Exoticized heroine or hybrid woman? Diasporic female subjectivity in Mira Nair’s Mississippi Marsala

For diasporic populations, the space of diaspora, whether it be the space of home or of nation, is often a fragmented and unsafe space that must be bounded and controlled in order to make that space one’s own,. Often it becomes incumbent upon the women to carry the burden of the creation of diaspora space. As essentialized representatives of a nation’s cultural identity, women’s bodies mark the boundaries of the national imaginary. The desire for a safe, familiar, clearly defined space to call one’s own within diaspora, leads to the essentialized notion of home and nation where the female body symbolically represents an ossified notion of native culture as well as the nation itself. Thus, any transgression on her part becomes akin to a violation of the family, the home, the community, and finally the nation within the space of diaspora. Copyright © 2011 Asian Cinema Studies Society.