A Leap into Interculturalism Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink

A Leap into Interculturalism Tom Stoppard's Indian Ink

FAZLIJA, Ifeta Čirić

Key words: Interculturalism, drama, transculturation, deconstruction, hybridity ABSTRACT Interculturalism as “the[n] the latest avant-garde [...] which has set up a dialectic between a source culture and a target culture” (Singleton, 1995: 162) has been more manifest in dramatic texts and theatrical performances since the 1980s. Even though early intercultural plays and/or theatre have been dismissed as Eurocentric and problematic in regards to how they represent their respective source/foreign cultures (cf. Pavice, 1992; Singleton, 1995; Sakelleridou, 1995), there have been instances of „leaps‟ into intercultural theatrical practices, such as Tom Stoppard‟s Indian Ink (1995), that exploit diverse strategies in their attempt to provide a less partial portrayal of foreign cultures and the proceedings of transculturation. By focusing on the characterisation of three distinct groups of characters (Indians, Anglo-Indians and British), on the language-games played by the protagonists Flora Crew and Nirad Das, and on the symbolism of Flora‟s portraits, the paper looks into the very strategies Stoppard uses to deconstruct not only the stereotypical representations of the Other, but also notions of a homogenous and “pure” culture.

Article
PeerReviewed

IBU Publishing

2013-05-03

1778