Virtually positioned: Investigating identity and positionality in a case study of South Asian literature in cyberspace

Interdisciplinary Science Reviews

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 65-76

  Lau, Lisa ^a  

^a DURHAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CYBERSPACE; DATA COLLECTION; POSITIONALITY; VIRTUAL WORLD;

DATA REDUCTION; ELECTRONIC COMMUNITIES; ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT; PROBLEM SOLVING; RESEARCH; SOCIAL ASPECTS;

WORLD WIDE WEB;

EID: 2942689953     PISSN: 03080188     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1179/030801804225012455     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. Compare the studies elsewhere in this issue of ISR by Galmiche-Tejeda (pp. 77-95), Gunasekera (pp. 37-48), and Pasquini with Olaniyan (pp. 24-36).
2. L. McDowell: 'Doing gender: feminism, feminists and research methods in human geography', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 1992, 17, 399-416, 413; D. J. Haraway: Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature; 1991, London, Free Association Books.
3. L. McDowell: 'Doing gender: feminism, feminists and research methods in human geography', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 1992, 17, 399-416, 413; D. J. Haraway: Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature; 1991, London, Free Association Books.
4. G. Rose: 'Situating knowledges', Progress in Human Geography, 1997, 21, 305-320.
5. It therefore necessarily follows that the use of the internet in my case study will be very selective and limited, involving only the pertinent facets of cyberspace.
6. For a discussion of the role of literature in the social sciences, see L. Lau and M. W. Pasquini: 'Meeting grounds: perceiving and defining interdisciplinarity across the arts, social sciences and sciences', Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 2004, 29, 49-64.
7. 'Meet' in this case means simply to communicate via a mutual forum for discussion.
8. B. E. Kolko, L. Nakamura and G. E. Rodman: 'Race in Cyberspace: an introduction', in Race in Cyberspace, (ed. B. E. Kolko et al.), 1-14, 6; 2000, London, Routledge.
9. L. Nakamura: '"Where do you want to go today?": cybernetic tourism, the internet, and transnationality", in Race in Cyberspace, (ed. B. E. Kolko et al.), 15-26, 21; 2000, London, Routledge.
10. J. Gonzalez: 'The appended subject: race and identity as digital assemblage', in Race in Cyberspace, (ed. B. E. Kolko et al.), 27-50, 44; 2000, London, Routledge.
11. J. Fernback: 'The individual within the collective: virtual ideology and the realization of collective principles', in Virtual Culture: Identity and Community in Cybersociety, (ed. S. G. Jones), 37; 1997, London, Sage.
12. Netiquette is generally understood to refer to shared customs in an internet community.
13. C. Bailey: "Virtual skin: articulating race in cyberspace', in Immersed in Technology, Art, and Virtual Environments, 38; 1996, Cambridge, MA, MIT Press.
14. It should be noted that technologies are inclined to create their own languages: for example text messaging on mobile phones commonly employs many abbreviations, many of which have now become standard.
15. A. Mitra: 'Virtual commonality: looking for India on the internet', in Virtual Culture: Identity and Community in Cybersociety, (ed. S. G. Jones), 63; 1997, London, Sage.
16. R. Gajjala: 'Cyborg diaspora and virtual imagined community: studying SAWNET', Cybersociology, 17 November 1996, (6), www.cybersociology.com.
17. A. Mitra: 'Virtual commonality', p. 69 (see Note 15).
18. A. Mitra: 'Virtual commonality', p. 59 (see Note 15).
19. A. Mitra: 'Virtual commonality', p. 76 (see Note 15).
20. W. Iser: The Art of Reading: A Theory of Aesthetic Responses, 20; 1978, London, Routledge & Kegan Paul.
21. A. K. Dhaliwal: 'Reading diaspora, self-representational practices and the politics of reception', Socialist Review, 1994, 24, 13-43, 37.
22. A. P. Kanath: 'Women writers of Indian diaspora create a big impact', 23 August 1999, www.rediff.com/news/1999/aug/23us1.htm.
23. With the incredibly rapid global spread of the internet, especially in countries like India and China, web browsers are now increasingly being adapted for different languages and scripts to cope with millions of Indian and Chinese users. English is, however, still the lingua franca of internet users today.
24. MIRA is a pseudonym. Some of this background information was provided in an online interview with one of its founding members. I have been a MIRA subscriber for three years and have closely observed as well as participated in the discussions.
25. Although my studies are focused on South Asian authors, I myself am from South-East Asia, a Malaysian of Chinese descent.
26. Technically, any woman can join MIRA - membership is barred only to men.
27. In August 2002 there was a lengthy and animated discussion on Elizabeth Bumilier's May You Be the Mother of a Hundred Sons, and many indignant responses to this book were due to MIRA members regarding Bumiller as a complete outsider who neither understood nor fairly portrayed Indian women, and moreover one who could be regarded as a Western imperialist imposing and propagating a false portrait of India. (Those few who defended her right to state her views were in very small minority.)