Shame: The Next Frontier in Third Culture Studies

 I was recently at Transnational Literature's "Follow the Sun" Conference.  I was on a Third Culture panel (organized by Jessica Sanfilippo Schulz) with Jessica, and with Anastasia Goana (the dream team: we have paneled together before.  I hope we get to again).  "At" of course means "on zoom".  Look!  Here we are (Anastasia for the photo credit):

Zoom notwithstanding, the conference did what conferences are--at their best--supposed to do.  It stimulated thought/ exposed me to new ideas/ made me want to weep gratefully that other people out there in the world think that some of these issues are interesting too.

 I gave a paper on Third Culture and how it could function as a kind of nationality (nods to Benedict Anderson and Joanna Yoshi Grote, as well as Danau Tanu's work, which got me thinking along these lines in the first place).  I went on a bit of a tear about academia and methodological nationalism within our disciplines (which tend to be defined in terms of nation and so, even if our institutions like the hipness of "transnational" and boundary-crossing terms, these same organizations that fund our research and employment are stubbornly resistant to them). And . . . I wrapped up with some consideration of privilege, the problem of relegating host countries to mere backdrops, and shame.

Bambo Soyinka, who is sharp and articulate, and a pleasure to spend time thinking with, said of our panel as a whole that the issues of shame, denial and privilege kept surfacing.  Did they always have negative connotations, Bambo asked.

My answer was no.  In fact, I think turning to look those issues in the face is precisely where positive insights will emerge.  I want to write more about this.  I am, vaguely, beginning to cook a piece that deals with Jane Alison's The Sisters Antipodes and Sisonke Msimang's Always Another Country and the question of adult perspectives on a childhoods of comparative privilege.

In what I have so far on the question of shame, in a longer-playing article on TC Nationalism that I can't seem to get published, I quote Tanu's interview of an adult TCK dubbed "Afra"who grew up in Algeria.  That adult says of their childhood during times of political unrest, "I miss the riots."  Tanu notes that "some TCKs speak of developing countries as though their poor economic conditions or sociopolitical unrest were like adventure rides."  Oof, right?  At first, that TCK interviewee sounds like a bit of a jerk, except that what they really said had a specific intonation: "'I miss the riots,' said Afra, 'with knowing humor.'"  

Stop the train: that "knowing humor" changes everything.  'Afra" misses the riots (they miss their childhood home and its conditions), but Afra knows it is ridiculous, crazy, wrong, privileged, shameful, to say such a thing.

My contention is that the adult perspective on privileged childhood experience is something TCK scholars absolutely HAVE to deal with.  Here (from the article I haven't yet published), is why I think so:

What do you think?  Jessica Sanfilippo Schulz (who is quite the power-house in third culture literary work these days) wrote this to me in an email:

 By the way, regarding the comment about shame/guilt of last week, it is a recurrent theme in the four texts I have analysed (PhD thesis). As you illustrated, it is something that seems to occur retrospectively in adulthood. My first four chapters examine life writing written in adulthood and shame and guilt is always there, TCKs and refugees. BUT: in chapter 5 I explore life writing written by youth, and so far, I haven't come across shame and guilt much. Just at the beginning of one Vlog entry I am looking at and I am currently wondering how to tackle it / label it / explain it. I am writing the final chapter right now and will keep an eye on this theme. Another thing that I have noticed is that shame and guilt (so far the texts I have read) are only noticeable in texts by women. I haven't come across it in any of the other texts I have read by men. I therefore think that when it comes to looking at Jane Alison, you might want to compare the text with a memoir written by a man. 

My response, over email:

I have just had time to read this.   Goodness.  My jaw is on the floor.  There is my hunch . . . And then you go and back it up with a bevy of actual facts!  Hmn.  Well.  Seems like there is work to do.  I really like your idea of comparing a M and F memoirist. 

I like your blog idea too.  If I do one, would it be OK with you if I cut and pasted a few of your words from below?

So, Jessica: here is the blog post you requested :)

PS to everyone.  Do you think we will ever get past defining "third culture"?  I think literary terminology should provide us with useful tools, and TC has been useful to me . . . I confess, however, that I am tired of defining it, patrolling its borders, trying to make it cohere.  Jessica's conference paper branches out more into cross-culture, and Aminatta Forna spoke eloquently in her keynote at the conference about the transnational. . .

Comments welcome.