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The play Talking in Tongues by Winsome Pinnock was first performed at the Royal
Court Theatre in 1991 under the direction of Hettie McDonald. The play treats
the issue of Jamaican black women's search for identity which, according to the
author, is seemingly connected to issues of belonging, race, gender and
sexuality. The main characters represent in fact black British citizens who,
living in England, experience a sense of marginalization and alienation which
leaves their identities fractured. This is primarily caused by the sexist and
racist notions shared by the British society, which prevents them from finding
their own voice in the country they were born and raised. On the background of
the play the experience of the Jamaican diaspora represents the journey of
thousands of Jamaicans who migrated in order to find better job opportunities
and a better life in England. This essay seeks to analyse the topic of the
fractured identity focusing on the issues of stereotype, language, homeland and
hybrid identity.
As
far as the issue of stereotype is concerned, the western perceptions of
feminine beauty affect the construction of black female identity in the
characters of the play. Although the
female protagonists were both born and raised in England, their black skin and
black physical traits as well as their Jamaican origins increase their need for
experiencing a sense of belonging towards England. However, the English
society, instead of embracing the difference, marginalizes and categorizes
these women fracturing and shaping their identities. Being marked by the
western stereotypes regarding the white codes of physical beauty, black women
have constantly been constructed as the Other in opposition to white British
women. The physical attributes, regarding the white conception of beauty,
postulate that a woman should have straight and long hair, smalllips and white
skin in order to be considered beautiful by men (Cervovsky, 2013, sect.19).
Accordingly, as Debbie Weekes maintains “whiteness and its associated outward
signifier have been used as a yardstick by which difference has been measured”
(Weekes, 1997 cited in Cervovsky, 2013, sect.19). Therefore, Pinnock aims at
portraying how these sexist and racist notions of physical beauty lay the
foundations for black women's inferiority in opposition to white women's
superiority. The play appears to provide several examples of how Leela,
Claudette and the other female characters are influenced by perceptions of
female beauty as well as how these women attempt to conform to the white
prototype in order to assimilate. For instance, Irma, one of the secondary
characters, seems to have tried to dye her black her “undergoing one of those
torturous hair treatments - […] the kind where they put some foul-smelling
cream on your head” (Pinnock, 1995: 194). However, the treatment fails and she
is left with a bald head and the impossibility to become a proper white woman.
Then, Claudette states that she wants to feel as beautiful as a white woman as
well as she admits that “there are two different kinds of woman” (Pinnock,
1995: 217). Moreover, Claudette, as Irma, seems to pay great attention to her
hair which embodies the conventional symbol of feminine sensuality and
attractiveness. As a consequence of this, she relates an event regarding a
white girl she knew when she was younger. Claudette then reports how she “used
to pose in front of my mum's dressing-table with a yellow polo-neck on my head.
I'd swish it around, practice flicking my hair back like she used to” (ibid).
By positioning the mother's yellow shirt on her head, Claudette pretended that
her black hair was as blond, straight and attractive as the hair of the white
friend she envied. Furthermore, she harshly reproaches black men for dating
white women in order to become as white as them and to conform to society's
stereotypes (Cervovsky, 2013, sect.19). For instance, Bentley, who is Leela's
husband, abandons and betrays his wife falling in love with Fren, a white
woman. On the one hand it seems that men, by choosing white women, attempt to
assimilate to white citizens assuming that white is superior to black. Men,
thereby, as women, attempt to find a sense of belonging to a society which only
negates comfort and assistance to blacks. Thus, Claudette articulates her personal
disapproval at Bentley's behaviour by asking Leela “Did you see the look in
Bentley's eye when he caught sight of the living barbie doll?” (Pinnock, 1995:
202) and then she clarifies to Bentley that “she can't make you white, black
boy” (Pinnock, 1995: 203). However, men's tendency to choose white women in
order to facilitate their assimilation to society also encourages black women's
sense of unbelonging and their fractured identity. This is primarily due to the
sense of abandonment that these women experience feeling “at a proverbial
bottom objects of undesirability or worse invisible” (Brown-Guillory, 2006:
38). Therefore, the western stereotypes regarding beauty and physical
attractiveness affect blacks' sense of uprootedness and the formation of their
identity. By appealing to the these fixed ideas, white British citizens exclude
black men and women from the society in which they were born and raised and
provoke a division in their identity.
In
terms of language, Lynette Goddard maintains that English, through the
postulation of racist binary constructions of self and other, supports black
individuals' marginalization (Goddard, 2007 cited in Cervovsky, 2013, sect.26).
As Goddard observes, the terms black, dark and inferior, which represent
negative features, are attached to black citizens whereas the terms light,
white and superior, which in the English language are regarded as positive,
usually refer to white individuals (ibid). Accordingly, the language, through
these racist binary constructions of what constitutes the Self and what the
Other, affect the formation of the Jamaican women's identities as well as it
postulates, through words, the Whites' superiority over the Blacks'
inferiority. Although Leela and Claudette's mother tongue is English, they do
not seem to feel represented by this language which lays the foundations for
their social exclusion. Therefore, these women appear to feel divided between
their desire to express themselves in English as well ass through this language
feeling a sense of belonging towards their mother country and their rejection
of the language system which represses their Jamaican voices preventing them
from acquiring a homogeneous British identity (Cervovsky, 2013, sect. 26). As
Leela states “if you don't feel you belong to a language then you're half alive
because you haven't the words to bring yourself into existence, you might as
well be invisible” (Pinnock, 1995: 195). Leela thereby does not appear to
consider English her language since it postulates her inferior status in
society and it does not provide her with the words to express her true self but
it only helps her sense of alienation from the language she is forced to
inhabit (Griffin, 2003: 84). Furthermore, when Leela and Claudette discover
Bentley's betrayal and confront him Leela does not seem to find the right words
to express her disapproval and distress for the husband's immoral behaviour.
Claudette supports her with the words she cannot find reproaching Bentley who
“wanted the best of both words” (Pinnock, 1995: 201) until Leela informs her
that she “can speak for myself” (ibid) but Claudette replies “Why don't you
then? Go on, speak” (ibid).
However,
even though Leela may feel the English language as oppressive towards the black
race, by using another means of communication, she challenges the
marginalization asserted by her mother tongue. In the second act, while
conversing with Sugar, she experiences bodily convulsions and by manifesting
all her repressed anger she starts “talking in tongues” (Pinnock, 1995: 223).
Her body releases the tension she has been kept hidden for all those years and
Leela seemingly transforms into a new being. By using the expression “talking
in tongues” (ibid), Winsome Pinnock does nor probably refer to any specific
kind of language. She probably aims to display that since Leela is silenced by
a language premised on racist and sexist assumptions, the only means to release
her pain and her anger and to denounce her sense of alienation is to find
another system of communication which does not marginalizes and categorizes her
race. However, Winsome Pinnock does not probably indicate what language or
means of communication because every language, by being culturally influenced,
probably carries sexist or racist assumptions (Brown-Guillory, 2006: 42-43).
This event is foreshadowed by an episode that Sugar narrates in the prologue
regarding a woman named Dum-Dum who “never speaks” (Pinnock, 1995: 173). As
Sugar notices, she had “never hear say a word in my life” (ibid) but while other women were singing she
suddenly “start to sway and rise up on her toes like there was something inside
her, pulling her up” (ibid). She then lifts her “body to the sky” and shouts
“loud and loud and saying words very fast in a language you never hear before”
(Pinnock, 1995: 174). As Leela, Dum-Dum was probably silenced by a language
which postulated the inferiority of women and only encountering another system
of communication she can deliver herself from the sexist values which her
language conveys. Therefore, the English
language, by defining blacks as dark and inferior and whites as light and
superior, portrays black British citizens as Others in comparison to the white
population. This dichotomy prevents the black citizens from feeling a sense of
belonging to their country and leaves them torn between their desire to be part
of British society and the impossibility to find their own voice in this
country (Cervovsky, 2013, sect.26).
Nonetheless,
Pinnock, through the episode of Dum-Dum, introduces the character of Sugar,
aiming at stressing the internal conflict that the protagonist Leela is
experiencing in her life. Sugar, in fact, as a secondary character, emerges in
the second act of the play and covers the function of the foil according to a
narrative perspective. By contrasting with the main character, her function is
to highlight particular qualities or conflicts occurring in the protagonist.
Therefore, Sugar, by sharing some affinity with Leela points to stress her
despair and alienation and her need for an identity. As Leela, Sugar
experiences the betrayal of her man who engages in sexual relationships with
the female tourists in order to help the economic survival of his country.
Firstly with Claudette and then with Kate, he does not pay attention to Sugar's
feelings as well as Bentley rudely communicates Leela that he “didn't want
things to be like this” (Pinnock, 1995: 201). Moreover, both these women
experience discrimination. Sugar seems to be regarded as inferior among white
female tourists as Claudette, who does not even think she has the right to
claim Mikie's presence in fact “she doesn't own you” (Pinnock, 1995: 205)
whereas Leela experiences discrimination in her country due to the colour of
her skin as well as when her husband leaves her in order to “fit into the white
world” (Pinnock, 1995: 198). However, although their shared similarities, their
juxtaposition reveals their contrast: despite Mikie's betrayal, Sugar, thanks
to an “assured sense of the self” (Griffin, 2003: 101) and her self confidence
coming from belonging angrily claims his boyfriend who belongs to her and she
seemingly transforms into a “spitfire” knowing “how to hit a man when it hurt”
(Pinnock, 1995: 205). On the contrary, Bentley's betrayal intensifies Leela's
“unsettled identity” (Griffin, 2003: 101). Contrarily to Sugar who feels
profoundly attached to her land, Leela's sense of displacement appears to
increase when she discovers the relationship between Bentley and Fran since she
is forced to face rejection not only from society but also from her husband.
Accordingly, she does not apparently criticise him as Sugar but remains silent
and as the play develops, it seems even more difficult for her encountering a
sense of belonging to a place or a person (Griffin, 2003: 101). Therefore, even
though these characters share similar experiences,their split or homogeneous
identity allow them to manifest opposing reactions towards their lovers'
betrayal. Moreover, the comparison with Sugar, emphasises Leela's impending
need to belong to a place and find an identity.
Regarding
the issue of homeland, the two female protagonists, due to the social exclusion
experienced in England, return to Jamaica in order to connect to their roots.
Leela and Claudette, who cannot feel a sense of attachment to their mother
country since “where you live does not equate with a sense of belonging”
(Griffin, 2003: 87), return to Jamaica, where the origins of their families
lie, hoping to overcome their sense of alienation. By mimicking the Jamaican
diaspora, these women move to this country where people “seem so at ease with
themselves and have the confidence that comes from belonging” (Pinnock, 1995:
206). However, sharing the same physical traits and skin colour do not
apparently guarantee, the recognition of a unitary black identity as well as
coming to terms with the multi-locationality of their identities. On the
contrary, the Jamaican inhabitants tend to regard them as mere tourists, as
temporary visitors whose whims and caprices should be indulged for the sake of
the money they bring to the Jamaican economy (Griffin, 2003: 84). For instance,
Claudette, engages in a relationship with Mikie who considers this sexual
affair as a simple business transaction in order to entertain the tourists who
only care of “sex and cocktails” (Pinnock, 1995: 205). Mikie in fact by
participating in this sex tourism aims at persuading visitors who come to
Jamaica to return to his poor country in order to support the Jamaican economy.
Then, Mikie leaves Claudette without any official explanation and pursues with
the white tourist Kate, demonstrating his indifference for both his girlfriend
and Claudette's feelings. In addition, Mikie further comments on the black
tourists' behaviour who one the one hand behave nicely with the native
inhabitants attempting to establish a bond which could provide them with the
sense of belonging they are desperately seeking, on the other hand they treat
“us like dirt” (Pinnock, 1995: 223). For instance, when Sugar is blamed for
Kate's attack and punished with the loss of her job, neither Leela nor
Claudette seemingly intervene in order to preserve Sugar's job. As Sugar
observes paraphrasing Mikie's thoughts, “he says you all sick, say unno come
out here because you broken people...you come here looking for...unno tourist
think you belong here. But you come out and you don't know where to put
yourself: one minute you talking sisterhood, the next minute you treating us
like dirt. You just the same as all the other tourists them” (ibid).
Accordingly, the Jamaican inhabitants do not seem even to trust the black
tourists whose unstable behaviour appears as unreliable (Griffin, 20013: 87).
Therefore, Pinnock questions the simplistic notion of homeland as a place where
an individual was born, or where the origins of his family lie suggesting the
issue seems far more complex than it appears at a first glance.
As
far as the hybrid identity is concerned, Leela overcomes her sense of
alienation by transcending both Jamaica and England and embracing an identity shaped
by both her Jamaican and English parts.
Leela cannot find her identity neither in England, due to the racial
discrimination, nor in Jamaica, where she does not live and is thereby regarded
as a mere tourist by the inhabitants of the island. Nonetheless, her origins
may be connected to England, the place where she was born whereas Jamaica
embodies the land where her grandparents probably lived and determines the
colour of her skin as well as of her physical traits. Accordingly, her identity
may be defined as hybrid and not fractured since it symbolizes the product of
the union of two countries in a single entity and it establishes a relation of
complementarity between them (Griffin, 2003: 90). For instance, Leela, by
walking through the Jamaican nature, approaches physically and metaphorically
to this land and attempts to know the country to which she has a distant
relation but in which “she also figures as other” (Griffin, 2003: 84). As a
consequence of this, she understands that, despite her English life, she
belongs to Jamaica with which she shares her physical attributes and her
origins. However, she cannot probably negate that she also party represents an
English woman, since she was born and raised in the UK as well as her mother
tongue is English. Leela thereby may become a hybrid creature who, transcending
both Jamaica and England, finally comes into contact with her true self and
overcomes any inner conflict. Furthermore, the author, supports this conception
of the hybrid identity by relating her personal story as daughter of two
parents who emigrated to Britain in 1958. Although she was born in England
three years later in 1961, Winsome Pinnock maintains that “we really did feel
torn between the two cultures, although one was a culture that in reality one
didn't know much about” (Glaap, 1995 cited in Glaap, 1998: 205). She describes
her first trip to Jamaica as a turning-point of her life and the occasion to
become reconciled with her identity. After her journey to Jamaica she thereby
defined herself as “this new being. One who is a mixture of many different
cultures and therefore able to take from all of them” (ibid). Therefore,
Pinnock, as Leela, accepts herself as “one speaking with vastly different
voices” (ibid), a hybrid creature who recognizes the richness and variety of
her background.
In
conclusion, the play itself, regarding the quest for identity of two English
girls of Jamaican origins, displays similarities with the life of the author
herself. Winsome Pinnock, who was born in London as Claudette and Leela, still
embraces her Afro-Caribbean heritage as the protagonists of her play. The
fractured identity that these characters may experience because of the
alienation suffered in England and Jamaica fosters the questions of identity
and belonging, even though play ends with a positive message. Pinnock in fact
seemingly argue for the necessity and possibility of interracial communication
between women. This is primairly embodied both in the scene where Sugar
supports Leela while she is “talking in tongues” (Pinnock, 1995: 223) as well
as in the final scene when Leela, the black woman, promises Kate, the white, to
walk together “next time” (Pinnock, 1995: 225).
Works Cited
Brown-Guillory,
E. (2006) Middle Passages and the
Heritage Place of History Ohio: Thomson- Shore Inc.
Cervovsky,
E. M. (2013) The search for Identity in
Black British Women's Drama: an Analysis of Jackie Kay's Chiaroscuro and Winsome Pinnock's Talking in Tongues. An Internet Journal for Gender Studies.
Retrieved, October, 4 2014 from <www.genderforum.org/issues/special-issue-
early-career-researchers-i/detailed-table-of-contents>.
Glaap,
A. R. (1998) Speaking in vastly different voices: transcultural communication
inWinsome Pinnock's plays in Kloos, W., Across
the Lines: Intertextuality and Transcultural Communication in New Literature in
English (pp. 205-212). Amsterdam: Rodopi B.V.
Griffin,
G. (2003) Contemporary Black and Asian
Women Playwrights in Britain Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Luckhurst,
M. (2010) A Companion to Modern British
and Irish Drama 1880-2005 Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Middeke,
M., Schnierer, P., Sierz, A., (2011) The Metheun Drama Guide to Contemporary
British Playwrights London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Pinnock,
W. (1995) Talking in Tongues London:
Metheun Drama.
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