Eva Pataki | University of Debrecen (original) (raw)

Papers by Eva Pataki

Szellem és tudomány , 2020

Skase Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies , 2019

According to Alev Cinar and Thomas Bender, "the city is located and continually reproduced throug... more According to Alev Cinar and Thomas Bender, "the city is located and continually reproduced through […] orienting acts of imagination, acts grounded in material space and social practice." (2007: xii) As imagination creates and recreates urban spaces, it bestows upon them a host of atmospheric and emotional qualities resulting in a multitude of urban imaginaries of the city. Or is it the cityillusory and shapeshifting as it may bethat triggers acts of imagination and thus generates its own images and imaginaries through the moods and emotions it arouses in people? Does the city have a million faces or is it its inhabitants who, through the masks they hide behind, incite this image? To find an answer to these questions, the present paper maps the atmospheric qualities and urban imaginaries of contemporary Glasgow as portrayed in Scottish Pakistani author Suhayl Saadi's fiction. Through a close reading of "The Queens of Govan" (2001c), "Bandanna" (2001a), "The Naked Heart" (2001b) from the collection The Burning Mirror and excerpts from Psychoraag (2004), I explore the characters' social practices, memories, visions and hallucinations, as well as their bodily experiences and mental perceptions of and affective relationships with the city. I shall argue that there exists a deeply phenomenological and mutually constructive relationship between the body and the city, through which Saadi's characters are both affected by and affecting the emotional qualities and urban imaginaries of Glasgow.

Confluenţe Texts & Contexts Reloaded T.C.R. , 2022

In psychology, postmodernity is perceived as having detraditionalized our understanding of and at... more In psychology, postmodernity is perceived as having detraditionalized our understanding of and attitude to love and intimate relationship, as a result of which postmodern relationships are viewed as being built on and determining a change in emotional and sexual intimacy, the significance of sexual satisfaction, as well as developments in the process of individualisation. In postmodern literature, as Catherine Belsey points out, “love becomes the condition of a happiness that cannot be bought” and “has come to represent presence, transcendence, immortality” (683). In diaspora literature, these changes and developments connected to love, and happening when the individual experiences the presence and transcendence of love, are often further intensified and complicated by issues of race, ethnicity and religion. In all its complexities and individual perceptions, postmodern love is often depicted as closely related to or intertwined with the process of the diasporic subject’s search for identity. Close reading Suhayl Saadi’s Psychoraag (2004), an experimental novel with postmodern text(uality), and its portrayal of the role of identity positions and the transformative power of music and love/intimacy in personal development, the paper examines the protagonist-narrator DJ Zaf’s mental and physical journeys with regards to his two intimate relationships from the aspect of the diasporic subject’s identity crisis. I shall argue that the protagonist’s relationships – and by extension, love itself – are essential stages of his ‘journey,’ unalienable parts of his multiple selves, as well as inevitable elements and the ultimate metaphor of identity construction.

Prospero. Rivista di letterature e culture straniere , 2022

According to Davidson et al. (2007) emotional geography has “a common concern with the spatiality... more According to Davidson et al. (2007) emotional geography has “a common concern with the spatiality and temporality of emotions, with the way they coalesce around and within certain places.” A study of literary representations of the spatiality of emotions may be especially suitable for unraveling the complex emotional relations between people and environments, and may lead to a better understanding of geographies of emotions and emotional geographies, the ways feelings generate and mediate our behaviors in and attitudes to places and spaces through embodies and lived experience, and emotional associations. The paper maps the location and formation of emotions in people, places, and atmospheres, investigating the interconnections between individuals’ sense of place, remembering through place, and affective relationships in a selection of Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories. My analysis primarily focuses on the development of emotional attachment and a concomitant sense of belonging and self in the characters, as well as of their evolving affective relationships with people and (remembered) places, and argues that the two processes intertwine, are mutually constructive and constantly changing, since emotions are fundamentally “relational flows, fluxes or currents, in-between people and places” (Davidson et al, 2007).

The Routledge Companion to Pakistani Anglophone Writing, 2018

doctoral thesis, University of Debrecen, 2015

My dissertation addresses the issues of space, movement and identity and investigates the comple... more My dissertation addresses the issues of space, movement and identity and investigates the complex nature of their interconnectedness in contemporary British Asian diaspora fiction. Through the close reading of representative novels I focus on issues like the mutually interdependent and transformative relationship between space and identity, the types of movements generated by space, and the influence movements have on space and the sense of place. Within the scope provided by the framework and the chosen corpus, I explore ways in which space and movement are affected by one’s identity formation and, conversely, how identity is transformed by and through various forms of movement in diverse spaces and places. I look at how space, movement and identity become intertwined and inseparable within the context of British diasporic consciousness and subjectivity – all this in selected representatives of contemporary British Asian fiction: Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2004), Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal’s Tourism (2006), Sunetra Gupta’s The Glassblower’s Breath (1993), Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) and The Black Album (1995) and Meera Syal’s Anita and Me (2004). My dissertation first and foremost examines the pivotal role of space and movement in identity formation and construction, identity performance and performativity, agency and subjectivity, as manifested and depicted in the selected novels. The primary reason why my dissertation revolves around the notions of space, movement and identity is that, in my view, investigating the complex interrelatedness of these concepts in British Asian diaspora fiction may in fact enable and contribute to a better understanding of the fundamentally social phenomenon and issue of diaspora and diasporisation in today’s globalised world. My choice of novels adopts a roughly chronological pattern, following the past three decades of the evolution of British Asian fiction from post-colonial to post-postcolonial and post-ethnic, from male-oriented to gender-inflected. The novelty of the dissertation lies in the fact that it provides new perspectives on reading frequently analysed novels and calling attention to works hitherto more or less neglected by critics. Furthermore, although these novels all feature prevalent tropes of diaspora fiction, I approach these tropes from different angles (such as cultural positioning and gender) that reveal further layers for possible interpretations. The first important finding of the research carried out in my dissertation is that in the context of diaspora, the interconnectedness of space and identity involves a mutual hybridization, a transfusion and transmutation of both cultural spaces and identities through a constant, though often unwelcome, interaction. Hybridization is responsible for the creation of diaspora space, and it is an unavoidable aspect of diasporic identity formation, while the need for a sense of belonging is a primary factor in the creation of diaspora spaces. Second, the diasporians’ sense of belonging or not belonging to a place, as well as their positions in, and relationship to, different spaces and places may trigger various forms of movement, which can thus be read as the spatial manifestation of their in-betweenness and search for identity, and result in alternative ways of belonging. Third, the concept of belonging is interconnected with performativity and identity performance inasmuch as they all serve as points of reference in terms of one’s self- identification and can become important tools in the diasporic subject’s mimicry as well. Furthermore, the various identity performances may lead to different identity positions and variations on diasporic identity: as immigrant or diasporian, Indian, Muslim or British Asian, a tourist or a traveller, to name but a few. The various diasporic identities and identity positions suggest a hybrid and multiple identity in fluidity, and may manifest in individual choices of self-identification, as well as of belonging in alternative ways, especially in movement, which – and this is my fifth finding – results in the creation of mobile subjectivities: flâneurs, tourists, travellers, cosmopolites and (female) nomads. These subjectivities are not exclusive but may intertwine and intersect and thus make up the complex diasporic identity – a subjectivity which is both postmodern and uniquely British Asian, and as such it contributes to a better understanding of a multiracial Britain and a new kind of Britishness.

Studia Litteraria, 2016

Investigating the literary representation of urban spaces and identities, my paper untangles the ... more Investigating the literary representation of urban spaces and identities, my paper untangles the complex psychological and emotional relationship between the heroine and her beloved and hated cities in Sunetra Gupta’s The Glassblower’s Breath (1993). Drawing on Gernot Böhme’s (1993) theory of the atmospheric qualities of space, Steve Pile’s psychogeographical approach to reading cities, Walter Benjamin’s concept of phantasmagoria and various interpretations of fascination, the paper explores the creation of atmospheres in the novel and the role of fascination in the perception of London and Gupta’s female protagonist as phantasmagorias. I argue that – as urban imaginaries – the emotional fabric and atmosphere of the cities portrayed are as much created by their spaces and places, their inhabitants and visitors, as are manifested and formulated in emotional states of being, whether real or fictional, phantasmagoric or imaginary.

Az értekezés célja hogy bemutassa a tér, a helyváltoztatás és az identitás összetett kapcsolatren... more Az értekezés célja hogy bemutassa a tér, a helyváltoztatás és az identitás összetett kapcsolatrendszerét a kortárs brit-ázsiai diaszpóraregényben. Kutatásom fókuszában a tér és az identitás összefüggései és kölcsönösen transzformatív kapcsolata, a tér által generált helyváltoztatási módok és mozgásformák típusai, és ezeknek a különböző terekre és a helytudatra gyakorolt hatásai állnak. Arra a kérdésre keresem a választ, hogy milyen hatással van a térre és a helyváltoztatásra az egyén identitás-formálódása, illetve, hogy miként változik az identitás az egyes mozgásformák közben és által a különböző terekben és helyeken. Megvizsgálom, hogy a tér, a helyváltoztatás és az identitás hogyan fonódik össze és válik elválaszthatatlanná a brit-ázsiai diaszpórikus öntudat és szubjektivitás kontextusában. Az értekezés korpuszát reprezentatív kortárs brit-ázsiai regények alkotják: Monica Ali Brick Lane (2004) (magyarul: A muszlim asszony, 2006), Nadeem Aslam Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), Nirpal S...

The AnaChronisT, 2013

Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal’s Tourism (2006), as a contemporary British Asian novel, counts as postcolo... more Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal’s Tourism (2006), as a contemporary British Asian novel, counts as postcolonial fiction yet adds a post-postcolonial and postmodern twist by presenting itself in the context of tourism. Although generally perceived as pulp fiction for its provocative themes and pornographic scenes, the novel’s portrayal of the second-generation immigrant experience, urban space and tourism invites a close reading from the perspectives of spatiality and movement, as well as an analysis that is interdisciplinary in its approach, its theoretical background situated at the intersection of tourism, cultural, postcolonial and diaspora studies. The present paper investigates Dhaliwal’s novel in terms of the relationship of identity, space and movement, or more specifically what I call mobile subjectivities: the figures of the tourist and the flâneur, and argues that the basic elements of flânerie and tourism are indispensable attributes of British Asians’ diasporic identity and experi...

Suhayl Saadi’s Psychoraag (2004) has received critical acclaims for its redefinition of Scottish ... more Suhayl Saadi’s Psychoraag (2004) has received critical acclaims for its redefinition of Scottish identity and merits as the first Scots Asian novel, presenting Glasgow as a postcolonial territory reterritorialized and hybridised by the Pakistani diaspora. The hybridity of space and identity is most apparent in the novel’s extraordinary narrative style, as well as in its unique blend of various languages, cultural and musical references. In reading the protagonist DJ Zaf’s musical journey through times and spaces, I investigate his hybrid local-regional identity, manifested in language and in his self-positioning as a Scot, a Glaswegian and a Pakistani, in accordance with the situations he finds himself in and with the song he is currently playing. The second focal point of my analysis is the ‘transfusion’ of his self, that is, identity formation through music, and the possibility of a transcendent self, existing in sound and silence. I argue that Zaf meets the challenge of hybridity through language and music, his primary means of self-expression, which may harmonise ‘the atonal choir of his life’ and allow a performative self-identification as ‘the man ae a thoosand tongues.’

Éva Pataki Atmospheres, Fascination and Phantasmagoria in Sunetra Gupta’s The Glassblower’s Breat... more Éva Pataki
Atmospheres, Fascination and Phantasmagoria in Sunetra Gupta’s The Glassblower’s Breath Investigating the literary representation of urban spaces and identities, my paper untangles the complex psychological and emotional relationship between the heroine and her beloved and hated cities in Sunetra Gupta’s The Glassblower’s Breath (1993). Drawing on Gernot Böhme’s (1993) theory of the atmospheric qualities of space,
Steve Pile’s psychogeographical approach to reading cities, Walter Benjamin’s concept of phantasmagoria and various interpretations of fascination, the paper explores the creation of atmospheres in the novel and the role of fascination in the perception of London and Gupta’s female protagonist as phantasmagorias. I argue that – as urban imaginaries – the emotional fabric and atmosphere of the cities portrayed are as much created by their spaces and places, their inhabitants and visitors, as are manifested and formulated in emotional states of being, whether real or fictional, phantasmagoric or imaginary.

doctoral dissertation, 2015

My dissertation addresses the issues of space, movement and identity and investigates the complex... more My dissertation addresses the issues of space, movement and identity and investigates the complex nature of their interconnectedness in contemporary British Asian diaspora fiction. Through the close reading of representative novels I focus on issues like the mutually interdependent and transformative relationship between space and identity, the types of movements generated by space, and the influence movements have on space and the sense of place. Within the scope provided by the framework and the chosen corpus, I explore ways in which space and movement are affected by one’s identity formation and, conversely, how identity is transformed by and through various forms of movement in diverse spaces and places. I look at how space, movement and identity become intertwined and inseparable within the context of British diasporic consciousness and subjectivity – all this in selected representatives of contemporary British Asian fiction: Monica Ali’s Brick Lane (2004), Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers (2004), Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal’s Tourism (2006), Sunetra Gupta’s The Glassblower’s Breath (1993), Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) and The Black Album (1995) and Meera Syal’s Anita and Me (2004). My dissertation first and foremost examines the pivotal role of space and movement in identity formation and construction, identity performance and performativity, agency and subjectivity, as manifested and depicted in the selected novels. The primary reason why my dissertation revolves around the notions of space, movement and identity is that, in my view, investigating the complex interrelatedness of these concepts in British Asian diaspora fiction may in fact enable and contribute to a better understanding of the fundamentally social phenomenon and issue of diaspora and diasporisation in today’s globalised world. My choice of novels adopts a roughly chronological pattern, following the past three decades of the evolution of British Asian fiction from post-colonial to post-postcolonial and post-ethnic, from male-oriented to gender-inflected. The novelty of the dissertation lies in the fact that it provides new perspectives on reading frequently analysed novels and calling attention to works hitherto more or less neglected by critics. Furthermore, although these novels all feature prevalent tropes of diaspora fiction, I approach these tropes from different angles (such as cultural positioning and gender) that reveal further layers for possible interpretations. The first important finding of the research carried out in my dissertation is that in the context of diaspora, the interconnectedness of space and identity involves a mutual hybridization, a transfusion and transmutation of both cultural spaces and identities through a constant, though often unwelcome, interaction. Hybridization is responsible for the creation of diaspora space, and it is an unavoidable aspect of diasporic identity formation, while the need for a sense of belonging is a primary factor in the creation of diaspora spaces. Second, the diasporians’ sense of belonging or not belonging to a place, as well as their positions in, and relationship to, different spaces and places may trigger various forms of movement, which can thus be read as the spatial manifestation of their in-betweenness and search for identity, and result in alternative ways of belonging. Third, the concept of belonging is interconnected with performativity and identity performance inasmuch as they all serve as points of reference in terms of one’s self- identification and can become important tools in the diasporic subject’s mimicry as well. Furthermore, the various identity performances may lead to different identity positions and variations on diasporic identity: as immigrant or diasporian, Indian, Muslim or British Asian, a tourist or a traveller, to name but a few. The various diasporic identities and identity positions suggest a hybrid and multiple identity in fluidity, and may manifest in individual choices of self-identification, as well as of belonging in alternative ways, especially in movement, which – and this is my fifth finding – results in the creation of mobile subjectivities: flâneurs, tourists, travellers, cosmopolites and (female) nomads. These subjectivities are not exclusive but may intertwine and intersect and thus make up the complex diasporic identity – a subjectivity which is both postmodern and uniquely British Asian, and as such it contributes to a better understanding of a multiracial Britain and a new kind of Britishness.

Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal's Tourism (2006), as a contemporary British Asian novel, counts as postcolo... more Nirpal Singh Dhaliwal's Tourism (2006), as a contemporary British Asian novel, counts as postcolonial fiction yet adds a post-postcolonial and postmodern twist by presenting itself in the context of tourism. Although generally perceived as pulp fiction for its provocative themes and pornographic scenes, the novel's portrayal of the second-generation immigrant experience, urban space and tourism invites a close reading from the perspectives of spatiality and movement, as well as an analysis that is interdisciplinary in its approach, its theoretical background situated at the intersection of tourism, cultural, postcolonial and diaspora studies. The present paper investigates Dhaliwal's novel in terms of the relationship of identity, space and movement, or more specifically what I call mobile subjectivities: the figures of the tourist and the flâneur, and argues that the basic elements of flânerie and tourism are indispensable attributes of British Asians' diasporic identity and experience, and thus integral to the analysis of movement and subjectivity in British Asian fiction.

HUSSE10-LitCult, Jan 1, 2011

Book Reviews by Eva Pataki

Conference Presentations by Eva Pataki

In diaspora experience there is a powerful link between space, identity formation and collective ... more In diaspora experience there is a powerful link between space, identity formation and collective memory. The performed traditions and cultural practices of a diasporic group activate a cultural memory, which serves as a unifying force and as a signifier of social differentiation, and thus fosters group/collective identity. Focusing on how memory influences the construction of diasporic identity, and how it inscribes itself on space and place, I read Meera Syal’s Anita and Me (2004) and investigate the processes through which the physical locations of remembrances turn into what Pierre Nora (1994) refers to as lieux de mémoire. For Nora these sites of memory do not inhabit living traditions but denote only remnants of the past; i.e. they are in fact places of forgetting or misremembering due to the diversity and liability of individual memories. Since for the Kumars’ extended family in Syal’s novel the place where they strive to keep their traditions alive is the home, I argue that this diasporic space is a site of both memory and forgetting, the birthplace of a re-created collective cultural memory, as well as a transitory zone, denoting the displacement of not only people but memories as well.

In this era of increasing global mobility, a transnational perspective – defining borders as flex... more In this era of increasing global mobility, a transnational perspective – defining borders as flexible and passable, and identities as fluid – is gaining prominence and significance in literary criticism as well. In the context of British literature, with the canonisation of authors such as V. S. Naipaul, Salman Rushdie and Hanif Kureishi, recent scholarship signals a shift to a transnational focus of study and the acknowledgment of a move away from cultural essentialism in contemporary British literature. Furthermore, the increasing academic interest in transnational women writers like Monica Ali, Kamila Shamsie and Atima Srivastava enables the dissolution of borders between periphery and centre and indicates the need for a gendered perspective on migration and relocation, the politics of belonging in various cultural spaces, and the effects of transnationalism on a person’s everyday life and subjectivity.
In order to add to the complex picture of the political move of transnational female writers in contemporary South Asian diaspora literature, I read Sunetra Gupta’s The Glassblower's Breath, mapping the protagonist’s mental and physical trajectories, and the accompanying process of her identity formation. Following her movement between and within urban spaces, I examine the correlation of space, movement and identity, and analyse the role of the politics of location in transforming the double subaltern identity as an ethnic and gendered “other” into a multiple transnational subjectivity. I argue that Gupta’s protagonist displays the multiple intersections of motion, longing and belonging; and that she creates and strives to maintain her politics of transnational identity by becoming a Braidottian female nomad, resisting and transgressing the dominant views on subjectivity, and characterised by “the act of going, regardless of the destination.”