presentirony in a [Jewish]poet's writing "in" (would "out of" be better?) a language from whose literary tradition Torahis not, in fact, merely absent but rather present in such fascinatingly distorted form. (44) Cynthia Ozickaddressesthedilemmaof English andits affinity withChristian rather than Jewish thought in"The Pagan Rabbi," the story of a rabbi whoabandonshis Judaic learning and community for thelureof theGreek naiadsand dryads hefancieshesees cavorting in a park. Asa resultof histurn from traditionto idolatry, heis sepa- rated from hissouland eventually commits suicide, hanging himself from a tree. The pagan rabbi's senseof cultural fragmentation is sym- 110 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsIN SEARCH OF A MOTHER TONGUE bolized by his diary, whichhewritesinthree languages, Greek, He- brew, and English. The Greek namesandcelebratestheforest sprites ofthe Pagan Rabbi's imaginings; theHebrewcites Scripturalpas- sages thatchastisethosewho go"a-whoring" after Nature; andthe English isa compilation of excerpts from Romantic poetry. The Eng- lish, in Ozick's view, is clearly aligned withthe Greek: it is a language wrought to express the beauty ofnatureand art, ratherthanthe moral and historicalseriousnessof the Jewish covenentaltradition. Hollanderusesasa meansof entry intothe Englishlanguage, a starting point for transforming and claiming it as one'sown, the fact that English has always beenan amalgamation ofvariouscultures and linguisticheritages and as such has, in a sense, always beena di- asporiclanguage: The English language itself, partly Germanic, partly Romance, veined with Latin and Greek special vocabularies, its writing system and ear- ly literature shaped by Christendom, its poetic history shaped by the gradual unfolding of the ProtestantReformationfirst in England and then in America, its great "rabbis" being Spenser and Shakespeare and Milton and Wordsworthand and Emersonand Whitman, its character partaking for the Jewish poet of Hebrew and Aramaicand the Yiddish or Spanish or Arabicof daily life over-thecenturiesall at once. (48) Yet evenifweconcedethat English hasneverbeenacultural monolith, weare leftwiththetaskof creating a particularly Jewish voicewithinstandard English.Cynthia Ozickrefersto English as "The New Yiddish," becausetheHolocausteradicated Yiddish, the lingua francaofEastern European Jews, inas irreparable a way as slavery eradicatedAfrican languages for peoplebrought tothe Caribbean. However, for the Jews the effect was layered, becausebe- foretheHolocaust they were alreadyliving ina diaspora. Afterthe Holocaust,then, thereisa sortofdouble diaspora:many Jews who hadmade Germany and Eastern Europe their home, if they survived the Holocaust, fledto America.Not only were they scatteredfrom their original and symbolic homelandof Palestine, but they were now deprived of the homeswhich they had inhabitedfor centuriesin Europe.Diaspora wasfurther redefinedfor the Jews by thecreation oftheStateof Israel, a contemporary nationalhomelandtowhich they could emigrate, rather than, as previously, a symbolic biblical homelandofthe past, or, inthecaseoftheAfrican Diaspora, a past homelandand place of origin. AftertheHolocausttherewerenot enoughpeople left who spoke Yiddishto makeit a viablemediumof communicationwithinthe larger community, nor, perhaps, wouldit havesuitedor beenable to express the newrealities and exigencies of 111 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsSOPHIA LEHMANN post-war existence any morethanAfrican languages wouldinthe Caribbean. Ozick writes, "The German that becameYiddishbecame Jewish: it becamethe instrumentof our peoplehood onthe European continent,andwhena spectacularbody ofliteratureat last sprang out of it, it fulfilleditself as a Jewish language. I envisionthe same for the English of English-speaking Jews" (176). In other words, English mustbecomea mother tongue for American Jews, as wellas a father tongue. In the contextof moldingEnglish intoa tribal language, Ozickad- dressesthe issueof audience.She usesthe shofar, or ram's horn, as a modelfor language in diaspora: "If weblowintothenarrowendof the shofar, wewillbeheardfar. ButifwechoosetobeMankind rather than Jewish and blowinto the wider part, wewillnot be heard at all" (177). Thustheuseofa "tribal language" within English, far from reducing one's audience, actually broadens it, because only throughspeaking fromthe specificity ofone's experience canone create a soundheartfeltand loud enough to be heard. LikeMarleneNourbese Philip, however, Ozickcautions against usingonly a tribal language: In the story"Envy; or, Yiddishin Amer- ica" sheattacks the parochialism and solipsism of Edelshtein, a cen- tral character who bitterlyclings to Yiddishandistherefore impris- onedin the past. Once Jews are living in America, Ozick implies, it is foolish nostalgia to continueto use Yiddish, a language which practi- cally noone understands, whoseculturehasbeen annihilated, and the useof whichtherefore only leadsto frustration. Philip and Ozick bothadvocatea formof bridging, a reconception of English as both father and mother tongue. For contemporarydiasporic Jews, another linguisticoption isthe interjection of modernHebrew. Young American Jewish authorslike Allegra Goodmanare increasinglyincorporating Hebrewintothe English of their characters, muchas earlier generations of American Jewish authorsusedYiddish.In Goodman's story "Variant Text," a teacherat the religiouspreschool, the gan, writesonthe blackboard, "Hashemor Darwin, you decide" (90); andthe protagonistexpresses approbation for a bar mitzvah reading recited according to the mod- ern Hebrew pronunciation rather than "those twisted Hungarian and Rumanian vowelsfrom the old-timers," the Yiddish-speaking Ashke- nazic Jews (103). Yet Goodman's story suggests an antithetical dilem- matothat posedby"Envy...,"namely, thattheuseofHebrewac- companies thedismissalof history in favor of exclusivelycontempo- rary issues.The Jewish legacy invokedin"Variant Text" isa biblical, religious one, rather than a historicalor recent one.The Holocaustis nevermentioned. 112 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsIN SEARCH OF A MOTHER TONGUE The problems of writing in English while remembering Jewish his- tory are intensified by the language's literary tradition. In his story "The Lady of the Lake," Bernard Malamudwrites Jews intothe canon of English literature by reworking classic texts. The story re- counts the experiences of an American Jew who conceals his Jewish heritage by changing his name from Levin to Freeman, clearly in hopes of attaining freedom from marginalization and anti-Semitism. He travelsto Italy, where he falls in lovewitha beautifulItalian woman, Isabella. She repeatedly inquires whether he is Jewish, and each time he vociferously denies it. The story ends with her revealing her breast, marked by the numericaltattooof theconcentration camps, as she tells "Freeman"that she cannot be with someone who is not a Jew: "My past is meaningful to me. I treasurewhat I suffered for" (132). Levin/Freeman loses both honor and community through the denial of his Jewish identity. Malamud addresses the conflicting legacies of Judaism and English literature throughreworking Arthurian legend. He recreatesthe mythic Lady of the Lake as a con- temporary Jew, and in doing so emphasizing the contrast between Arthur, who proudly comes into his identity as he is given Excalibur by the Lady of the Lake, and Levin, who is left empty-handed and alone. Malamud's story echoes not only the episode from Malory's MorteD'Arthurbut also many aspects of Henry James's The American, thereby claiming a place within a specifically American literary tradi- tion as well. "Freeman," like James' Christopher Newman, travels to Europe to become a "new man," and find adventure and romance. Yet Newmanis indeedthe representative rich, young American; "Freeman," by contrast, is onlymasquerading as such; ironically, through his Judaism, he has the complexity of history and experience which Newman seeks in Europe. Whereas James highlights the dif- ferences between America and Europe, Malamud, by setting the sto- ry in Italy and exploring the potential solidarity between Isabellaand "Freeman," emphasizes the way in which diasporic community tran- scends nationality. Though both Caribbeanand Jewish writers respond to earliertexts in reworking English, what differentiatestheir endeavors to create a home within English is that Jews are heir to a cultural and religious tradition which has survived since biblical times. The central Jewish texts, in this sense, in some respects serve an analogous function to that of African rhythms and music in the Caribbean.The Torahand accompanying rabbinic commentary have served as the base for Jew- ish community and continuitythroughout the ages. The French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas refers to the Jewish people as "a na- tion united by ideas" rather than land (257). He continues, "The cu- 113 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsSOPHIALEHMANN riosity whichhasbeenreawakenedinthe great booksof Judaism, andthe necessity of applying a thought tothemthatisnot simply emotionalbutisa demanding one, isthe principal conditionfor the survivalof Jews inthe Diaspora"(258). On Passover,Jews retell the story of theExodusfrom Egypt not only as a remembrancebutas a way of actuallyreliving the experience. Jonathan Boyarin writes, "Jews have always, it seems, usednarrativetorecreate theirshared identitiesacrosstime.This technique demonstrates language asan ethnic strategy that neednot impingeupon the autonomy of others" (Storm From Paradise). Thetrait whichhasenabledthesurvivalofthecentral textsisan insistenceon distinctionswhichis unique to the rigors of Jewish Law. Levinas writes, "We cannotbeconsciousof something inwhatever way wewish!The other path[from the vagaries of subjectivechoice] is steep butthe only onetotake: it brings usback tothe source, the forgotten, ancient difficult books, and plunges us into strict and labo- rious study"(52). It isa point elucidated byCynthia Ozick's story "The Pagan Rabbi": The eponymous rabbi's transgression isnothis interest in the worldof nature, but his betrayal of the rigidity of Juda- icdistinctions.Heseekstoeffacethe boundary betweenthe Jewish G-d and the idolsof Nature, to reconcile monotheismwith multiplicity. In his story "The EighthDay," Max Apple considershowthead- herencetodistinctions operates in contemporary, multicultural America.The narrator's girlfriend isinterestedin "primal therapy," and encourages the narrator to try to reexperience hisbirth. Howev- er, hefindshimselfunableto remember anythingpreceding circum- cision.Atfirst he struggles withhis girlfriend toovercomethisim- passe, but by theconclusionof the story heno longer wantsto undo thecovenantwithG-d signifiedby circumcision.Herealizesthat the Eighth Day, that on whichcircumcision occurs, is emblematicof what distinguishes himasa Jew. As Apple'sstory indicates, the Jewish Americanreformulationof English as a mother tongue mustadhere to traditional Jewish distinctionswhile simultaneouslyresponding to the exigencies of contemporary Americanculture. Thecommon legacy of slavery andtheHolocaustliesnot only in the difficulty of constructing a new language and repairing a culture whichhas beentorn apart, butalsoin the problem of expressing the inexpressible: What doesonedowhenone's people have undergone atrocitiessohorrificthat theydefylanguage, and yet, asMarlene Nourbese Philip comments, onemustwriteabouttheminorderto moveon: 114 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsIN SEARCH OF A MOTHER TONGUE The Africanin the Caribbeancould move away from the experience of slavery in time; she could even acquire some perspective upon it, but the experience,having never been reclaimedand integratedmetaphor- ically through the language and so within the psyche, could never be transcended. (She TriesHer Tongue15) Thisisa problem whichboth Cynthia Ozickand Aharon Appelfeld writeaboutwith respect to theHolocaust.2 For bothof them, art be- comesa meansof transcending whatisotherwise impossible toex- press. In her story "The Shawl,"Ozickhasthecentral character turn to metaphor todescribethemomentinwhichherchildisthrown against an electric fence by a Nazi:"She lookedlike a butterfly touch- ing a silvervine" (Shawl 9). Onlythrough an image as anomalousto theconcentration camps as a butterfly can thesenseof dehumaniza- tionwhichoccurred be conveyed.Appelfeldexpounds onthesenti- mentina recent collectionof essays: "Who can redeemthe fears, the pains, the tortures, andthe hiddenbeliefsfrom thedarkness...ifnot art?" Hewrites (Beyond Despair), therebyreversing Adorno'sdictum that there is no art after the Holocaust.Fiction is further politicized in thiscontext:it becomesa meansofboth remembering and giving voiceto history. The power of the wordbothto create and transcend reality iscen- tral withinboth Afro-Caribbean and Judaic tradition. Philip describes NewWorld Africansas "descendantsof culturesandsocietieswhere thewordandtheact of naming wasthefocal point andfulcrumof societalforces" (She TriesHer Tongue21). In Judaic tradition, the word is equally central. According to Jewish mysticism, onecan bring golems,clay monsters, tolife bywriting thenameofG-dontheir foreheads, thenreturnthemtoearth byerasing thename.It isas though the spirit of G-d is withinthe wordsthemselves. Becauseof the centrality of language to both Jewish and Caribbean cultures, creating a mother tongue which incorporates both history and contemporary culture and experience is tantamountto creating a homewithinthe diaspora.Philip writesof the needfor language "to nameand give voiceto the i-mage and the experience behindthat im- age-thethings weconceiveinour hearts-andsohouse the being" (She TriesHer Tongue 20, emphasisadded). She continues by discussing "the challengefacing the African Caribbean writer whois interested in makingEnglish her home" (She TriesHer Tongue 21, emphasis added). John Hollander recalls that the Torah begins with the Hebrew letter bet, whichmeans house, and explains that"the original Phoenician syl- labic sign [for the letter] wasderivedfrom...a pictogram [of a house]"(47). And George Steiner argues that the textualfocuswithin 115 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsSOPHIALEHMANN Judaism makes diaspora more conducivethan eventhe state of Israel to the practice oftraditional Judaism, becausein Israel, issuesof na- tionality tendto obscure thoseof the text, the true "homeland" of the Jewish people("Our Homeland, The Text"). In hismemoirThe Invention of Solitude, Paul Auster approaches the potentialities of language as a mutablehomewithinthe Diaspora. He transcendsthe limitationsof English byemphasizing the importance of translation, on both a literal and metaphoric level, to create bridges betweenculturesandbetween past and present. Inthe memoir, Auster sequesters himselfina smallroom to writeabout hisfather's death.Hediscoversthatthe objects hisfatherhasleftare without meaning or memorial value, that meaning mustbecreated through forgingimaginative connectionsin hisown writing."Memory asa place," Auster writes, reformulating the concept of language as home. Images ofexileand wandering aboundin Auster'snarrative:A photograph from whichhis grandfather has beentorn out, "exiled to another dimension" (34); hisfather's family'sfrequent moves, which hecharacterizes as "nomadism" (48); Amsterdamas a mazeof streets through whichhe wanders,lost; descriptions of his travels, of the nu- merous apartments in whichhehaslivedin New York, in Paris; the isolatedroom in whichhe writes.Yet he hisalone in the room only on a physical level.Thememoriesandsenseof community whichhe creates through his writing transcend place, and in doing so are char- acterized by Austeras specifically Jewish. Early in the narrative, he writeswith respect tohisdoubtsaboutthesuccessofhis project, "Just because you wanderinthe desert, itdoesnotmeanthereisa promised land" (32). He begins thelatter halfof his narrative, enti- tled"The Bookof Memory," in AnneFrank's house, andhe quotes Marina Tsvetayeva, who wrote, "In thismostChristianof worlds / All poets are Jews" (Auster 95). The closestAustercomesto finding a "promised land"isin discovering the power of hisown storytelling to overcomehissolitudeand connect him withhis family history and witha communityincluding allthosewhose experiences resonate withresemblanceto hisown. Language isa form of bridging at many levels.Marlene Nourbese Philip writesabout"the bridge that language creates [in] the crossoverfrom [internal] i-mage to expression"(She TriesHer Tongue 15). Language also functionsas a bridge withina particular culture or community, betweenvariousmembersofthe community; andthen asa bridge betweencommunitiesandcultures.In this context, it is important to develop communicationand solidarity betweendiffer- ent mother tongues and cultures which develop in the Englishspeak- 116 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and ConditionsIN SEARCHOF A MOTHERTONGUE117 ing world. In making English a home, Caribbeanwomen and Ameri- can Jews are creatingbridges both within their own community and with other cultures trying to find a home within English, and hope- fully learning from each other further strategies for this process of subversion and reclamation. Notes 1.Steiner'sassessmentisdismissiveofthe impact ofthecreationoftheState of Israel, whichof coursedoes provide a modern geographic and nationalhome- landforthe Jews. ElieKedourieiscensoriousofIsraeli nationalism, "accus[ing] theZionistsof 'injecting nationalfolklore'into Judaism"(qtd. in Saul Bellow, To Jerusalem and Back 191); the implication isthat beforethecre- ationof Israel, the Jewish people wereunited by common diasporic existence and weretherefore not subject to internal rifts basedin nationalistconcerns. 2.The issueof writing abouttheHolocausthasa longhistory,stemming from Theodor Adorno'sstatementthat it is barbaric to write poetry after Auschwitz andElie Wiesel'sinsistencethat only thosewho directlyexperienced thehor- rors oftheHolocaustcanunderstandit. Among those expressingopposing viewsare Appelfeld, who urges writersto demystify the Holocaustand make it accessibleto the average individual; and George Steiner, who acknowledges the multifariousdifficultiesof writing about the Holocaustbut concludes, "For a Jew to besilentabout anypart of hisown history isself-mutilation" ("The Long Life of Metaphor"155). 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What Is Jewish Literature?ed.Hana Wirth-Nesher. Philadelphia:Jewish Publication Society, 1994. Sistren and HonorFord Smith. LionheartGal. Toronto: Sister Vision P, 1987 Soloveitchik, Rabbi Joseph B. The HalakhicMind. NewYork: Seth P, 1986. Stavan, Ilan. "The Other Voice." Transition 64, 84. Steiner, George. "The Long Life of Metaphor: An Approach to the Shoah." Writing and the Holocaust. ed. Berel Lang. NewYork: Holmesand Meier, 1988. "Our Homeland, The Text." Salmagundi 66, 4-25. 118 This content downloaded from 192.248.32.221 on Mon, 03 Aug 2015 10:18:54 UTCAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions