In search of 'Viva Goa' and a sisterhood of belonging: a transnationalist feminist reading of select authors from the Goan diaspora

Abstract

Through the lens of transnational feminism, this paper attempts to investigate the specificities of the Goan women's diasporic experiences and hybrid identities in Suneeta Peres da Costa's Saudade and Selma Carvalho's Sisterhood of Swans. Goa holds a distinctive position among Indian states, not only because of its Portuguese colonial past, but also because of its continued association with that legacy. Goan identity is often perceived as distinct and resistant to being subsumed within the liberated, albeit uniform, identity accorded to it after liberation. Given these imperialist constructions, it is essential to understand how conflicts between local, national, and diasporic identities are ascribed to the bodies of Goan women occupying varied spatial locations and their processes of homing. This paper offers an inquiry into these hyphenated existences from the perspectives of second-generation immigrant women authors.