Exploring Gender Studies and Feminism Through Literature and Media 1668465728, 9781668465721

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Exploring Gender Studies and Feminism Through Literature and Media Gyanabati Khuraijam National Institute of Technology, Agartala, India

A volume in the Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts (AMEA) Book Series

Published in the United States of America by IGI Global Information Science Reference (an imprint of IGI Global) 701 E. Chocolate Avenue Hershey PA, USA 17033 Tel: 717-533-8845 Fax: 717-533-8661 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: http://www.igi-global.com Copyright © 2022 by IGI Global. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher. Product or company names used in this set are for identification purposes only. Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI Global of the trademark or registered trademark.

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Names: Khuraijam, Gyanabati, 1979- editor. Title: Exploring gender studies and feminism through literature and media / Gyanabati Khuraijam. Description: Hershey : Information Science Reference, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This book will contribute significantly to the research areas of gender studies, racial studies and feminism by analyzing significant literary works of Indian Writing in English, American literature, African literature and European texts”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2022023426 (print) | LCCN 2022023427 (ebook) | ISBN 9781668465721 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781668465738 (paperback) | ISBN 9781668465745 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Gender identity in literature. | Feminism in literature. | Women in literature. | LCGFT: Literary criticism. | Essays. Classification: LCC PN56.G45 E97 2022 (print) | LCC PN56.G45 (ebook) | DDC 809/.933521--dc23/eng/20220705 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022023426 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022023427 This book is published in the IGI Global book series Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts (AMEA) (ISSN: 2475-6814; eISSN: 2475-6830) British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library. All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher. For electronic access to this publication, please contact: [email protected].

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Sustaining Creativity and the Arts in the Digital Age Gilberto Marzano (Rezekne Academy of Technology Latvia) Information Science Reference • © 2022 • 300pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799878407) • US $215.00 Contemporary Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities in Sustainable Architecture Veronica Ng Foong Peng Mohamad NG (Taylor’s University, Malaysia) Sucharita Srirangam (Taylor’s University, Malaysia) and Siti Norzaini Zainal Abidin (Taylor’s University, Malaysia) Information Science Reference • © 2022 • 340pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781668451199) • US $240.00 Handbook of Research on Connecting Philosophy, Media, and Development in Developing Countries Desmond Onyemechi Okocha (Bingham University, Nigeria) Melchizedec J. Onobe (Bingham University, Nigeria) and Mirian Ngozi Alike (Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria) Information Science Reference • © 2022 • 465pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781668441077) • US $295.00 Redefining Journalism in an Age of Technological Advancements, Changing Demographics, and Social Issues Phylis Johnson (San Jose State University, USA) and Ian Punnett (Kansas State University, USA) Information Science Reference • © 2022 • 284pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799838449) • US $215.00 Handbook of Research on Global Media’s Preternatural Influence on Global Technological Singularity, Culture, and Government Stephen Brock Schafer (Independent Researcher, USA) and Alex Bennet (Mountain Quest Institute, USA) Information Science Reference • © 2022 • 522pp • H/C (ISBN: 9781799888840) • US $295.00 For an entire list of titles in this series, please visit: http://www.igi-global.com/book-series/advances-media-entertainment-arts/102257

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Table of Contents

Preface................................................................................................................. xxi Acknowledgment.............................................................................................. xxvi Chapter 1 Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman’s Divinity in Self-Formation......................1 Anutosh Sinha, Jadavpur University, India Chapter 2 Global Androgyny and Futurisms: The Performativity of Anima/Animus in Contemporary Video Games.................................................................................10 Manodip Chakraborty, G. L. Bajaj Group of Institution, Mathura, India Chapter 3 Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity: A Traumatic Study of Women’s Characters in the Novels of Imre Kertesz.............................................17 Diksha Gupta, Bhaskar Degree College, Udhampur, India Chapter 4 Breaking the Silence: Understanding the LGBTQ+ Community – A Study of Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women...................................25 Gargee Rawat, Doon University, India Sakshi Semwal, DIT University, India Chapter 5 Unlearning Internalized Homophobia With My Brother’s Husband: A Glimpse Into Mainstream Queer Literature in Japan............................................39 Anushkaa Debnath, Jadavpur University, India



Chapter 6 Subversion of the Dominant Logic of Heteronormativity in Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji: Queering the Society and the State................................50 Guhan Priyadharshan P., Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India Chapter 7 Portrayal of Helen of Troy in the Select Poems of Sappho and Wislawa Szymborska: Shattering the Stereotypes...............................................................64 Rushati Dasgupta, Jain University (Deemed), India Chapter 8 Touching to Transgress and Transgressing to Touch: The Dalit Female Sexuality in Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry..............................................................72 Sneha Roy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Chapter 9 Foucauldian-Feminist Reading of Mo Yan’s Select Novels..................................79 Aaradhana, Lovely Professional University, India Chapter 10 There Was No Escape Epiphany: Subversion and Symbolic in Clarice Lispector’s “Love”................................................................................................96 Malvika Manisha Lobo, The English and Foreign Languages University, India Chapter 11 An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama................................106 Sayantani Sengupta, St Xavier’s University, India Chapter 12 The Women in the Fictions of Arundhati Roy: Forming Solidarity With Other Marginalities.............................................................................................113 Jagriti Sengupta, Visva-Bharati, India Chapter 13 Gender and Sexuality in Toni Morrison’s Home................................................121 Anita Devi Ahanthem, Kumbi College, India Chapter 14 Gender Roles Portrayed in A Room of One’s Own and Orlando........................131 Antara Naha, K. R. Mangalam University, India



Chapter 15 “It’s My Story”: Revisioning of Myth in Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni by Poile Sengupta..................................................................................139 Anusha Ashok, Stella Maris College, India Chapter 16 An Ode to Woman: Role and Representation of Women in the World of Literature.............................................................................................................148 Arundhati Patra, Vivekananda Mission Mahavidyalaya, India Chapter 17 Women in Partition Literature: A Comparative Study of Women’s Representations in India’s Partition Literature....................................................157 Trisha Bhattacharya, Independent Researcher, India Chapter 18 A Feminist Reading of Panthoipi Khongkul.......................................................173 Rosy Yumnam, The English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong, India Chapter 19 Recognizing Contemporary Tribal Women’s Writings: A Study on Select Literary Narrators of North East India................................................................182 Raam Kumar T., Bharathiar University, India Padmanabhan B., Bharathiar University, India Chapter 20 Nupi-Lal and Women Empowerment: A Study of the Meetei Women of Manipuri Society.................................................................................................191 Yumnam Yaiphabi Chanu, Manipur University, India Chapter 21 The Role of Haptics in the Sexual Harassment of Women in Corporate Sector.202 Shraddha Dhal, KIIT University (Deemed), India Chapter 22 Table, Chair, and the Persistent Patriarchy: A Feminist Critique of Vaidehi’s “Going by Tables and Chairs”............................................................................213 Kanika Bhalla, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA



Chapter 23 Reading Ishmat Chughtai’s “Lihaaf” From the Perspective of Alternative Sexuality.............................................................................................................221 Ashmita Bora, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Guwahati, India Chapter 24 “Knowledge Is Power, Power Is Also Knowledge”: Revisiting Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream”..............................................................228 Dolon Sarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India Compilation of References............................................................................... 234 About the Contributors.................................................................................... 249 Index................................................................................................................... 253

Detailed Table of Contents

Preface................................................................................................................. xxi Acknowledgment.............................................................................................. xxvi Chapter 1 Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman’s Divinity in Self-Formation......................1 Anutosh Sinha, Jadavpur University, India Rashsundari Devi’s autobiography, the first of its kind by any Bengali woman, Amar Jiban is the testimony of a 19th century Bengali woman’s ordeals. It not only highlights the theme of women’s education through her yearning for knowledge of letters; it also calls for equal spiritual status for women as she personally yearns for God. She chooses to rewrite her life in this autobiography, broadly in alignment with God’s life. She attributes to God every good or bad thing happening around, even her life with transgressions. The chapter showcases how the re-presented self of Rashsundari follows the broad religious codes, yet not in the customary way and her personalized fantastic experiences, like precognitive dreams, help her mould the shape of her God. The author invokes the guru-shishya dynamics and looks through the glass of a few religious texts of Hinduism, especially the Bhagavad Gita, to analyse whether she transgresses from the whole religious system or actually encodes her discontent uniquely on the bedrock of religious following, adherence, and devotion. Chapter 2 Global Androgyny and Futurisms: The Performativity of Anima/Animus in Contemporary Video Games.................................................................................10 Manodip Chakraborty, G. L. Bajaj Group of Institution, Mathura, India The derivation of gender superiority is a societal construct that must distribute itself in a hegemonic axis to produce discursive subjects. With postmodern disillusionment, the potentiality of a hegemonic habitus has shifted towards the digital platform. Much has been analyzed about this form, but video games remained outside the periphery – smoothly constructing the mass ideology. Contemporary video games



with their simulated morphism can not only alter the player’s consciousness but also can provide a release from their inner taboos. The gamer can exhibit freely his/her anima/animus, which is a restricted content in society and paid the price by being under continuous surveillance. This chapter thus proposes to analyse contemporary video games and how these video games with their augmented enhancements can alter the gamer’s perception and thereby bring about an entire change in the persona – leading to a world of global androgyny. Chapter 3 Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity: A Traumatic Study of Women’s Characters in the Novels of Imre Kertesz.............................................17 Diksha Gupta, Bhaskar Degree College, Udhampur, India The most distinct outcome of structural domination can be examined through the major historical event of the Holocaust that took place against the Jews. Imre Kertesz was a historical writer who diligently chronicled the injustice and discrimination against Jewish women in his works to highlight the barbarity that they have encountered. The study gives a poignant depiction of the deplorable condition of the women characters, who struggled and quested for their Jewish identity, equality, and liberty. Kertesz’s Fateless and Kaddish for an Unborn Child depict marginalization, discrimination, and victimization of the Jewish women. Hence, the chapter will discuss the texts of Imre Kertesz from the theoretical perspectives of trauma in order to understand the indelible scars and other traumatic disorders of women characters. Along with this, the major concern of the study is to depict the dispossessedness of voice of Jewish women in particular, as a result of which they are at a loss to articulate the recurrence of discrimination, injustice, and oppression they witness. Chapter 4 Breaking the Silence: Understanding the LGBTQ+ Community – A Study of Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women...................................25 Gargee Rawat, Doon University, India Sakshi Semwal, DIT University, India Gender equality has been a can of worms. From the waves of feminism till LGBTQ, some people, due to their otherness, have endured bigotry and social stigma. We’ve been fed with heteronormativity for a long time and there exists a void when it comes to homosexual tolerance. Although a lot has been written about them, transgender people still have not been legally recognized worldwide. Their demand for identity and getting rid of the derogatory terms they were labelled with like hijras, chakka, kinnars, jogappa, aravani, aruvani, etc. is visible everywhere. Recently, LGBTQ is considered taboo in society because of some stereotypical mindsets. This chapter focuses on the lives of transgender people in and around Pakistan majorly by dwelling deep into the kind of behavioural patterns society shows toward them by taking the



text of Alternative Realities (Nighat M. Gandhi, 2013) as a representation of the LGBTQ community’s voice. Chapter 5 Unlearning Internalized Homophobia With My Brother’s Husband: A Glimpse Into Mainstream Queer Literature in Japan............................................39 Anushkaa Debnath, Jadavpur University, India The manga My Brother’s Husband (2014-2017) talks about a little Japanese neighborhood, the microcosm representing the country’s general approach to homosexuality and how the future holds a promise to change for better days. Homosexual relationships and trans identities are frowned upon in the general society of modern-day Japan, just like in many other Asian countries. An openly gay mangaka, Gengoroh Tagame, had so far been a name limited to the gay erotic manga circuit, but this work, targeted at a more general audience, won him critical acclaim for depicting the struggles of being queer in Japan. This chapter is an attempt to understand how Yaichi is a representative of the cis-heterosexual male who is trying his best to navigate out of the patriarchal maze of heteronormativity that has been propagated through generations following European imperialism in Asian countries. Chapter 6 Subversion of the Dominant Logic of Heteronormativity in Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji: Queering the Society and the State................................50 Guhan Priyadharshan P., Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India Akwaeke Emezi’s 2020 novel The Death of Vivek Oji narrates the death of the eponymous non-heterosexual character—as suggested by the title—and the emotional turmoil faced by people with non-heterosexual orientation. This chapter demonstrates how his death is the product of dominant logic—the prudishness of the Igbo society, which manifests heteronormative practices, and the legal system in Nigeria that castigate persons who diverge from normative sexual behaviour. Further, it examines the narration in the novel that subverts the heteronormativity perpetuated by the state and society, opening new avenues of resistance for non-heterosexual people in Nigeria that might otherwise be obscured in the narrative. The chapter considers the location of the experiences of the non-heterosexual characters in the novel in liminality so that the contradiction between the lived experience and the conformity articulated by the state and the society is apparent, which prepares the ground for resistance to occur.



Chapter 7 Portrayal of Helen of Troy in the Select Poems of Sappho and Wislawa Szymborska: Shattering the Stereotypes...............................................................64 Rushati Dasgupta, Jain University (Deemed), India The Greek society was highly patriarchal; it was a masculine world where war was glorified. Helen of Troy is one of the most imperative characters in both ancient and modern literature. For centuries she has been portrayed as the woman whose beauty sparked the Trojan War. But there are writers whose characterization of Helen and description of her beauty differ from the stereotypical mainstream narrative. This chapter investigates how the mythical character of Helen has been explored by such female writers, through poems of Sappho and Wislawa Szymborska. In Sappho’s “Fragment 16,” the readers observe how she refashions the character of Helen and projects her as a “hero” because she had followed her heart. She only mentions her beauty and does not describe her in an elevated way. But Szymborska is more effective in describing the consequences of her unsurpassed beauty that becomes her weapon. In the poem “A Moment in Troy,” Szymborska criticizes the internalization of patriarchal values. She manipulates patriarchy by using a patriarchal narrative to empower women. Chapter 8 Touching to Transgress and Transgressing to Touch: The Dalit Female Sexuality in Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry..............................................................72 Sneha Roy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Dalit feminist poet and author Meena Kandasamy’s poetry collections Touch (2006) and Ms. Militancy (2010) are daring explorations of how the flesh can inscribe its desires in all of its impulsive and unhindered spontaneity in the text – tender and violent at the same time, with the text treading across wired fences of gendered and segregated spaces only to return back to the flesh. This chapter acknowledges Sangari and Vaid’s sociological insight into how women’s sexuality has served as a pivotal gateway for the maintenance of caste-based and sex-based inequalities and attempts to critically explore the pathway Kandasamy cuts to overturn the Dalit female body’s very trajectory of “utility” in a society obsessed with purity and patriarchal hegemony. Locating Kandasamy in the socio-political matrix to read her poetry, an inter-disciplinary approach is adopted in scrutinizing the need to study the language she uses in her poetry, taking into purview its apparently “sexually provocative” content and its maneuverings around the notion of “touch” in the text.



Chapter 9 Foucauldian-Feminist Reading of Mo Yan’s Select Novels..................................79 Aaradhana, Lovely Professional University, India With his imaginative and humanistic fiction, Mo Yan has shed light on numerous social and political issues prevalent in Chinese society during the 20th century. Alongside his political narratives, he has remarkably represented women’s roles and treatment, where gender hierarchy is evident. Moreover, to satirise the patriarchal society, Mo Yan has boldly designed his female characters to overshadow their male counterparts. The present study explores the systemic subjugation of women depicted in the novels and how some female characters actively resisted them. The issue of sexual violence during the war period in China will also be examined as the selected novels portray the cultural and historical experience during the series of civil and national wars. To comprehend and examine these issues, the theoretical framework of Michael Foucault will be applied. His discourse on power relations will be used as a medium to explore the problems mentioned above. Chapter 10 There Was No Escape Epiphany: Subversion and Symbolic in Clarice Lispector’s “Love”................................................................................................96 Malvika Manisha Lobo, The English and Foreign Languages University, India Clarice Lispector is one of the most prominent figures of literary modernism in Latin America. Her oeuvre explores themes of existentialism, narratives of silence, and various ideas of freedom. Her self-reflexive style of writing and experimentation with the Portuguese language reflects her attempt to invoke alternate meanings through her narrative. The characters’ identities in her short stories through their exploratory nature give rise to a great deal of identity and gender play. They provoke possibilities and prospects to create new gender roles and subversive practices by the manifestations of thoughts and actions in various ways. This chapter examines her use of the epiphany in her short story “Love” from the collection of short stories entitled Family Ties. The focus rests on the symbolic violence that ensues from this deviation through thought (language) and action as a response to subversion under patriarchy. The theoretical approach reads against the grain in the light of Viktor Shlovsky’s “defamiliarization” and Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and field.



Chapter 11 An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama................................106 Sayantani Sengupta, St Xavier’s University, India The relationship between women and nature is powerful. Through various legends and folktales, women have been projected as the goddesses who would save the forests as well as save the world from overconsumption and greed. The focus of this chapter is one of the popular legends of India, the legend of Bonbibi in Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama. Bonbibi is widely worshipped by the people of the Sundarbans, which has been mentioned by Ghosh in his novel The Hungry Tide. But the primary focus of Jungle Nama is on the three central characters, Dukhey, Dhona, and Dokkhin Rai, and how Bonbibi comes as a saviour of the young boy, Dukhey, and thus becomes the preserver of the natural order. On the other hand, Manasa, the snake goddess can also be portrayed as someone who maintains a balance between life and death, avarice and generosity, as well as good and evil. The chapter intends to critically study Ghosh’s retelling of the Bonbibi legend through an ecofeminist lens and also includes the story of Manasa to substantiate the interconnections between women and nature. Chapter 12 The Women in the Fictions of Arundhati Roy: Forming Solidarity With Other Marginalities.............................................................................................113 Jagriti Sengupta, Visva-Bharati, India Arundhati Roy, the world-renowned novelist and political essayist from India, is a dominant voice against injustice perpetrated against the marginalized in the country. For her, the marginalization of women is part of a process through which social oppression is unleashed upon the weak. Roy got the prestigious Booker prize for her debut novel, The God of Small Things. The fiction brought out the unjust politics of caste and gender discrimination inherent in an orthodox society. However, after her first fiction, Roy shifted gear to non-fictions that she continued to write for almost two decades. Roy got engaged in more serious political debates and became a powerful critic of corporate globalization. In 2017, Roy published her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. In it, Roy offered a journalistic review of all the sociopolitical events of the post-Independent India. This chapter examines that the women protagonists in Roy’s fictions extend solidarity to others who are in the margins because, according to Roy, feminism should be a powerful force against oppression in general.



Chapter 13 Gender and Sexuality in Toni Morrison’s Home................................................121 Anita Devi Ahanthem, Kumbi College, India Before venturing into the term “gender,” the biological differentiation of male and female as “sex” is inevitable. Moreover, if “sex” is a biological categorization based primarily on reproductive potential, then “gender” is the social elaboration of biological sex. Hence, gender gradually builds on biological sex, but it exaggerates biological difference, and it carries biological difference into domains in which it is completely irrelevant. For reference, in a heterosexual society, “masculine men” are seen as sexually dominant, active, and initiating whereas “feminine women” are sexually passive, receptive, and submissive. In this chapter, the author has taken up Toni Morrison’s novel Home in order to discuss the dynamics of “gender” and “sexuality” based on “race,” as it gives false perception of self, identity, and trauma. It will also analyze how women of any race are always the victims of violence associated with male sexuality. Chapter 14 Gender Roles Portrayed in A Room of One’s Own and Orlando........................131 Antara Naha, K. R. Mangalam University, India Virginia Woolf has raised her voice through her works on the challenges of women and freedom of thought. This chapter focuses on the gender roles as portrayed in the works of Virginia Woolf, focusing on A Room of One’s Own and Orlando. She states through A Room of One’s Own that the strongest creative minds are the ones with the balance between masculine and feminine components, and through Orlando, she presents the idea of gender through an androgynous view, using a character who changes genders in their lifetime of 300 years. The theoretical focus of the chapter will be through Judith Butler’s theory on gender, which relies on the action of gender interconnected with the identity of the person. The chapter will aim to present the idea of gender representation through a broader view for achieving wider acceptance for different gender identities. Chapter 15 “It’s My Story”: Revisioning of Myth in Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni by Poile Sengupta..................................................................................139 Anusha Ashok, Stella Maris College, India The imposing corpus of Indian mythology has long stood uncontested and unquestioned as a repository of narratives that demarcate the heroes and the villains with the collective sympathy leaning towards the former. The depiction of the antagonists in epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were carefully constructed to cement their positions as figures that would incite hatred and disgust and as foils to



their infallible hero counterparts. The purpose of this chapter is to reconsider the character of Shoorpanakha as a victim of circumstance and masculine domination as opposed to the malevolent individual that she is portrayed in the epics, through the lens of subalternity and feminism, as represented in Sengupta’s play Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni. The conscious decision of giving a voice to those who were vilified and shunned is an instance of revisioning. It defies conventional knowledge of the two crucial metanarratives and the dominating discursive practices. It does not lend itself to the restricting binary of good and evil and allows agency to own their narrative. Chapter 16 An Ode to Woman: Role and Representation of Women in the World of Literature.............................................................................................................148 Arundhati Patra, Vivekananda Mission Mahavidyalaya, India In this 21st century, the world, as well as societal norms, changes rapidly due to globalization. The feminist movement is one of the important outcomes of these societal changes. Nowadays the status or position of women becomes progressed as we find them in every pace of the world due to the waves of the feminist movement. This chapter examines how women got their rights to introduce themselves in this patriarchal society, the history of the world of women’s literature – how women introduce themselves as writers and the way they are depicted within the world of literature, and the present scenario of women in the society as portrayed in the world of literature through selected literary texts as contexts. Chapter 17 Women in Partition Literature: A Comparative Study of Women’s Representations in India’s Partition Literature....................................................157 Trisha Bhattacharya, Independent Researcher, India This chapter is a comparative analysis between partition literature from Bengal and Punjab showing how even though there is a minor divergence in literature from these two sides owing to the political realities, for the most part literature from these two sides shows overwhelming convergence. In order to draw a comparative analysis, the author uses eight pieces of partition literature—four each from Bengal and Punjab. The chapter is divided into three sections: The first section discusses the relevance of Partition literature for studying Partition and how partition was experienced different by Punjab and Bengal in the political sense. The second section presents the analysis of the one most significant divergence between literature from the two sides, and the final section presents a discussion of the overwhelming convergence between women’s experience of Partition on both sides and how it is not a surprising fact.



Chapter 18 A Feminist Reading of Panthoipi Khongkul.......................................................173 Rosy Yumnam, The English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong, India The voices of women are often marginalised and silenced. In modern feminism, Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics (1970) used the term “patriarchy” (rule of the father) to describe the cause of women’s oppression. Panthoipi Khongkul is a myth narrative of Manipur, a state in Northeast India, detailing the rebellion of a legendary woman, Panthoipi, against the patriarchal society of the early Manipuri. The text details how Panthoipi bravely defied the social customs and chose to be united forever in bliss with her paramour. The myth narrative deals with the desire of a woman represented by Panthoipi to ascertain her dignity and identity in a patriarchal society. This chapter seeks to examine the feminist perspective of how “woman” has been represented in Panthoipi Khongkul in the context of the early patriarchal Manipuri society. It further explores on how the feminist reading of Panthoipi Khongkul will assist in striving to achieve equality of sexes. Chapter 19 Recognizing Contemporary Tribal Women’s Writings: A Study on Select Literary Narrators of North East India................................................................182 Raam Kumar T., Bharathiar University, India Padmanabhan B., Bharathiar University, India Northeast India is known for its diverse ethnic traits, natural landscapes, and regional and political conflicts. These factors were brought to light through diverse literary narratives. Women’s contribution to English writing plays a prominent role in protecting the complex multi-ethnic and multi-cultural issues of their regions and captures the multicoloured historical and collective spaces. Their writing primarily focuses on the issues of nature, landscape, culture, oppression, conflict, turmoil, insurgency, and identity. Women’s writings from these regions have attained visibility and acclaim across the nation. They are deeply concerned about the brutal violence happening in their society, which acts as a barrier to achieving progress. This chapter attempts to analyse the select contemporary tribal women’s writings and their unique contribution to the betterment of their native land. This study also explores the struggle of indigenous identity and psychosocial experiences undergone by tribal communities of Northeast India through select tribal writers in English.



Chapter 20 Nupi-Lal and Women Empowerment: A Study of the Meetei Women of Manipuri Society.................................................................................................191 Yumnam Yaiphabi Chanu, Manipur University, India Manipur, one of the North-Eastern states of India, has been in an active phase of turmoil since the British colonial period and its subsequent annexation to the Indian Union. Insurgency and the resulting implementation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958), issues of drug trafficking, unemployment, and gender-related issues have continually plagued the people of Manipur and women in particular. Manipuri women living in a conflict-zone region have always involved themselves in every socio-economic and political situation of the state since historical times, and Nupi-Lal, which is the first ever women oriented movement, shows the glorious and painstaking journey of women empowerment. Even in today’s modern society, these empowered women are still trapped in the dark veil of political conflict and social dystopia. The chapter is an attempt to study the social constructs of Manipuri society and to recapture the causes, reasons, and results of the First and Second Nupi-Lal of Manipur and their accumulative impact on the women of present day Manipuri society. Chapter 21 The Role of Haptics in the Sexual Harassment of Women in Corporate Sector.202 Shraddha Dhal, KIIT University (Deemed), India The quintessence of a woman’s modesty is her sex. The one, intending to outrage a woman’s modesty, be it in her personal life or at her workplace, shall be punished. Fortunately enough, women have a powerful sense of differentiating between the touch that gives solace and the touch that is misleading and is used for sexual stimulation. Haptics plays a vital role in this regard. As the world is being globalized, it is onerous to avoid the chance of crossing the line of acceptability. Even so, it is quite important to learn the proper use of haptics to remain aware of the inappropriate act of touching as well as to avoid awkward and embarrassing occurrences. The chapter attempts to emphasize how the proper use of haptics in the corporate sector can add more productivity to both men and women while at the same time it can also enhance the efficiency of the organization.



Chapter 22 Table, Chair, and the Persistent Patriarchy: A Feminist Critique of Vaidehi’s “Going by Tables and Chairs”............................................................................213 Kanika Bhalla, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA The chapter deals with the short story “Going by Tables and Chairs,” which is in fact an excerpt from the long essay “Meju Kurchiya Moolaka,” translated into English by Prakash Belawadi. The essay written by Vaidehi, one of the most significant names in Kannada literature, is a mixture of the writing styles of a short story and an essay. It deals with the gender politics revolving around the most common of the objects in our lives today: a table and a chair. The chapter attempts to analyze the operation of patriarchal norms in most Indian households; it also provides an insight into the minds of elder women, who with time have learned to discipline the younger women and girls into obedience and submission to men. Chapter 23 Reading Ishmat Chughtai’s “Lihaaf” From the Perspective of Alternative Sexuality.............................................................................................................221 Ashmita Bora, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Guwahati, India Gender binary is a concept that is deeply entrenched into the Indian way of thought throughout generations. Analyzing Indian life and relationships through history, we would arrive at an understanding that heterosexuality has come down to become the preferred sexual orientation, and heterosexual relations are seen as not only the traditional way of life, but at the same time is considered the only normative way. In the Indian context, the idea of sexuality has been framed over a period of eras, out of traditions and a belief structure of society that has come into contact with forces like modernization, colonization, and globalization. This chapter attempts to raise queries about the nature of sexuality in relation to portrayal of queer relationship and traces the individual’s search for alternative sexuality in Ishmat Chughtai’s Lihaaf, which is a pioneering work in representation of homosexuality. The chapter also deals with questions raised in relation to sexual orientation, gender crisis, and desired sex.



Chapter 24 “Knowledge Is Power, Power Is Also Knowledge”: Revisiting Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream”..............................................................228 Dolon Sarkar, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India The chapter explores the complex intersection of gender, knowledge, and power as manifested in Rokeya Sakhwat Hossain’s feminist text Sultana’s Dream. In this story, she imagines a world of women beyond the patriarchy. She reverses the stereotypical process of gender roles and reclaims women’s space in socio-cultural and political domination. There is an idea that subverting the performative role of gender will lead women to autonomy and power. For her, scientific education and sustainable use of nature are the abundant sources of alternative power. The tactical use of women’s scientific knowledge displeases and controls the superior authoritative forces of patriarchy. This decisive role of science is an alternative mode of organizing society and the exceptional development of the particular category of alternative apparatus. The chapter delineates Kate Millett’s notion of the reversal of gender roles by mediating Michel Foucault’s concepts of power and knowledge. Compilation of References............................................................................... 234 About the Contributors.................................................................................... 249 Index................................................................................................................... 253

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Feminism is a broad term that began with claims of political equality for women and now encompasses varied discussions on topics related to women – political, social, economic, cultural, and even psychological aspects of women. Feminists are not just females espousing the ideas of feminism, they include people of all sexes that advocate feminism. Gender studies is even a wider study that includes not just feminism, but also LGBTQ studies. The present work includes a variety of topics that deal with feminism and gender studies by varied scholars and academicians. The collection also includes chapters dealing with androgyny in video games, LGBTQ+ communities, the role of haptics, and Nupi Lal – one of the first political engagements in women’s history. In the opening chapter, “Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman’s Divinity in Self-Formation”, Anutosh Sinha offers a fresh perspective on the construction of a coherent and authentic identity vis-à-vis the scriptural texts of Hinduism. He delves into the autobiography of Rashundari Devi, to foreground the politics of women’s education, and elucidates the refashioning of the author through the dynamics of the ‘guru-shishya’ (teacher-disciple) tradition. The second chapter on “Global Androgyny and Futurisms: The Performativity of Anima/Animus in Contemporary Video Games” by Manodip Chakraborty is an intriguing analysis of the subversive potential of video games, which is often excluded from the mainstream discourse on the ideological contours of digital media. The Jungian concepts of anima and animus have been delineated to express the free mobility of gender identities within the virtually augmented spaces. In “Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity: A Traumatic Study of Women Characters in the Novels of Imre Kertesz”, Diksha Gupta explores feminist and Jewish identities in the context of the Holocaust through the depictions of the Hungarian Nobel laureate Imre Kertesz. She focuses on the traumatized condition of women, whose identities have been effaced, in the wake of the genocide. Gargee Rawat and Sakshi Semwal in “Breaking Silence: Understanding LGBTQ+ Community – A Study of Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women”, subverts the heterosexual norms and the homophobic tendencies prevalent in

Preface

Pakistani society. They have focused on a seminal text by Nighat M. Gandhi which reveals the despondent condition of transgender identities, and the urgent need for recognition and amelioration. Anushkaa Debnath in “Unlearning Internalized Homophobia With My Brother’s Husband: A Glimpse Into Mainstream Queer Literature in Japan” foregrounds the plight of a homosexual community in Tokyo, a microcosmic representative of the LGBTQ+ milieu in Japan. In this chapter, she has perused the work of Gengoroh Tagame, a celebrated manga artist whose Otouto no Otto has been translated into English as My Brother’s Husband by Anne Ishii. “Subversion of Heteronormativity in Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji: Queering the Society and the State” by Guhan Priyadharshan P. explores the modes of resistance against heteronormative practices in a postcolonial political context. He delineates the liminal spaces of non-conformity against the hegemonic cultural constructs that emerge from the cross-pollination of Igbo societal norms and the Nigerian state. Rushati Dasgupta in “Portrayal of Helen of Troy in the Poetry of Sappho and Wislawa Szymborska: Shattering the Stereotypes” presents a comparative analysis of the treatment of the mythological character of Helen of Troy by the ancient Greek poet Sappho and the Polish Nobel Laureate Wislawa Szymborska. She delves into the aesthetics of female subjectivity and sexuality, focusing on Sappho’s Fragment 16: “Some There Are Who Say That the Fairest Thing Seen” and Szymborska’s poem “A Moment in Troy”. In the next chapter, “Touching to Transgress and Transgressing to Touch: The Dalit Female Sexuality in Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry”, Sneha Roy explains how Kandasamy establishes the convergence of the social and the sexual trajectories of desire to be touched by the Dalit women. In using a language which is consciously and deliberately fleshly, the author deduces that Kandasamy attempts at an overturning of the Dalit-female body’s very trajectory of ‘utility’ in society. She analyses Kandasamy’s intent on destabilizing certain core principles which consolidate the functioning of the caste-system by controlling the bodies of women. In the chapter, “A Foucauldian-Feminist Reading of Mo Yan’s Select Novels”, Aaradhana and Dr. Gowher Ahmad Naik interpret the political narratives of the Chinese Nobel laureate Mo Yan through the theoretical framework of Michel Foucault. They highlight the predicament of the victimized women during the times of civil strife and war. In the next chapter, Malvika Manisha Lobo dexterously evokes the subliminal traces of existential ennui in a short story by the celebrated Brazilian author Clarice Lispector. She engages with the theoretical notions of Victor Shklovsky and Pierre Bourdieu to probe the ineffable epiphanies and symbolic psychic interstices, that subtly reveal the immanent antagonisms within politicised gendered spaces. xxii

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“An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama” by Sayantani Sengupta delineates the folk legends of the Sundarbans. The goddesses Bon Bibi and Manasa symbolize the feminine potential to resist the patriarchal hegemony and protect nature from anthropocentric exploitation. “The Women in the Fictions of Arundhati Roy: Forming Solidarity With Other Marginalities” by Jagriti Sengupta argues for a more inclusive form of feminism that encompasses communities marginalized – socio-politically, economically, and across the gender spectrum. She focalises on the two novels The God of Small Things and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, and contextualizes them with the socio-political, polemical commentary drawn from non-fictional works of Roy. “Gender and Sexuality in Toni Morrison’s Home” by Dr. Ahanthem Anita Devi interprets the novel Home through the lens of trauma fiction. The racialized violence is rendered susceptible to reconfigurations of self-identity of the traumatized characters portrayed in the novel. In the next chapter “Gender Roles Portrayed in A Room of One’s Own and Orlando”, Antara Naha explores the fluidity and complexity of gender identity in Virginia Woolf’s seminal texts. She reiterates the precarious balance between masculinity and femininity, to assert the androgynous perspective exhibited by Woolf’s characterisation of Orlando. The paper is enriched by the theoretical notions of Judith Butler. Chapter 15 is Anusha Ashok’s take on Indian mythology dealing with Poile Sengupta’s play Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni. The depictions of the antagonists in epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were carefully constructed in order to cement their positions as figures that invited hatred and disgust and as foils to their infallible heroes. This chapter reconsiders Sengupta’s Shoorpanakha as a victim of circumstance and masculine domination, rather than the malevolent individual that she is portrayed in the epics, through the lens of subalternity and feminism. In Chapter 16, Arundhati Patra examines the patriarchal society beginning with Indian Vedic literature dealing with male writers and their views on woman as subordinate to man. She then shifts her discussion in the history of English literature when women published their writings not by their original name but by pseudonym. Finally, she discusses the present scenario of women in the society as portrayed in the world of literature, both by men and women. In the next chapter, “Women in Partition Literature: A Comparative Study of Women’s Representation in India’s Partition Literature”, Trisha Bhattacharya makes a comparative study of eight pieces of Partition literature – four each from Bengal and Punjab. The chapter is divided into three sections – the first section discusses the relevance of Partition literature for studying Partition and how Partition was experienced differently by Punjab and Bengal in the political sense. The second section xxiii

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presents the analysis of the most significant divergence literature from the two sides. The final section presents a discussion of the overwhelming convergence between women’s experience of Partition on both sides and how it is not a surprising fact. In Chapter 18, Rosy Yumnam gives a feminist reading of Panthoipi Khongkul, a Manipuri puya believed to be written in the 12th century. She discusses the narrative against the patriarchal society of the early Manipuri society. Panthoipi Khongkul details how Panthoipi bravely defied the social customs and chose to be united forever in bliss with her paramour. The social norms and values oriented in the patriarchal society of early Manipur are challenged with the desire of a woman to ascertain her dignity and identity in a patriarchal society. The author examines the feminist perspective of how ‘woman’ has been represented in Panthoipi Khongkul in the context of the early patriarchal Manipuri society. It further explores how the feminist reading of Panthoipi Khongkul will assist in striving to achieve equality of sexes at present. In Chapter 19, Raam Kumar T. and B. Padmanabhan construe a selective study of literary narrations of northeast India. This chapter attempts to analyse the select contemporary tribal women writings and their unique contribution for the betterment of their native land in northeast India. It also explores the struggle for identity and psychosocial experiences undergone by tribal women through the literary narrations. The next chapter, “Nupi-Lal and Women Empowerment: A Study of the Meitei Women of Manipuri Society”, focuses on Nupi-Lal, one of the first political engagements in women’s history. Yumnam Yaiphabi Chanu studies the First NupiLal (1904) and the Second Nupi-Lal (1939), two mass protests initiated by Manipuri women against the excessive and unjust policies of the then British government as examples of Manipuri women as distinct from their sisters in the rest of the Indian subcontinent. She further highlights the role of Manipuri women in the present society – politically, socially, and economically. In Chapter 21, Shraddha Dhal analyses the role of haptics in the corporate sector. She opines that the embodiment of a woman’s modesty is her sex. The one, intending to outrage a woman’s modesty, be it in her personal life or at her workplace should be punished. She deduces that haptics play a vital role in this regard and that it is quite important to learn the proper use of haptics to remain aware of the inappropriate act of touching as well as to avoid awkward and embarrassing occurrences. She concludes that proper use of haptics can add productivity to both men and women while at the same time enhance the efficiency of the organization. In Chapter 22, Kanika Bhalla deals with a short story “Table, Chair, and the Persistent Patriarchy”, which is, in fact, excerpts from the long essay “Meju Kurchiya Moolaka” ,translated into English by Prakash Belawadi. Through the chapter, she attempts to analyse the operation of patriarchal norms in most of the Indian households; it also provides an insight into the minds of older women, who xxiv

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with time, have learned to discipline the younger women and girls into obedience and submission to men. In the penultimate chapter, “Reading Ishmat Chughtai’s Lihaaf From the Perspective of Alternative Sexuality”, Ashmita Bora observes that sexual identities in the Indian context have been constructed over a period of eras, out of traditions and a belief structure of society that has come into contact with forces like modernization, colonization and globalization. The author attempts to raise queries about the nature of sexuality in relation to portrayal of queer relationship and trace the individual’s search for alternative sexuality in Ishmat Chughtai’s Lihaaf (1942). The paper also deals with questions raised in relation to sexual orientation, gender crisis, and desired sex. The final chapter, “Knowledge Is Power, Power Is Also Knowledge”, is Dolon Sarkar’s exploration of the complex intersection of gender, knowledge and power as manifested in Rokeya Sakhwat Hossain’s feminist text Sultana’s Dream (1905). Here, the author examines a world of women beyond the patriarchy, reversing the stereotyping process of gender role and reclaims of women’s space in sociocultural and political dominations. The author states that scientific education and sustainable use of nature are the abundant sources of alternative power sources. The study delineates Kate Millett’s notion of reversal of gender role in mediating Michel Foucault’s power and knowledge concept. The book is a combination of views that deal with feminism and gender studies from varied scholars and academicians that include diverse approaches and views. Most of the contributions deal with literature; still, the literature discussed is of diverse genre dealing with different histories and cultural settings. I sincerely believe that the work would be of interest to different sections of the academia in dealing with feminism and its myriad approaches in theory and life. Gyanabati Khuraijam National Institute of Technology, Agartala, India Agartala, June 2022

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Acknowledgment

The concept of this book came from a conference organised on the theme “Gender Studies and Women Empowerment” in April 2021 at National Institute of Technology (NIT) Agartala, India. The overwhelming response to our invitation resulted in a healthy debate of over a hundred and fifty participants. Our reviewers had to undergo rigorous and harsh selection process to pick only twenty-four research papers to be included in this book. I express my gratitude and heartfelt congratulations to all the authors without whose contribution this work would not have seen the light. My gratitude also goes to Dr. Yumnam Oken Singh and Dr. Reena Sanasam for taking pains to review the papers. I would also like to acknowledge the support of my institute, NIT Agartala, India, and particularly my department that made the conference a success. My sincere thanks also goes to Dr. Kaju Nath and Mr. Atri Majumder for their active support and help throughout the process. And I express my profound gratitude to IGI Global for bringing out this volume.

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Chapter 1

Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman’s Divinity in Self-Formation Anutosh Sinha Jadavpur University, India

ABSTRACT Rashsundari Devi’s autobiography, the first of its kind by any Bengali woman, Amar Jiban is the testimony of a 19th century Bengali woman’s ordeals. It not only highlights the theme of women’s education through her yearning for knowledge of letters; it also calls for equal spiritual status for women as she personally yearns for God. She chooses to rewrite her life in this autobiography, broadly in alignment with God’s life. She attributes to God every good or bad thing happening around, even her life with transgressions. The chapter showcases how the re-presented self of Rashsundari follows the broad religious codes, yet not in the customary way and her personalized fantastic experiences, like precognitive dreams, help her mould the shape of her God. The author invokes the guru-shishya dynamics and looks through the glass of a few religious texts of Hinduism, especially the Bhagavad Gita, to analyse whether she transgresses from the whole religious system or actually encodes her discontent uniquely on the bedrock of religious following, adherence, and devotion.

INTRODUCTION In her autobiography Amar Jiban (Devi, 1897), the only text that she would ever write, Rashsundari Devi moulds her own life with that of the god’s. She first writes this text at an age of fifty-nine and then revises and extends it at an age of eightyDOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch001 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman’s Divinity in Self-Formation

eight as she looks back at her life in retrospection through this text. And when she does so, she does it from her subjective view point. As she revisits the past and restructures it in the present, we cannot expect to learn about her lived experiences from the text. The changes, if there at all have been made, to present these selected memories are not bound to be conscious decisions either. The 1897 text, (second and enlarged edition, that we shall refer here) thus, gets enough colouring owing to the unavoidable impact of the author’s present (the time when she writes) beliefs. God and divinity become a major theme and shapes the structure of the text accordingly. The life of the devotee and that of the god get intertwined to produce this nineteenth century text. When Rashsundari is writing, the contemporary society is already talking about ‘the question of woman’⸻ their social status, their education, they stepping out of the andarmahal. In such a milieu Amar Jiban comes out. It is unfortunate that superficial and propagandist reading of the text at that time absorbed and categorized it under their respective corpus of Hindu revivalism, nationalism and liberal rationalism.

LITERATURE REVIEW Rashsundari (the protagonist of the text; henceforth used as the same if not mentioned otherwise) is introduced to the idea of god by her mother in the context of fear. She is suggested to chant his name so that the god, Dayamadhav can hear her and come and save her. Next time when we hear about her ordeal with god, Dayamadhav listens to the prayer and saves her along with her brother from the graveyard. This is when she is told by her mother about the non-conflicting relationship of Dayamadhav with the Parameshwara. The god is invoked for the third time when she is being married off and her mother sends with Rashsundari the treasure of god⸻ that she would hold close to her heart all her life⸻ that she would build up a very personal relation with. The protagonist does not get exposed to any customary god. Rather she gets the idea and aid of god from her mother. Though the names of god bear gendered connotations, her and her mother’s approach is a non-gendered, individualistic one. Rashsundari herself approaches the god in a “cerebral way” (Sarkar, 2014) and presents it in a non-gendered language. Their idea of these gods⸻ first Dayamadhav and then Parameshwara⸻ silently indicates the knowledge, she must have acquired through the popular religious tales and folktales. Rashsundari builds up the narrated self on principles from that sacrosanct text that was and still is revered highly and followed by not just different sects of Hinduism, including Vaishnavism that Rashsundari’s family followed, but also orthodox ones⸻ Shrimad Bhagavad Gita. This can be a conscious or unconscious attempt, given her devotion to follow the ways of god. She might not have been aware of this parallel 2

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while having the experience, but it can be expected that the author Rashsundari could have had some sort of direct or indirect knowledge about Bhagavad Gita and other sacred texts. She approaches the religion and religious instructions as an individual and not a woman. The Gita clearly states which kind of devotee the Lord likes most: Chatur-vidhā bhajante māṁ janāḥ sukṛitino ’rjuna Arto jijñāsur arthārthī jñānī cha bharatarṣhabha Teṣhāṁ jñānī nitya-yukta eka-bhaktir viśhiṣhyate Priyo hi jñānino ’tyartham ahaṁ sa cha mama priyaḥ (Bhagavad Gita, Verses 7.16-7.17) Translation: O Arjuna, scion of the Bharataas, four types of pious people worship me⸻ the distressed, the inquisitive, the profit-minded and the wise. Among them the wise ones who are steadfastly and exclusively devoted to me are special; for I am very dear to them and they are dear to me. And Rashsundari chooses this supreme path of wisdom to reach god. In the next two verses of this seventh chapter, it is pointed that those “who have made me (god) alone as their supreme goal” knowing “Vasudeva is everything” are the rarest souls and liked by god most (Ramasukhadas, 2012). Though most of the verses are addressed in male gender in Sanskrit, Rashsundari breaks this constraint and appropriates the religious utterances in accordance with the changing time. She attributes these social changes too to following god’s will, because after all everything in the world runs according to his will. She mentions in the text: “We happily accept what the Great Lord decrees at a particular time.” She does not criticize all that happens around like the contemporary conservatives, rather accepts it and acts accordingly. The household work may have exhausted her physical self, but her mind is never content with this. From the very beginning of her sansar-life, she has this absurd feeling towards her situation and feels an uncommon sense of extraordinary life growing in her: “But somehow my mind kept telling me, “you are wasting your time, nothing worthwhile is happening to you. All this pleasure is mere foolishness.”” That sense of lack results in her quest on divinity. From the age of fourteen, she starts thinking about god and yearns to read about him through Chaitanya Bhagvat. At that time, women were prescribed by the contemporary religious norms to search for god through sansar-dharma. And the Vaishnav bhakti tradition had recently brought the left-out sects like women and lower caste people under the mainstream 3

Role of a Nineteenth Century Woman’s Divinity in Self-Formation

religious banner. But Rashsundari’s family was an orthodox one. She cannot join the quest like all others. She has to devise a way remaining inside the boundaries so that it does not affect her daily living. She proves her competence through staying unconsumed by sansar, showing capability of equal footing in man’s world (if need arises) and above all by proving to have divine grace on herself (Chandra, 2014). There is a famous trope given by Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Dev regarding the path of dharma in sansar itself. He says, one has to turn the self from milk to cheese so that if it be kept in the water of sansar, it doesn’t get mixed (Gupta, 1902). Rashsundari follows this path. She does all the work of sansar, still she addresses her house as ‘that’ house and her husband as ‘lord of that house’ and ‘that karta’. In the song from Seventh Composition of Part Two, she laments that her self stays consumed in false illusory things of the world, which is like makal phol. She keeps reminding this to herself time and again so that she does not fall for the illusion. Nobody would have known about her separate and distinct identity from the sansar if she had not written this text, because all through her life she has played the role of an ideal housewife. In spite of not being consumed by her sansar, she never gets any criticism for her handling of the sansar, nobody ever spoke a bitter word to her. She even pacified an age-old dispute in absence of the karta with the gomosta. These characteristics of being sanga-varjitah (free from attachment) and nirvairah (without enemy) in the verse 11.55 (Ramasukhadas, 2012) of the Gita aligns her with the devotee who is worth of getting god’s grace. The pacification of the zamindari dispute bears testimony that she is capable enough of going out of the ‘andarmahal’ and handling ‘manly’ issues and challenges at hand craftly enough, if not better than karta. She debunks the contemporary conception that women cannot do ‘man’s work’ and also puts forth the proposition that men should not be left with the exclusive possession of divinity. This opposition to the separate sphere ideology in both the physical sense as well as the spiritual sense is unique and commendable of Rashsundari. Women were already coming out of the ‘andarmahal’ and having education when she writes this. But the deprived religious status was not addressed yet. I find Rashsundari’s narrated life hitting a significant blow at that polished structure of religious exclusivity. It is unfortunate that different types of ideological followers interpreted and consumed the text in their own way, neglecting and robbing it of its radical implication. The narrated self of Rashsundari Devi is not like any other woman. Her very act of learning how to read, the strangely foretelling dreams, vision of a ghost, getting back lost item⸻ all these bear testimony to divine intervention in her life. She visualizes herself in a dream reading Chaitanya Bhagvat. In Hindu culture, dreams of gods or god-related things are revered highly and considered as swapnadesha (order through dream). There are many such instances around us of dreams, behind establishing temples or initiating puja of an idol. Such divine order cannot be turned 4

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down or neglected by a human being. Rashsundari’s dream of reading that holy text also fetches similar connotation and she starts her attempt in realizing the dream from the very next day. This dream can also be seen as an instance of Freudian “wish fulfilment” as she had been thinking about this for a while. As she comes by the Chaitanya Bhagvat next day, it could be a matter of chance facilitated by her mind that had traces of the dreams left from last night. Nevertheless, being incorporated in the autobiography, this dream plays a crucial role in shaping the reader’s opinion as this dream is where the first seed of writing the autobiography was hidden. This is where her divine quest begins. The idea of god is primarily instilled in her by her mother. Tanika Sarkar (2014) reads the nature of divinity in her life to be transforming from a polytheistic one to a monotheistic one. I differ here on the basis of my interpretation of the text. Rashsundari goes beyond the Vaishnavite concept of god and puts forth a broader divinity addressing more and more sects of readers. Though Rashsundari is exposed to the polytheistic system by her mother as god being Dayamadhav, this is never contradicted when the concept of Parameshwara is introduced to her, again by her mother: “Then I asked her, “Ma! How could Dayamadhav hear our cries from inside the shrine?” Mother said, “He is the Parameshwara, he is everywhere, so he can hear everything. He listens to everyone.”” This coexistence of many deities along with the supreme Parameshwara has been characteristic to Hindu religion for ages. In Brihadaranyakopanishad, it has been asked⸻ what is the number of ‘devatas’? The answer is given⸻ trayaśca trī ca śatā, trayaśca trī ca sahasreti(3|9|1)⸻ three hundred three and three thousand three. This means, gods are innumerable. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa would say, the ‘devatas’ are like steps of the stair to reach the roof, which is the Parameshwara, the Akshara. Once one reaches the roof, it does not matter if the steps are taken away (Gupta, 1902). In Gita too, the many ‘devatas’ are described as but a part of the whole, which is the Parameshwara: Arjuna uvācha Paśhyāmi devāns tava deva dehe Sarvāns tathā bhūta-viśheṣha-saṅghān Brahmāṇam īśhaṁ kamalāsana-stham Riṣhīnśh cha sarvān uragānśh cha divyān (Bhagavad Gita, Verse 11.15)

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Translation: Arjun said: O Shree Krishna, I witness in your body all the gods and hosts of different kinds of beings. I see Brahma seated on the lotus flower; I see Shiva, all the sages, and the celestial serpents In Upanishad, it has been stated thus, Eka deva-iti prana-iti sa brahma tyadityachakśate (translated as ‘It is considered that there is one god, one life, one Brahma’). This hierarchy is also seen in Rashsundari’s writing: “No one can change the writings of Fate/ It doesn’t matter if it’s Brahma or Vishnu or Maheshwara/ What the Parameshwara wants must happen”. In Part Two, Fifth Composition, she prays to god that she should have his name in her mind when she dies, which resembles the Gita verse: Anta-kāle cha mām eva smaran muktvā kalevaram Yaḥ prayāti sa mad-bhāvaṁ yāti nāstyatra sanśhayaḥ (Verse 8.5) Translation: Those who relinquish the body while remembering Me (Krishna) at the moment of death will come to Me (Krishna). There is certainly no doubt about this Worshipping the Parameshwara or knowing and understanding his actions can fetch relief from the vicious cycle of rebirth as is mentioned in the 9th Sloka of Gita’s 4th Chapter (Ramasukhadas, 2012). And Rashsundari does the same and possesses the desire to achieve the same, as she reiterates in Part Two again and again. She only waits for her last days and prays to god that she be given space at his feet after death. She has witnessed so many deaths in her life. She has endured immense pain and sorrow due to death, yet she has not turned mad (Part 1, Comp. 8). She invokes the symbol of Yatra to invoke god’s playful nature regarding birth and death. She not only brings parallel to god’s lives with human lives in the play, but also criticizes god’s action: “Adhikari, you have deserted your mother Sachithakurani and wife Vishnupriya to become the saint”. Though she seemingly praises god for this action, she can instantly relate to the two women (mother and wife). Here I can recall a popular Yatra-pala that a Murshidabad based Yatra company BBD Sangha has been presenting across the state of West Bengal in the recent years, named “Ogo Vishnupriya”. There the episode of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s leaving home is portrayed from these two women’s view point, highlighting the afflictions, curses, misfortune, social stigma they had to face for an action of the godman. They ask god what their sin is that they had to suffer like this. Rashsundari does not wail like Vishnupriya, but her pain resounds that loud cry. Here Rashsundari suffers all the loss caused by death, all by herself. If she has any support to lean on, it is the god. She gets strength from him and gets done huge burdensome household works and runs the 6

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sansar all by herself. She has invested all her faith in the god like a true devotee, in spite of all the reasons she has to despise god’s actions. That is why she deserves his grace⸻ the place at his feet⸻ where her gender should not become a barrier. In Hinduism, guru has a distinct role in every individual’s life. ‘Guru’ literally means ‘one who drives away darkness’ (gu=darkness, ru=who drives that away) (Chaitanyananda, 2018). In Jajnabalka Samhita, guru has been described as of five kinds: father, acharya, upadhyay, ritvik/priest, and mother. Among these, mother has been given the superior most position, because this guru creates the base how the person would fare in future life (Chaitanyananda, 2018). In absence of all others, Rashsundari’s only guru is her mother till the age of twelve. But then she is married off, so her mother cannot be her guru anymore. From this time onwards, she holds the cue her mother had given in the last moment of departure and accepts the supreme god as her guru. To her, guru and god or Parameshwara do not remain different anymore (Chaitanyananda, 2018)⸻ Gururviśveāśvaraḥ sākṣāt tārakaṁ brahma niścitam (translated as ‘It is certain that guru is the Brahma itself, Supreme of the World’). Therefore, she is not just the devotee of god, but is also his disciple. The knowledge of letter is given to her by this guru, the Parameshwara. Apart from a god and a guru, she seeks in him a father figure as well. She had lost her father very early in her life and had no memory of him. She chooses to refer to Krishna (she would often use Krishna’s different names and Parameshwara interchangeably as she was a Vaishnav and was aware of the layered approach to divinity, as discussed already) as her father and not as son or lover, as is the convention. She is tired of being the source of nurture, and needs to create a source of stable nurture for herself (Sarkar, 1993). After going through all the worldly despair due to constant loss of own people, in a poetry from Sixteenth Composition of Part One, Rashsundari makes farce of death and teases its inability to act on her: Go back, O Death, you cannot decree your power here …Why do you make such a fuss, I don’t care about your summon. This can also be read as her win over death as she has been immortalized by being encoded in her own text. Citing the reason of her immortality, she says, “I have laid my heart to his feet”. Apart from this, throughout the text, she has so many times devoted herself to the feet of god. This tells how exactly she wants to live henceforth⸻ through the text, as a devotee to god. She has repented more than once the way she has lived her life. But she does not want to continue the same life, nor can she change her lived experiences; that is why she writes, that is why she prays to god. 7

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She has attempted to maintain dual position simultaneously⸻ “she accepts his will, she also understands that such is the unscrutable, unaccountable nature of God” (Sarkar, 2014). But he does not hold unquestioning position for her. She learnt reading to learn more about god, and at the same time question god’s way which would not have been possible without the knowledge. She has attributed this process of learning to god and this attribution might have been to shield public criticism, just like she might have done it to praise the act of god, to pay her devotion to god and thus to prove divine role in her life (Dasi, 1998). Only once she denies the godly aid: “he never actually did teach me”. This does not limit the role of divinity, rather it exemplifies the expression of power of divinity through human agency. This crystalizes the role of divinity on life of the subject Rashsundari, penned by author Rashsundari. The idea that there was a pre-existing self takes away the focus from the subject and its constitution (Anderson, 2001). Rather this constructed subject is all that we have and can know about here. Her individual quest is what at the same time follows and breaks away from the traditional way of approaching god. This distinction between what she follows and what she discards give way to her sense of divinity, her path of knowledge to achieve him. In the preface to the autobiography, Jyotirindranath Tagore talked of divinity and education being two separate principal themes. But the subject’s following the prescribed scriptural path and then using the same to constitute a life amalgamated with that of the god’s make these two themes inseparable.

CONCLUSION Autobiography has been seen as an attempt at self-expression, self-construction, self-understanding and self-transcendence. Octavio Paz, the great Mexican poet had said, ‘A human being is never what (s)he is, but the self (s)he seeks’. (Satchidanandan, 2010) Rashsundari Devi seeks “a life of her own” (Sarkar, 1993), not a life of the dutiful, custom-bound housewife. That’s why she attempts the restructuration of her past life, reconstruction of the life-blocks in her own way. Rashsundari took the god’s way to proclaim that education for women is not against religion. She challenges the orthodoxy in their own logic⸻ through scriptural following. She re-presents her own life along with god’s to pitch in god’s voice the question of women’s education and the question of their social and religious status.

REFERENCES Anderson, L. R. (2001). Autobiography. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9780203181652 8

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Chaitanyananda, S. (2018). Gurur prayojaniyata. Udbodhan Patrika, 120, 902–904. Chandra, S. (2014). Rashsundari Debi’s Amar Jiban and Binodini Dasi’s My Story and My Life as an Actress: A comparative study. Criterion, 5(2). Retrieved June 15, 2020, from https://www.the-criterion.com/V5/n2/Swati.pdf Dasi, B. (1998). My Story and My Life as an Actress. In R. Bhattacharya (Ed.), Kali for Women. Academic Press. Devi, R. (1897). Amar Jiban. Kolkata: Indian Associated. Retrieved February 27, 2020 from https://archive.org/ Gupta, M. (1902). Sriramakrishna Kathamrita (Vol. 1). Udbodhan Karyalaya. Ramasukhadas, S. (2012). The Bhagavad Gita: Sadhak Sanjivani (with illustrated commentary). Gita Press. Sarkar, T. (1993). A book of her own. A life of her own: Autobiography of a nineteenth century woman. History Workshop, 36, 35-65. Retrieved August 24, 2020 from www.jstor.org/stable/4289251 Sarkar, T. (2014). Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography. Zubaan. Satchidanandan, K. (2010). Reflections: Autobiography today. Indian Literature, 54(2), 6-9. Retrieved June 5, 2020 from www.jstor.org/stable/23341994

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Chapter 2

Global Androgyny and Futurisms:

The Performativity of Anima/Animus in Contemporary Video Games Manodip Chakraborty G. L. Bajaj Group of Institution, Mathura, India

ABSTRACT The derivation of gender superiority is a societal construct that must distribute itself in a hegemonic axis to produce discursive subjects. With postmodern disillusionment, the potentiality of a hegemonic habitus has shifted towards the digital platform. Much has been analyzed about this form, but video games remained outside the periphery – smoothly constructing the mass ideology. Contemporary video games with their simulated morphism can not only alter the player’s consciousness but also can provide a release from their inner taboos. The gamer can exhibit freely his/her anima/animus, which is a restricted content in society and paid the price by being under continuous surveillance. This chapter thus proposes to analyse contemporary video games and how these video games with their augmented enhancements can alter the gamer’s perception and thereby bring about an entire change in the persona – leading to a world of global androgyny.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch002 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Global Androgyny and Futurisms

INTRODUCTION Hegemonic Derivation of Gender Superiority The combination of production ‘worth’ and production ‘relation’ (social value) is solely responsible for generating a rift in human civilization. The ideology of male primacy (all the action potential of male value) is erected around a logos where human stomata is bifurcated between dominance and oppressed. The consequent ‘sex category’ (biological value of a subject) also identifies the homo-sapiens with a phallus (biological and symbolical), and expects the dominant race to abide by it. The negation of ‘abide’ is what gives birth to the ‘oppressed’ one – serving as an (inferior)antithesis to the predominant fraction of human(s). They are associated with no social value; yet is important to provide epistemological justification for the phalo-logo-centrism. The paradox appears when a ‘subject’ (belonging from either the dominant lineage or from the oppressed one) deviates from the provided binary norms and operates in a non-traditional way. “This insight is particularly significant for research on language and gender, much of which has sought to describe the linguistic means by which men dominate women in interaction (Tannen, 1994, pp. 20-21). Put another way, it is discourse, the interpersonal communication – which is dominating not only the male or female (biological) but also the male or female trait (ideological performativity) as a whole. Similarly, the problematization occurs when one cannot trace the ‘semantic space’ (in which all forms of hegemonic creolization epitomizes) of discursive dominance. Therefore the connection between a malleable dynamic concept of ideological hegemony (imaginary) and its physical performance happens on the contextual space of metaphoric associations – where a subject learn to associate a signifier with a hegemonic signified by granting knowledge from the existent performing subjects (either acting out the dominant one or the oppressed one). If this is what has dominated the evolution of homo-sapiens (physical existence) and their constructivism of gendered worldview, then with the rise of information communication and media, a new space had announced itself – the space of binary algorithms. Swaying away from traditional restrictions of creation (where temporal and spatial axis are constant), they were offering a fluid existence – free from gender discrimination. The domain of the web, with its plethora of signification (where the sign value is not a static entity, rather it is a fluid, dynamic one) was characterized by neutral language use and appropriate contextual formulations. However, this space gradually became dominated by two contrasting discourses, “a feminine discourse encompassing a more ‘personal’ style of communication, characterized by apologetic language use…and the masculine discourse, typified by being more ‘authoritative’ and characterized by argumentative language use” (Proefschrift, 2009, p. 15). When

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these two discourses collide – quite naturally (as it is always customarily bound to happen) the male one prevails. The same pattern is visible with traditional video gaming. What happens in this communicative space is the formation of a tension that pulsates on the bipolar association of game graphics and parallel phonetic association. The consequent performativity re-establishes the male player’s phobia of toying with gender performativity with hetero-normative spaces – which portrays the act of ‘masculinity’ as normalcy. As Schmieder (2009) has observed: At first glance, sex seems to play an oppressive role…immediately when chosing their characters, players have to decide whether they want to play a male or a female character…male characters are bigger and more strongly built, especially around the torso – whereas female characters are more delicate and show articulate breast curves (p. 8).

Intrinsic Consciousness: The Anima/ Animus Within The portrayal of ‘normalcy’ somewhat deviates from the biological constitution of human behaviour. At the primary level the deviation takes place in the transgression from puberty to adolescence – as it is at this stage that human being(s) become biologically active (mating subjects). The maturation during puberty (due to hormonal changes) transcends a subject into adolescence (the threshold of social acceptance). But, this change is more societal than biological. A new change in physical body at this stage (where a new ‘signifier’ needs to be counter-verified by a conventional ‘signified’) takes place within the contrasting field of biological (the will to express) and societal (the force to suppress). This acting out is carried forward by societal expectations of body constitution – male with enhanced physic and female with tender curve physic; and is coupled with ‘attractive’ characteristics (such as status, appearance, nice personality). Boys become “more interested in appearance and sexual activity of dating partners, while girls are focused upon personality and behavioural factors” (Campian and Hayward, 2003, p. 84). Such a prosthetic consciousness acts as the suppression drive of an inner consciousness. It is archetypally proven that males possess a certain degree of femininity (anima) and females possess a portion of masculinity (animus). This inner trait belong “on the one hand to the individual consciousness and on the other hand are rooted in collective unconscious. Thus forming a connection link between the personal and the impersonal, the conscious and the unconscious” (Jung, 1957, p. 1). However, such an inner consciousness runs counter to the traditional prejudices. If a potential ‘male’ subject (now boy) is exhibiting a certain degree of feminine trait (inner consciousness manifested into outer, societal plane) – he is actually prioritizing 12

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the ‘oppressed race’ (instead of belonging to a dominant lineage); and is thereby running the threat of ‘gender equilibrium’ (the same paradigm is applicable for a female subject showcasing definitive male traits). It is against this backdrop that traditional video games (non-sensical children stuff) intervene to suppress any outlet. The binary algorithms of such games (Leisure Suit Larry, Magna Cum Laude, Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, Dead or Alive: XTreme 3 and as such) portrays the female characters as submissive, ‘damsel in distress’ with phallo-phobic explicit body curves, targeted towards to give “a presumed hetero-male audience its presumed desire for women in games” (Malkowski, 2017, p. 20). Such characters often functions to provide episteme about the ‘deceiving nature of women’ (stereotype) – and they often die at the end (during the game process) or is not allowed to prevail. Thereby they provide the necessary compromise targeted by the societal mechanisms – a division of humanity into superior any inferior gender. For a girl (a subject in process to become gendered ‘female’); she is being taught how to be submissive, inferior in comparison to the boys – any form of superiority she needs to relegate into the unconscious, any form of masculinity she needs to eradicate (application of the opposite dynamics for the boys, the subjects to become ‘masculine’). Her conscious state of physical (real world) stereotyping is alleviated to a degree when exposed to the world of gaming, because the gaming avatars (female) gives an outlet to her psychic energy by ‘winning’ over other avatars. She therefore identifies with it; unconsciously inhibit the avatar’s body curves, gestures, and postures by thinking them as the pre-requisite to prevailing and starts transmitting the digital constituents into the physical world. But, as in the case of the real world, she is also not allowed to prevail in the gaming world too. Due to this process her inherent masculine trait receives a certain form of ‘performativity’, a form of release both in the digital and in the physical world – she thereby readily accepts the societal customization of mind and body as a form of superior ‘signification’.

Prosthetic Performativity Video games serves as a force of uniformity among the group of heterogenous mass(es). They are “particularly successful one, apt to replicate in their structure the values and activities associated with the dominant ideology, with sufficient slippage to make playing them exciting” (Gailey, 1993, p. 82). As a result, the hegemonic forces transmit gender and gendered roles through them. In this communicative digital model, a message involving an addresser (society), addressee (Subject male/female) is not a close circuit, from which the process of signification can be achieved. In order to transmit the subject’s consciousness into the realm of digital games (where the binaries of signification can be altered at will) – the subject must be endorsed through the process of ‘immersion’. The immersion process is characterised by the 13

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subject’s complete lack of spatial and temporal axis. As the process of immersion transmutes an active subject into a passive one; a subject exposed in this realm is not interpreting its values and mechanisms rather absorbing them. As a result, the subject’s semantic memory is flooded with gendered based prosthetic consciousness (consciousness which is not derived from one’s own experience); it derives meaning from the avatar’s, associates with it by acting out the digital mechanisms in the real world. The cultural forces makes this closed linguistic circuit a sustained one by employing continuous feedback mechanism (absent from physical games). The gamer is instigated to play till the height of his/her ego satisfaction (which includes victory over opponent). In this axis, games such as Cluster’s Revenge (1982, to win the subject must learn how to rape), Phantasmagoria (1995, to win the subject must accept the concept of horror and rape to give an outlet of his/her horror), Knights of Xentar (1995), Fear Effect (2000), Pia Carrot (2008), and Grand Theft Auto (1997) (specifically GTA San Andreas) included in them the concept of ‘rewarding’ through opposite sex oppression or through mutilated violence. “The degrees of sexual violence that the games transmit are extreme. The higher the number of attacks and virtual violence, the better the gamer’s level” (Gutierrez, 2014, p. 62). This derivation of the desired outcome is an ideological one. On the surface level, the gaming semantics offer limitless significations, but on a deeper level, all of the signifiers are marred with gender based norms. As a result, whenever a gamer (male/ female) is deriving a sense of winning – he/she is actually accepting the societal gendered norms. Due to this closed isolated framework of gender production, the subject fails to understand his/ her own inner cognition. The traditional video games at first invites its players by being a fluid entity, but upon interaction, it slowly limiticizes its potentialities and thereby the subject is left only with a fewer choices. In this cognition, the subject’s own inner expression of anima or animus is delayed, often to the level of repression. On the other hand, the conditional axis, where a subject somehow manages to express the anima/animus within by interacting with the traditional games, is rewarded by the societal forces with the stimulus of punishment (negative reinforcement).

Amalgamated Androgyny In this dichotomous praxis the gendered oppression through sexual difference is always a transcended phenomenon. On the other hand, contemporary video games are structured to give a fullest expression to a person’s inner consciousness, irrespective of male/female stimuli. This has propagated the characteristics of an androgynous race, functioning as a micro culture as against the traditional male/female 14

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bifurcation. They also instigated a swaying away from the binaries of conventional notion of androgyny (physical manifestation of male and female sexuality into one), into a behavioural one. The behavioural pattern is driven forward by the subject’s consciousness of male/female expression. Such “androgynous people demonstrate an intermediate position as far as the sex typing is concerned” (Heilbrun, 1986, p. 126). Through such video games (Final Fantasy VII (1997), Rune Factory (2013), Tides of Destiny (2011), Street Fighter (2013)), it is now possible for a male subject to give fullest expression to his inner femininity and for a female subject to express her masculinity without being in fear of societal repression. The contemporary games have predicted the contradictory associations that a subject must travel during adolescence. Being one of the pivotal stages of biological development, adolescence is riddled with new sexual ‘stimuli’ (for instance, the desire in boys for a feminine trait), that needs to be appropriated against social reward-repress system. As opposed to the traditional gaming matrix, PUBG (2017), Free Fire (2017), Fortnite (2017) have realised that “androgyny is related with psychological well-being, because it allows individuals to apply both masculine and feminine capabilities in their interactions with others” (Avery, 1982, p. 452). This they have achieved by transmitting the authenticity of ‘avatar configuration’ to the gamer(s) (absent in traditional gaming). The customization “help the player to get into the mindset of the character, increasing the likelihood of affecting his/ her self-identity” (Turkey and Kinzer, 2014, p. 2).

CONCLUSION The portrayal of self in this paradigm is the conscious rendering of the subject (whereas in traditional gaming, the subject was passive). Now, a choice is available to the gamer about how he/she wishes the avatar to be a part of his/her identity. In this acting out, the gamers are elevated with a choice of trial and error ground to arrive at a juncture of avatar-gamer synthesis – where cognition, motivation, aspirations, willingness facilitates one another. The functionalism of avatar configuration has provided the users with a ‘space’ away from social Panopticism. The emotional and psychic drawbacks of playing such games can be levitated by simply ‘logging out’. Such a sense of emotional safety opens up an arena, where a subject experiments with contextual identities. Therefore, the contemporary gaming apparatus is providing a transitional identity – a full release of androgynous persona, a breaking away from rigid behaviour patterns, to a more intrinsic stimulus, the acceptance of their roles as societal subjects while associating with their innermost persona.

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REFERENCES Avery, A. W. (1982). Escaping Loneliness in Adolescence: The Case for Androgyny. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 11(6), 451–459. doi:10.1007/BF01538806 PMID:24310957 Campian, L., & Hayward, C. (2003). Gender Differences in Opposite Sex Relationships: Interactions with Puberty. In C. Hayward (Eds.), Gender Differences at Puberty. Cambridge University Press. Gailey, C. W. (1993). Mediated Messages: Gender, Class and Cosmos in Home Video Games. Journal of Popular Culture, 27(1), 81–98. doi:10.1111/j.00223840.1993.845217931.x Gutierrez, E. J. D. (2014). Video Games and Gender Based Violence in Education and Health: From a Transcultural Perspective. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, 132, 58–64. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.04.278 Heilbrun, A. B. Jr. (1986). Androgyny as Type and Androgyny as Behaviour: Implications for Gender Schema in Males and Females. Sex Roles, 14(3), 123–139. doi:10.1007/BF00288244 Jung, E. (1957). Anima and Animus: Two Essays. Spring Publications. Malkowski, J. (2017). I Turned Out to be Such a Damsel in Distress. In J. Malkowski & T. Russworm (Eds.), Gaming Representation: Race (pp. 19–37). Gender and Sexuality in Video Games. doi:10.2307/j.ctt2005rgq.6 Proifschrift, A. (2009). Digital Spaces, Material Traces: Investigating the Performance of Gender, Sexuality and Embodiment on Internet Platforms that Feature UserGenerated Content. N.A.J.M. Van Doom. Schmieder, C. (2009). World of Maskcraft vs. World of Overcraft? Communication,Sex and Gender in the Online Role Playing Game World Of Worldcraft. Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, 1(1), 5–21. doi:10.1386/jgvw.1.1.5_1 Tannen, D. (1994). Gender and Discourse. Oxford University Press. Turkey, S. & Kinzer, C.K. (2014). The Effects of Avatar Based Customization on Player Identification. International journal of Gaming and Computer, 6(1), 1-25.

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Chapter 3

Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity:

A Traumatic Study of Women’s Characters in the Novels of Imre Kertesz Diksha Gupta Bhaskar Degree College, Udhampur, India

ABSTRACT The most distinct outcome of structural domination can be examined through the major historical event of the Holocaust that took place against the Jews. Imre Kertesz was a historical writer who diligently chronicled the injustice and discrimination against Jewish women in his works to highlight the barbarity that they have encountered. The study gives a poignant depiction of the deplorable condition of the women characters, who struggled and quested for their Jewish identity, equality, and liberty. Kertesz’s Fateless and Kaddish for an Unborn Child depict marginalization, discrimination, and victimization of the Jewish women. Hence, the chapter will discuss the texts of Imre Kertesz from the theoretical perspectives of trauma in order to understand the indelible scars and other traumatic disorders of women characters. Along with this, the major concern of the study is to depict the dispossessedness of voice of Jewish women in particular, as a result of which they are at a loss to articulate the recurrence of discrimination, injustice, and oppression they witness.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch003 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity

INTRODUCTION Imre Kertesz was a Hungarian writer who was awarded noble prize in Literature in the year 2002. He has been the victim of the major genocidal event of the history i.e. the Holocaust and he was successful in incorporating those disastrous incidents of his life in his novels. Along with this, being a survivor of the Holocaust, he himself had felt the pain and tumult that other Jews have undergone through. He was awarded the noble prize for bringing such barbarous issues and pathetic plight of Jews into limelight. The writing style of his novels is much more autobiographical where he describes his personal as well as professional life in detail. Imre Kertesz was one of the seminal figures who stood for liberalization, justice and indiscrimination in the European countries. Moreover, he was unsuccessful to fight against such discriminatory acts and marginalization of the Jews. Through his works, he has deconstructed the agony, violence and torture witnessed by Jews, Jewish women in particular, from the dominant Nazi forces. His works Fateless (2006) and Kaddish for an Unborn Child (1990) explore several horrific events confronted by these people. These Jewish women were dehumanized and demoralized by the Nazi regime. As a result of this, they suffered from mourning problem, depersonalization and eventually were traumatized. Jews have confronted the wrath and malice of the dominating group in their society and their educational institutions as well. Such barbarism and tortures have broken up their psyches and as a result of this, they were not able to overcome from those past historical events. This legacy of slavery treatment has been transferred to their later generations as well. Imre Kertesz has successfully portrayed the issues of violence, segregation, objectification and discrimination done with Jewish women through his novels. These issues become the primary factors responsible for the occurrence of various traumatic disorders in them. They have suffered and experienced several incomprehensible horrors of the degradation of humanity. Kertesz describes and illuminates readers with the hatred and prejudices that these Jewish women encounter and consequently, they feel submissive and weak before the Nazi regime. This has shattered them completely leading to develop indelible scars in their psyches. Therefore, Imre Kertesz, being a Jewish survivor, has depicted the issues of casteism, race and discrimination that have dragged Jews towards the problem of trauma. Imre Kertesz, being an advocate of Jews, has provided the Jews of later generation with the agency to speak, stand and revolt against all the injustice and the discriminatory acts done with them. His radical stance of empowering the Jewish women is evident through his depiction of the deplorable and miserable conditions of the Jewish women right from the World War II when the Nazi party came into power to the present time where still these Jews are maltreated and bullied in several parts of the European countries. The major concern for Imre Kertesz is based on the 18

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universal fact of the domination of the Jews. The totalitarian system of the Nazis have relegated the Jewish women to the fringes of the world. The incentive of Imre Kertesz has been to attack the misrepresentation of Jews in the historical times as criminals, savages and other pejoratives used for the Jews. Furthermore, his works reflect that how the voices of these Jews have been suppressed and ignored for long time. It is through his works that the main culprits and the realities of the impediment of Jewish women have been exposed and apprehended. Imre Kertesz as a Jewish historian has rectified the past history that opposes Jewish reality and reclaims this history by making Jews (especially Jewish women) empowered. Therefore, being a radical stance writer, Imre Kertesz portrays the cause of the structural domination and examines the lives of these people, questing for their Jewish identity by understanding the Jewish history.

Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity Many critics and theorists have now turned theorizing feministic structural domination as women’s identity and agency rather than focusing and concerning with the male domination and patriarchy. This has eventually raised important insights into the creation of choices, interests and preferences of women. Structural domination has been a concept that reclaims the notion of supremacy as a source of the systematic and planned oppression that women experience within the social and political structures. This has dragged the attention of many thinkers towards the dynamics inherent in unequal social and political relationships created through institutions and ideologies creating difference between more powerful and less powerful communities. Structural domination is a phenomenon in which the individuality of a person and the identity gets distorted through several means of violence such as marginalization, torture and murders. In the circle of domination, Jewish women are treated worse than animals. They are considered as ‘other’ and as a consequence of this, they believe themselves to be inferior. Structural domination is a consequence of many issues as it originates on the basis of race, caste, ethnicity and religiosity. Through the process of domination, people lose their own selves and quest for their identity. Eventually, it ignites psychic dilemmas making them emotionally wounded and lost. Structural domination involves prejudices, discrimination, segregation and violence to the women in particular. They are kept alienated in the social structure and nobody helps and provides them with any privileges and honor in the society. This process of domination takes place both at societal as well as personal level involving objectification of the women. This leads to the distortion of both Jewish identity and the community to which they belong and thus, creating instability in their lives. Subsequently, this turns towards human rights violations, violence and crimes. Being deprived of their rights, they witness injustice and ignominy. 19

Structural Domination and Quest for Jewish Identity

Freedom for women can only be achieved by completely destroying the malicious and wicked structure that targets women. When power relations turn to work under such restrained way, there always exists domination. Since many years, there have been a lot of research going on in order to understand the Jewish women-domination but their oppression can only be understood by the already constructed women’s complex identities. Clearly, theorizing about women’s their freedom refers to the analysis of women’s subjectivity that Linda Zerilli characterizes as observing such freedom through the lens of ‘subject question’ and says that “this question centers primarily on the subject’s very formation and on the external and internal forces that hinder its freedom subject (autonomous, dependent, or interdependent) but the fact that the subject (be it as a philosophical, linguistic, or psychoanalytic category) is the nodal point around which every political question gets posed” (Zerili, 2005, p. 10). Framing freedom with respect to individualistic gendered subject implies that freedom can be equated with free will, which every other Jewish women strive for. Therefore, power relations also plays a vital role in suppressing the freedom of women because of their power that exercise over them and killing their own individuality and identity. Identity is one of the main quest for a women because it creates a realization which is a lifelong expansion beginning right from her birth. In fact, it is the cognizance of her own selfhood and its extension through her family to the more acceptance groups such as religious, ethnic, national or cultural. This consciousness of the identity for Jewish women creates quests in them for their Jewish identity. Sigmund Freud claims this Jewish identity as “the individual’s relatedness to the unique history of a people” (Sklare, 1963, p. 2). Nowadays, the contemplation of Jewish identity for these Jewish women has become much more painful because of the several uncertainties and political conflicts existing across the world. Jewish women struggle to attain the unified yet unassimilated status in the society. Earlier, people revolted against assimilation but now the prime concern is against discrimination. Also, assimilation always involves integration, which cannot be achieved without social harmony among the people. All the Jews, including women, have been hated and experienced hostility because of their Jewish race. They have quested for their identity but they were not allowed to reach the surface level rather they were dig below. Therefore, race has become an important factor which has shattered their identity and forced them to struggle for their Jewish identity. Social-political groups have replaced the Jewish community through their horror and violence in the past years whereas old-world counterparts the miserable and devastating positions of the Jews. The economic experiences of Jews due to their forced immigration from Germany to other parts of the world brought turmoil in their lives. Their lives were degraded and they lived a very harsh life where they quested and searched for their Jewish identity that was repressed for so long. One 20

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of the Jewish dramatists, S. Ansky, gives a detailed description about the pogroms that made the Jews suffered and discussed their conditions after the World War II and says, “their folklore tells mostly about women and bloodshed, while Jewish folklore is about the truth and injustice” (Ansky,1926/2013). These Jewish women were also rejected violently in the society and found important to strengthen their own pride and self-esteem by their moral supremacy. Despite the spreading of AntiSemitism, Jews have remained calm and submissive and as a result, they lost their Jewish identity and racial roots.

A Traumatic Study of Women Characters in the Novels of Imre Kertesz Imre Kertesz in one of his seminal texts, Fateless explores the issues of race, power politics, totalitarianism, societal domination and genocide that have completely traumatized the lives of the Jewish women. The novel highlights that the false belief that Jews were responsible for the defeat of Germany during World War II. This belief has led to several barbaric incidents and leads these Jews to quest for their identity. It denounces the prevailing barbarity, prejudices, injustice against the Jewish women in particular. Gyorgy’s father was forced to leave for the concentration camp because of the strict norms framed by the Nazis that every other Jew has to move to camp and work there as a labor. In order to fulfill that task, his father also leaves. The entire responsibility of handling her son and the business comes in the hands of Gyorgy’s mother. She is already upset with her husband’s departure and the fear of the tortures that he is going to encounter there but still manages to hold everything. Gyorgy cries and expresses his emotions but she fails to do so, she tries to console her son and eventually, represses her feelings. For her, it was “a sad day for us” (Kertesz, 2006, p.4). Such oppressive acts and societal constructs have created havoc in her life. She does not have any knowledge about the business but still tries to manage. Gyorgy describes her complex situation as “I could see she was content to leave it at that. She even moved a hand in my direction, and I half feared that she might perhaps be wanting to hug me and cry but did not” (p. 4). Unable to mourn over her husband’s leaving makes her more traumatized as she represses her hidden emotions. In this way, she is psychologically traumatized as she suffers from the problem of mourning. The main essence of the text describes the pathetic plight of such marginalized women who have been repeatedly dominated under the societal domination constructed by the Nazis and have become helpless under the draconian policies. Oppression and tortures have made Jews as slaves. Hearing the news of her husband’s death, Gyorgy’s mother was shattered completely. She still tried a lot to carry the heavy burdens of her family. Several laws and policies were designed 21

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against the Jews such as their properties were seized and Gyorgy’s mother’s shop was also detained from performing any kind of business. Such discriminatory and oppressive laws made her completely traumatized. Seeing this, Gyorgy says that “how my stepmother was going to cope with the major burdens that she was going to bear the brunt of, in such difficult times, all alone” (Kertesz, 2006, p.15). This reflects the fear that resides in Gyorgy and his mother who suffer from Anti-Semitic prejudice and malice from the Nazis. Being a Jew, she confronts racial prejudice and extermination from her own community. She was not allowed to enter the ration shops and buy any stock. She was prohibited from entering any shop and when she was allowed, she was given minimal quantity of leftover food. Due to this, she is unable to cope with a normal life. Judith Lewis Herman remarks that “the central dialectic of psychological trauma is the conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud” (Herman, 1997, p.1). Psychological trauma is a consequence of some deeply disturbing occurrence and this has evolved in the psyche of the Gyorgy’s mother, who witnesses many Anti-Semitic, discriminatory and injustice events repeatedly in her life. It was complex for her to cope with her husband’s leaving, his death, loss of her business and the discrimination and oppression she witnesses regularly. Such extreme terrific situations have not allowed her to undergo mourning process and consequently, she is traumatized. Kaddish for an Unborn Child portrays the Holocaust and the struggle of the Jewish women, who fails to succeed her marriage because of her Jewish identity. Mr. B and his wife were living a normal life. They both met at a conference party where they both got to know each other. His unnamed wife struggles to survive after the war. This has led to their unsuccessful marriage and the brutal experiences of Holocaust forced her to leave Mr. B and marry someone else. Such devastating experiences have created turmoil in her psyche and she fails to adapt a normal life. Unwanted tortures of the Nazi forces made her mind lose its capability to react and act. She says that she lived under totalitarian dictatorship where she was forced and tortured to leave her husband, who was working against the Nazis and support the allied forces. She was threatened and eventually she leaves him. She believes that totalitarianism is completely “a mindless situation. Hypothesis of totalitarianism are, so to say, naturally based on Nothingness. Selection and expulsion as well as the notions on which they are based, are all nonexistent, null and void notions” (Kertesz, 1990, p. 71). Such tortures under the dictatorship of Hitler developed fear in her where she fails to resist the brutality and violence against her and other Jewish women. Along with this, the wife of the narrator suffers from flashbacks and hallucinations of the past events of her life where she was forced to leave her husband, to migrate to other city and work as per the Nazi’s laws. Such terrible and horrifying events bring destruction in her life that she fails to cope with. These issues affect her 22

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life in such a way that her psyche is distorted and she is traumatized. She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder to a larger extent that she remains submissive throughout her life. Cathy Caruth defines post-traumatic stress disorder as in which all “the overwhelming events of the past repeatedly possess, in intrusive images and thoughts, the one who has lived through them” (Caruth, 1995, p. 151). At the end of the novel, she sees narrator and she becomes completely distressed. She has witnessed prejudices that have affected her personal life at a larger extent. After seeing him, she is completely broken and there were tears in her eyes. She was so helpless that she cannot even talk to him and discuss what all she has gone through. She feels ashamed of her Jewish identity and how it has created obstacles in leading her to live a smooth and happy life. Therefore, wide-spread state-sponsored discrimination and societal domination have ended her personal relationships and has impacted her that she becomes traumatized and quest for her identity to sustain.

CONCLUSION Identity is an archetypal conundrum for a particular community on the threshold of its acceptance in the society. The postwar inter-communal relations have been weak which has created a wider social rift among the people belonging to different race. It has been deconstructed through the novels of Imre Kertesz that Jewish women have repeatedly suffered from the wrath and tortures of the Nazi forces. Being victimized, segregated and discriminated at every spheres of their lives, these women preferred to be silent and submissive. This suppression of the thoughts has created indelible scars leading them towards psychic problems. Societal domination and their struggle for their Jewish identity have eventually led them towards the problem of mourning and traumatic disorders. This has completely ravaged their psyches and identities. They failed to mourn over the inner conflicts they were dealing with and as a result, they suffered from the problem of mourning. This repression of psyches has traumatized them. Treated inhumanely by the Nazi forces have made them exterminated, lynched from the society. Such hatred experiences, prejudices and animosity from the dominant groups made them alienated in their own society. Likewise, the social cataclysms that propelled the ethnicity and Jewish identity shaped a sense of urgency within their community to look for the extent their identity is demolished. Their quest for their Jewish identity and the structural domination they experience brings the fore questions about the societal constructs and their domination towards the Jews and questioning the great political leaders and governing leaders about the equality that is missing in the society especially in the case of the Jews.

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REFERENCES Ansky, S. (2013). The Dybbuk. Tsiterboym Books. (Original publication 1926) Kertesz, I. (2006). Fateless (T. Wilkinson, Trans.). Vintage. Kertesz, I. (2004). Kaddish for an Unborn Child (T. Wilkinson, Trans.). Vintage. (Original work published 1990) Caruth, C. (1995). Trauma: Explorations in Memory. Johns Hopkins University Press. Herman, J. L. (1997). Trauma and Recovery. Basic Books. Sklare, M. (1963). The Quest for Jewish Identity in America: Draft Outline for John Slawson. American Jewish Committee. Zerilli, L. M. G. (2005). Feminism and the Abyss of Freedom. University of Chicago Press. doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226814056.001.0001

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Chapter 4

Breaking the Silence:

Understanding the LGBTQ+ Community – A Study of Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women Gargee Rawat Doon University, India Sakshi Semwal DIT University, India

ABSTRACT Gender equality has been a can of worms. From the waves of feminism till LGBTQ, some people, due to their otherness, have endured bigotry and social stigma. We’ve been fed with heteronormativity for a long time and there exists a void when it comes to homosexual tolerance. Although a lot has been written about them, transgender people still have not been legally recognized worldwide. Their demand for identity and getting rid of the derogatory terms they were labelled with like hijras, chakka, kinnars, jogappa, aravani, aruvani, etc. is visible everywhere. Recently, LGBTQ is considered taboo in society because of some stereotypical mindsets. This chapter focuses on the lives of transgender people in and around Pakistan majorly by dwelling deep into the kind of behavioural patterns society shows toward them by taking the text of Alternative Realities (Nighat M. Gandhi, 2013) as a representation of the LGBTQ community’s voice.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch004 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Breaking the Silence

INTRODUCTION If every gay person were to come out only to his/her own family, friends, neighbours and fellow workers, within days the entire state would discover that we are not the stereotypes generally assumed - Harvey Milk Queer was initially considered as a pejorative term, but now the non-heterosexuals have embraced it. In fact, it is used as a self-affirming umbrella label. Queer theory has its origin from LGBT studies and feminist theory.’ Queer theory has its origin from LGBT studies and feminist theory.’ Queer’ was originated from the works of Teresa de Lauretis on gay and lesbian sexualities. “Historically, the term queer has been used to silence, suppress, and shame practices, identities, and values located outside of perceived social boundaries.” (Butler, 2006).Though much has been changed after gay and lesbian rights were given to them at workplaces and other services, politically but their condition is deteriorating culturally and because of the preconceived norms. “The deployment of queer in this manner is also an attempt to move beyond the hegemonic and historic practice of institutionalized systems using identity-categories (e.g., a “homosexual” identity) to shame, regulate, and eradicate same-sex sexual behaviour.” (Foucault, 1984) (Gedro and Mizzi, n.d., p.448) Homosexual marriages are also known as gender-neutral marriage, equal marriage, and gay marriage. The literature drawn from Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and modern fiction also testifies the presence of same-sex love in various forms. Ancient texts such as the Manu Smriti, Arthashastra, Kamasutra, Upanishads and Puranas refer to homosexuality. Also there are reports that same-sex activities are common among sannyasins, who cannot marry. Thus instances of homosexuality are available in historical and mythological texts world over and India is not an exception to this (Tanweer, 2018, p.2) We can trace the existence of same sex marriage culture in various ancient texts. It was completely normal but now the approach has changed. This paper examines the life of LGBTQ community in the Muslim society by taking various aspects of their lives in other parts of the world too. Pakistan and other Islamic states were the primary focus. Pakistani law is a mix of both Anglo-Saxon colonial law as well as Islamic law. Lord Macaulay wrote the Indian Penal Code 1860, and made same-sex sexual acts illegal under the Anglo-Saxon law of “Unnatural Offences”. Post-independence (1947), in Pakistan, the Parliament decided to continue using the same Penal Code, changing the title to Pakistan Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860) within the Penal Code, Article 377 also referred to as “Unnatural Offences “.

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Breaking the Silence

It refers to ‘unnatural offences’ and says whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 10 years, and shall also be liable to pay a fine (The Economic Times, 2018, par. 5). This has been decriminalized in some regions which were once a British colony, but some strangely claim it to be against their culture and tradition. This results in gender intolerance, specifically in the case of homosexuals. LGBTQ is considered taboo in society because of some stereotypical mind sets who are the worshippers of heterosexuality. Breaking such stereotypical mind sets and coming of the closet will be the ‘new emancipation’. In a country like Pakistan, where people follow Islamic rules and are very strict about the laws, it is difficult to show up as a homosexual, which is considered haraam by the conformists. Some states punish same-sex relationships in the name of Sharia - the punishment being the death penalty as it is in the case with ‘zina’ (one among the six haddud offences), which was followed by stoning till death. Pakistan and other Islamic countries develop and grow at a comparatively slower pace when it comes to such issues. People often consider transgender people as immoral, call them dozakhi and their relationship as sinful. Being transgender is no crime and poses no threat to the society that is the reason Section 377 has been abolished in many parts of the world. But it still prevails under The Pakistan Penal Code of 1860, which the Britishers developed, punished sodomy with a possible prison sentence and other provisions that impacted the human rights of LGBT Pakistanis, under the guise of protecting public order and morality. In Pakistan, as in many other gender-segregated societies, homosocial behaviour is considered normal and homosexual sex between men is widespread and accepted under a condition of discretion and secrecy; everybody knows what is going on, but nobody talks about it. At the same time the general climate for sexual minorities is hostile, and a person who comes forward as a homosexual will risk sanctions from the family, societal isolation, legal problems and violence (Landinfo, 2013, p.3) This Paper attempts to figure out various issues, problems, and hardships faced by transgender and lesbian couples and their struggles to show out as being the ‘one’ by Nighat M. Gandhi in Alternative Realities: Love in the lives of Muslim Women. Nighat represents the true picture of transgender community in Pakistan: In Pakistan, transgender live on the fringes of society, socially excluded and being vulnerable; Illiteracy, poverty, injustice, lack of opportunities, social and cultural 27

Breaking the Silence

boycott, power imbalances in relationship, and obstinate attitude of religious leaders are some of the reasons for social exclusion of this community. Other than that, the inability to reproduce and coping with their sexual orientation further adds to their disdain (Dayani, 2019, P.37). Since childhood, we are taught about the two sexes, and that opposite attracts, the third sex, precisely the third gender, has been shown as a comic and anonymous figure that was not even the topic of discussion. LGBTQ (community) is settling with its pace, like every new law that takes time for its implementation and enforcement. But who is supposed to let them settle? Who is the one responsible for their otherness? They are not different; they are seen as one. People should come out and embrace their identity. And we should accept them the way they are. Kessler and McKenna forcefully claim that “Gender is not a reflection of biological reality but rather a social construct that varies across cultures. Valuable for its insights into gender, its extensive treatment of transsexualism, and its ethnomethodological approach, Gender reviews and critiques data from biology, anthropology, sociology, and psychology” (Kessler, 1978, p. 3). This paper will analyze the stories from the memoir, i.e., Siraat-E-Mustaqeem: The Straight Path, and Rakhi Sawant of Sindh to bring out the issues with one’s identity and faith. Coping with these two things can seem smooth but takes a lot of pain and struggle in real life. The story Siraat-E-Mustaqeem in Alternative Realities, by Nighat M. Gandhi revolves around two lesbians, namely, Nusrat and Quratulain. Siraat-E-Mustaqeem is the Arabic term for ‘the straight or the right path’. It discloses the path chosen by Nusrat and QT, which is not so ‘straight’ but indeed the right path. They were not against any religion or God but were living a life that pleased them and gave the happiness they craved for. As: Queer theory promotes the “self” of the individual as an alternative to wider social interaction, disassembling the social ties that bind. Recognizing that oppression and violence, symbolic and physical, are part of the daily reality for those of us who do not correspond to dominant standards is compromised by queer theory’s rejection of the category of identity, and indeed, categories as a whole (Butler, 2006, p. 308).

KARACHI: LESBIANS IN LOVE This anecdote is of a lesbian who struggles for her lost identity in Pakistan and faces the fear of coming out in public. Nusrat was a poet, lecturer, stage designer and visual artist. Nighat met her, and they conversed privately. It has been mentioned that they spoke in low tones and for greater privacy moved to the staff room, so 28

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that they can’t be heard. This depicts the fear of coming out of the closet, getting abandoned by society and being a criminal in the eyes of the law. Nusrat’s public persona is described as. She had on a striped beige kurta, white salwar, a plain white cotton dupatta and a men’s watch, hair pulled back in a ponytail. No makeup, no-frills, no ribbons or laces that Pakistani ladies were laden with that season. Her style of dress and speech were charmingly defiant. (Gandhi, 2013, p.142) She was not being her true self to society, although she had no makeup, frills or ribbons, usually associated with females but had to wear kurta and salwar. She wanted to be herself but was obliged to play a feminine role. Things like man’s watch and ponytail pulled back shows her disagreement towards her public persona. On the contrary, Nusrat was totally different at home, noticeably androgynous, unlike the one on the college campus bounded to the feminine role. Nighat and Nusrat conversed about lesbian groups and movements in Pakistan. There were none. Besides, there was inadequacy in lesbian literature. They talked about Ismat Chughtai’s Lihaaf and Rekhti and in Urdu literature of Humayun Iqbal. In their discussion they point out that Gay love was partly accepted through literature, but this was not the case with lesbians.

FAITH AND IDENTITY One goes through a dilemma when it comes to reconciling one’s faith and identity. Can you follow your religion and be a homosexual at the same time? Yes, you can. Love or Ishq, in Islam, for instance, ‘is the absolute madness at the height of love’. There are many interpretations to Ishq in the Quran, and Nusrat speaks of one. She also states that there are many interpretations to it, but liberal interpretations are not tolerated. For instance, one can consider the parable of Prophet Lūt or Lot, whose people were the evil or wrongdoers and, despite the Prophet’s warnings, got engaged in violent rape, victimization of men, lewdness and other malpractices. The city of Sodom and Gomorrah was demolished because of its people’s shortcomings, leaving behind Lut and his two daughters. And his people came rushing toward him, and they had been long in the habit of practising abominations. He said: “O my people! Here are my daughters: they are purer for you (if you marry)! Now fear Allah, and do not cover me with shame about my guests! Isn’t there among you a single right-minded man?” They said: “You know well we have no need of your 29

Breaking the Silence

daughters: indeed, you know quite well what we want!” He said: “Would that I had power to suppress you or that I could betake myself to some powerful support. (The Messengers) said: “O Lūt! We are Messengers from your Lord. By no means shall they reach you! Now travel with your family while yet a part of the night remains, and let not any of you look back: but your wife (will remain behind): to her will happen what happens to the people. Morning is their appointed time: Is not the morning near?” When Our decree issued, We turned (the cities) upside down and rained down on them brimstones hard as baked clay, spread, layer on layer. - Qur’an, Sūra XI: Hūd, verses 78–83. This is where the word sodomy (English terminology for Liwat) originally came from. This is how the messenger of God destroyed the two cities. But this was unfairly interpreted out of its cultural, historical and social context as something against homosexuality or non-heterosexual activities between adults. Misinterpretations are often deceptive. Later in the story, Nusrat mentions the news on the front page of ‘Jang’, which was about two blind people in love who hot married, the headline being - ‘Andhi Mohabbat: Nabeena Jore ne court marriage krli’, which pictures the situation of Pakistan in terms of acceptance of love. She mocks at how even after being at the headline of the news got their right to marry. Nusrat has a different perspective on the world, unlike everyone else around her. “I’m a woman-loving woman. You’re not born one. You evolve through attractions and loves, and relationships. But you have to start with your own mind.” (Gandhi, 2013, P.148) The social construction of love has narrowed people’s minds when it comes to same-sex love. Making love for some people is synonymous with penetration, eventually producing offspring and having a family; no matter how the feelings remain unreciprocated or how harsh the love feels. But Nusrat perceived it differently, unlike some of us who fail to recognize our true self from the fear of coming out and being abandoned. She had evolved through love, relationships and attractions and became a person she was not. It would have been her greatest epiphany. Indeed the social norms and constructions are being followed for ages, but one needs to overcome them. No one is born unessential. One’s character or deeds are not predefined.

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A ROOM OF THEIR OWN Characters of Nusrat and QT (Quratulain) are sheer examples of the life of trans people. They even had a room of their own, as Nusrat said,’ Virginia Woolf would approve! Two women with a room of their own. Since both women were well -settled and were even working. Although Nusrat was a woman but never desired to raise kids of her own, unlike other women who dreamt of marrying and having kids (with few exceptions). She even comments on having kids that she does not see as her investments for her retirement plan and can love other people’s kids. This clearly depicts that someone’s gender can differ from their designated sex. Sex being anatomical, whereas gender being their expression and the way they feel. LGBTQ ‘Rainbow flag’ was designed by gay artist Gilbert Baker after Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gays got elected as an official in U.S. California. Pride flag consists of six colours- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Rainbow, per se, stands for peace, serenity, joy, beauty and power. “We needed something to express our joy, our beauty, our power. And the rainbow did that.” - Baker told CNN in 2015 (Borge, 2019, par. 8). There is a parallel between the flag and the apartment where Nusrat and QT lived. Theirs seemed much brighter and cheerful, rather than the people nearby which seemed gloomy from the passageway. There were terracotta lamps, potted plants and C-29 was calligraphed on the wall. It was a rare and beautiful sight. Their space had an artist’s studio, magazines, and tubes of paints, canvases and tin cans all around, overall, magnificent and peaceful. Nusrat calls it QT’s (Quratulain) noor. Their love seemed divine, and their aura was not ordinary. Nusrat recited a poem that she wrote for their anniversary on QT’s noor. It was genuinely ecstatic, the one that could only be written by a true lover full of powerful emotions. They lived a confined life and were happy as long as they were with each other. She comments that the other interviewers are not so empathetic towards them, and she feels that they were seen as some endangered species, not even as a real person. Toward the end, Nighat’s suppressed feelings have been depicted, her love for a girl that she was not able to confess. In the case of Nusrat and QT, both were embracing their actual identities and following their religion. Even though they could not come up to their neighbours but led a peaceful life on their own. The terrible condition of transgender community is not restricted to a specific nation but that is a universal thing. Transgender communities have seen marginalized and is not having any significance in our society which is also affected their visibility in literature. In spite of various efforts to improve the condition of transgender only a little has been proved fruitful still we need to change the mindset to secure a place for them in society and to make them economically strong. Ume Sughra visited a 31

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transgender community for a research project where she heard a comment while interviewing a transgender community at Bari Imam Islamabad, Pakistan. “We are God’s creation we didn’t create ourselves so why are we blamed to be like this? “We wish we would have a separate world to live, this world of males and females don’t want to see us and we don’t want to see them either” (Ume Sughra, 2016, p. 100). Nighat provides a true picture of the plight of transgender community through Nisho, in Rakhi Sawant of Sindh. She met Nisho for understanding the condition of transgender people. The setting of the story clearly reveals the pathetic condition of transgender community living in a slam. Nighat travels all the way to Sind to meet and record the story of Nisho. Just like every other moorten (local lingo for transgender people) Nisho, along with the other gays (Gulnar, Rubina, Bandook, Mashook) used to live in a slum area. Most of them made their survival possible by begging, singing and dancing. This clearly depicts the way transgender people were and are being treated. According to a wide range of LGBT NGOs and activists, society generally shun[s] transgender women, eunuchs, and intersex persons, collectively referred to as “hijras”- a word some transgender individuals view as pejorative, preferring the term “khwajaserra” - who often lived together in slum communities and survived by begging and dancing at carnivals and weddings. Some also were prostitutes (Responses to Information Requests, 2020, p. 5) Then Nighat and Nisho conversed about the life of Gays on various grounds like changing their names to seemingly feminine names. Nisho also mentions that she looks like Rakhi Sawant and would preferably change her name to Rakhi Sawant.

FALLING IN LOVE The bitter truth is society accepts couples of opposite sex; no one pays attention to same-sex relationship. Love stories mostly contain male and female characters, never same-sex characters. Similarly, Nisho’s love was not taken into consideration and was regarded as sinful or najaiz. But to her it was just like everyone else’s, loyal and pure. The fear of publicly accepting one’s gender is not as easy as it seems to be. Nisho was sceptical through the session about how she would survive in such a homophobic environment and questions God for her homosexuality. She somehow manages to console herself by recalling the incidents of the married ladies of her mohalla that she will not have to face the ill-treatments of her mother-in-law and the cruelty of her husband. People like Nisho succumb to the harsh situations they face and are always on the verge of getting abandoned by society. 32

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I sought to understand some of the terror and anxiety that some people suffer in “becoming gay,” the fear of losing one’s place in gender or of not knowing who one will be if one sleeps with someone of the ostensibly “same” gender (Butler, 2006, p.11).

ON MARRIAGE Nisho viewed her relationship as a mere fantasy and unrealistic. Although she was well aware of the reality that the guy she loved would never marry her. Her assigned sex didn’t match her gender. We’ve been given men’s bodies, but everything about us, our thoughts, our soul, the way we live, everything, everything, is like a woman’s. (Gandhi, 2013, P. 217) she wanted to have a surgery, probably a sex reassignment surgery, which might have changed her, but she won’t get pregnant even then. “Is there any difference between us and real women? No, it’s just that we aren’t accepted as women by society. If I were a real woman, I could’ve gotten married, had kids, and made some man happy. But this way, the way I am, I can’t. I don’t fit into any role” (p. 215). Nisho also assures Nighat of her love for his man and that he loves her back. Still there exists a question mark on the life of transgender people. “I can’t marry him. I can’t marry a man and give him children” (p. 216). As they are mostly abandoned by their families, their future is least secure, and they even get kicked out when they run out of money in their old age. I don’t know why the world thinks of us as immoral. The world is full of criminals, alcoholics, drug addicts, adulterers, murderers, terrorists. Do we plant bombs? Are we murdering people? Do we take bribes? What kind of threat do we pose to society? We keep to ourselves. Then why does the world shun us? Treat us like criminals? (p. 220)

ON RIGHTS Nisho added that there were many Khawaja Sara (non-derogatory terms for transgender in Pakistan) in the town but not most of them were much educated enough to claim their rights. Would not interview or talk to any outsider. She also talks about a film in which the protagonist Shabnam Mausi demanded for her rights to contest elections. She was right when she said, people from our community need to be elected to fight for our rights (p. 221).

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The supreme court former chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry in 2009 declare rights that “they are third gender and they have equal rights with national ID card with free education, jobs and health care. But members of transgender community they don’t have these rights it is just certain records on papers” (Saddique, 2017, p. 9053). They rarely get seats in the elections. Although much has been ameliorate their status in the society like they have been allotted with the NIC (National Identity cards), right to education, jobs (in some sectors), but they face discrimination in different levels. LGBT communities are considered a sign of shame and disgrace in [Pakistani] culture. Most of these individuals never get a chance to acquire education in the regular schools due to discriminatory treatment and demeaning attitudes of their fellow citizens (Responses to Information Requests, 2020, p. 6)

ON RESPECT Transgender community is still struggling to get acceptance at social level. They are being laughed and mocked but never get place among a group of male and female gender. They even don’t have a right to be a part of social gatherings. The social segregation and humiliation make the transgender weak. They too accept it as their destiny and allow themselves to be marginalized in all spheres of life. It seems that Nisho has also accepted that their condition will never improve. As she says: People keep talking about rights. But who gives you your right? Nobody. Our small town has many Khawaja Sara and they have small minds. They’re not clever like educated, city people. And they’re afraid of harassment, so they keep to themselves. (Gandhi, 2013, p. 220). In our society Transgender people have not received any space and they don’t fit in an ideal society created by men and women and they are being recognized by various tags like chakka, hijra, zenna. “Khawaja Sara, Hijra, Khusra or Murat, are different names given to third gender in Pakistan. From the early childhood they are treated and are considered derogatory by the society” (Nazir, 2016, p. 158). The myth generally whispered is that “born hijra (Khusra) develops akin mannerism (dancing, singing) acceptable in hijra community only. These born with sexual deformity ultimately join hijra community” (Zami, 2005 p.4). People make fun of their dressing style, their way of speaking. Some even mimicked her khadra clap Night describes Nisho’s pain “They make fun of me by trying to imitate the khadra’s 34

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clap. But you know, we don’t go clapping all the time. To clap for no reason is completely against the behavior code of our community” (p. 217). Transgender community is also having emotions and feeling as they are a living being they also seek for love and care. Transgender person can develop a relationship in the same community but they are not allowed to love a male or a female. Love is free it has no boundaries. As Nisho says “Who hasn’t been in love? At least once in their lifetime?... People think only a man and a woman can make a couple…But, the truth is, anybody can fall in love with anybody. A man can fall in love with a man, a woman can fall in love with a woman. But society doesn’t accept such love. (p. 215) Transgender community is in dilemma and is having an inner conflict as they are not having any space any even they are not able to fit in the categorical definition of female or male gender Nisho remarks, Some of us would say we’re women, some would say we’re men. But if we want to say we’re women, shouldn’t we have the rights that belong to women? Like the right to marry? And if we say we’re male, shouldn’t we get the rights that belong to men? But we’ll get neither the rights of men or women. They‘ll just create a Khwaja Sara category for us but give us no respect or rights (p. 221). From the time transgender people get a notion or realization that being a transgender they don’t fit in this so called society. They starts questing about their own existence and inside a hope that one day they will be able to have a place in the society and will not be judged on the basis of their third gender but will be able to live a normal life. Love is pure, unbiased and can happen within two people irrespective of their sexual orientations. They are not different; they are seen as one. People should come out and embrace their identity. And we should accept them the way they are.

CONCLUSION Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people, etc. can exist in any corner of the world, normalizing their existence, letting them live a respectable and comfortable life is what we can help them with. Nighat M. Gandhi through her travelogue has kept this theme subtle, but it is worth the hype because transgender people are already struggling to live their lives smoothly. Scattered around the corners of the world, country, state, or region, they make a living by sometimes coming out of the closet and sometimes being caged within society. People who dared to reveal their true 35

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identity were looked down on by other people, i.e. treated as inferiors. Nisho, Nusrat, QT, and other transgender people suffer an identity crisis in the society where opposite-sex relationships thrive. Same-sex relationships are considered unnatural, against the tradition, something that is brought in by the western people, a criminal offence and number of other pejorative and nonsensical things that even make it a taboo in the public sphere. The stories depict how social construction confine the life of transgender people by making them even more marginalized. They cope with the situations on their own. They are disrespected and mistreated. They have no choice but to limit themselves to a certain area and remain unemployed. The majority of transgender indulge in begging, dancing and even prostitution. Being born as a male, a person can feel like a female and vice versa, equivalent to what we call a transgender. A transgender person is also a human. Scientifically, anatomy or sex of a person has nothing to do with the gender of a person and a person either male, female or transgender, eventually she/he is a Homosapien. But the misleading constructs often make it hard for them to survive. Things often get muddled up when people claim that being a transgender is a disaster, they negate all the facts, thereby spreading hate. Misconceptions must be cleared, and everyone should be treated equally. Each gender is superior, each gender is important, and together we build the society. Broaden your minds till the seamless shores, educate, spread awareness and accept every single human around. People like Prince Manvendra, India’s royal figure and Nergis Mavalvala, who is an astrophysicist and a openly Pakistani lesbian, set an example that acceptance shall first come from within and then from people around. Speak it up or talk about it. Spreading awareness is all we can do to normalize their identity. Nighat M. Gandhi through the stories has thrown light upon the queer community and the way they spend their life with the least opportunities. They feel content in whatever life brings them. Amidst all the laws passed by Pakistan, Section 377 remains a bit controversial when it comes to small regions of the country. The condition has been ameliorated but not fully accepted. People should be sensitive enough to deal with transgender people around. Consulting a psychologist and knowing their behaviour can help a lot to empathize with them. Pakistani culture treats Khawaja Seras on various grounds but there are limitations to it. They’ve even got a separate space, identity of their own (NIC), namely the third category but they are still being prejudiced and mistreated. Because of the preconceived norms and notions, the judgemental ‘Us’ lack to understand the sufferings of such people. Visit, have a word with them, socialize and spread awareness is the basic requirement to eradicate this discrimination from the society be it in Pakistan, India, U.S.A. or other countries. Eventually, one must practice the 3 Cs, i.e. cheer, comfort and cooperate with every human around irrespective of their gender and identity. 36

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REFERENCES Borge, J. (2019). The Significance Behind Every Color in the Pride Flag. Oprah Magazine. Retrieved April 23, 2021, from www.oprahmag.com/life/a27789288/ rainbow-pride-flag-meaning Butler, J. (2006). Gender Trouble. Routledge. Dayani, K. S., & Minaz, A. (2019). Transgender Community in Pakistan: A Look Into Challenges and Opportunities. National Journal of Advanced Research, 5(2), 36-40. Economic Times. (2018). Section 377: Here Is Everything You Need to Know. The Economic Times. Retrieved May 5, 2021, fromeconomictimes.indiatimes.com/news/ politics-and-nation/sc-delivers-historic-verdict-heres-everything-you-need-to-knowabout-section 377/articleshow/65698429.cms?from=mdr Gandhi, M. N. (2013). Alternative Realities: Love in the Lives of Muslim Women. Tranquebar Press. Gedro, J., & Mizzi, R. C. (n.d.). Feminist Theory and Queer Theory: Implications for HRD Research and Practice. Scholar.Google.Co.In,adhr.sagepub.com Jami, H. (2005). Transgender transvestitesetc in Pakistan country report. Retrieved April30, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294427308_ Condition_and_status_of_hijras Kessler, M., & McKenna, W. (1978). Gender: An ethno methodological approach. John Wiley & Sons. Landinfo. (2013). Report Pakistan: Homosexuals and homosexuality. landinfo.no Nazir, N. (2016). Education, Employability and Shift of Occupation of Transgender in Pakistan: A Case Study of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Dialoge, 11(2), 158-176. Retrieved April 28, 2021, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320876676 Responses to information requests. (2020, June 1). Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. Retrieved from https://irb.gc.ca/en/country-information/rir/Pages/index. aspx?doc=457702 Saddique, K., & Sindhu, M. (2017). Transgender Issues in Pakistani Community. European Academic Research Journal, 4(10), 9049-9056. https://www.researchgate. net/publication/314116381_Transgender_Issues_in_Pakistani_Community Tanweer, A. (2018). LGBT Rights in India. International Journal of Law Management and Humanities.

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Ume, S., & Imran, M. (2016). Transgender: Stigma, Discrimination and Social Exclusion, Asian Pacific. Journal of Health Sciences., 3(4), 100–101.

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Chapter 5

Unlearning Internalized Homophobia With My Brother’s Husband: A Glimpse Into Mainstream Queer Literature in Japan Anushkaa Debnath Jadavpur University, India

ABSTRACT The manga My Brother’s Husband (2014-2017) talks about a little Japanese neighborhood, the microcosm representing the country’s general approach to homosexuality and how the future holds a promise to change for better days. Homosexual relationships and trans identities are frowned upon in the general society of modern-day Japan, just like in many other Asian countries. An openly gay mangaka, Gengoroh Tagame, had so far been a name limited to the gay erotic manga circuit, but this work, targeted at a more general audience, won him critical acclaim for depicting the struggles of being queer in Japan. This chapter is an attempt to understand how Yaichi is a representative of the cis-heterosexual male who is trying his best to navigate out of the patriarchal maze of heteronormativity that has been propagated through generations following European imperialism in Asian countries.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch005 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Unlearning Internalized Homophobia With My Brother’s Husband

INTRODUCTION Serialized over four volumes for a stretch of four years, My Brother’s Husband (Tagame, 2017) is a Japanese manga talking about the struggles faced by the homosexual community of Japan. The small neighborhood in Tokyo acts as the microcosm of Japan and its reception of queerness. Not only Japan, but the manga also touches upon gay cultures prevalent in other countries, mostly Canada and America, and evaluates where Japan stands in this milieu since Mike Flanagan, a Canadian, is the deuteragonist of the story.

LITERATURE REVIEW Gengoroh Tagame has been a well-known name in the gay erotic manga circuit before Otouto no Otto. In doing so, he has been able to gauge the different reactions to his erotica work and finally create something that caters to the general population in order to raise awareness about the LGBTQIA+ community. On a broader scale, this manga is a cultural exchange between Japan and Canada. The manga is translated to English by Anne Ishii and is published in two volumes under the title My Brother’s Husband. The first chapter of the first volume of the manga is titled “The Black Ships Have Arrived”. This is of course a reference to ‘kurofune’, a term from the Edo period, that was used to refer to the vessels that arrived in Japan from the West in the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. Representations of these ‘kurofune’ were first found in 1591 on folded screens, (Curvelo, 2012, pp. 581-602). The chapter begins with Yaichi’s dream of attending his parents’ funeral where a younger version of him sits with his twin brother, Ryoji. A stark contrast in the two brothers’ characters is established here as the very expressive Ryoji sobs throughout the ceremony and Yaichi only sits there, as stoic as ever. Yaichi later wakes up and realizes the impending arrival of Mike later that day is the reason why he had that dream. In this chapter, the readers are introduced to the three main characters of the manga - Yaichi, his daughter Kana and his brother’s Canadian husband, Mike Flanagan. As a part of the chapter cover, Mike is depicted in a western navy captain costume at the helm of a ship, while Yaichi is in a traditional kimono and hakama, slightly annoyed and confused, and Kana is in a bright red dress greeting Mike cheerfully. This cover sets the perfect mood for the first volume of the manga. On arriving in Japan, Mike is looking forward to exploring and finding out more about his husband’s family and childhood, Kana is excited to get to know him and Yaichi, although confused about how to take Mike’s sexual identity, is trying to be as welcoming as possible without letting his prejudices get in the way. 40

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The first time he sees Mike waiting at the door of their house, the Canadian towers over him and hugs him close. Yaichi has been raised with Japanese customs and he is not used to physical closeness from people he barely knows. While he is justified in his right to be uncomfortable, his first thought is to think of Mike as the perverted one because of his homosexuality. However, he doesn’t express that vile thought and politely asks Mike to release him. Mike seems to realize that and recedes, reasoning Yaichi’s physical resemblance to Ryoji. Their first interaction is quite awkward as Yaichi also goes as far as asking Mike to not address him as “big brother”, seemingly not yet being able to accept him as family. Right at this moment, Kana arrives home from school and while introducing himself to her as her uncle, Mike explains how he was married to Ryoji in Canada. Kana is surprised to find out that her father has a brother in the first place, and also the fact that two men can get married at all. Yaichi and Mike’s opposing answers confuse her and they proceed to explain how in some countries it is allowed, but not in Japan. To his surprise, whereas Yaichi thinks she might find it weird that two men can get married, Kana thinks that not letting some people marry each other in Japan even though they can get married somewhere else is the weirdest part. Even when Mike offers to show them pictures of himself with Ryoji, Yaichi refuses to. It is the first time Kana learns that her uncle Ryoji is no longer alive. The story is in fact set in a month since Ryoji passed away. Without hearing anything from Ryoji for ten years now since he went abroad, Yaichi is quite disinterested in his brother’s life. He uses the term ‘gay married’ instead of just ‘married’ and it shows how he thinks such a relationship is quite different from any other normal relationship between a man and a woman. By the end of the chapter, Yaichi’s internalized homophobia makes him still confused about how to accept the fact that Mike is indeed his brother-in-law (“From My Brother’s Husband series, Vol. 1”, 2018). The second chapter, titled “Tempura Sushi” depicts Mike and Kana in chef costumes holding a giant serving of the dish while Yaichi looks upon them incredulously. Their appearance is no longer historic or one of grandeur, since by now Yaichi and readers have a better idea of the characters in their current temporal and spatial context. Yaichi is polite and usually keeps his aggravating thoughts to himself. So when Kana proposes that Mike should stay with them for the time he’s in Japan, even though Yaichi thinks it’s a nuisance and is not pleased with it, he agrees to put him up. Mike is given his husband’s room and he is very grateful for the thoughtful gesture. Yaichi leaves Mike to unpack his belongings in the room but comes back to ask him about his preference for dinner only to find Mike prostrated on the floor, softly muttering his brother’s name in reverence. The image moves him and he blames it on Kana being too pushy. But the child explains in simple terms that if Mike is her 41

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uncle and his brother-in-law, then just like any other family member visiting them, Mike should also be able to stay at their place. Yaichi seems to accept this fact for the time being. During dinner, Yaichi reflects on Kana’s words from earlier. Their conversation with Mike takes a turn toward the kinds of sushi available in Canada when Mike explains that besides Japanese variants, they also have sushi made with tempura, which is not something common in Japan. Kana finds this weird and drags Yaichi into the conversation asking his opinion on it. Yaichi does not have an opinion since he has not tried it yet, but Mike adds that Ryoji liked the dish while in Canada. It occurs to Yaichi that to him, two men in a marriage are just like tempura sushi, since he doesn’t know the taste or how to eat it yet. Yaichi is usually in just a pair of boxers after he takes his nightly bath every day. But this time, he cannot step out naked only in his underwear because “after all, Mike is like that”. In his mind, he reprimands himself for thinking that way since it’s been shown on TV that these types of thoughts are as embarrassing as a woman thinking all men are interested in her. He even suspects that since Mike was married to his twin brother and Yaichi is almost the spitting image of him, Mike must have thought they were also the same regarding their sexualities to prompt the hug as soon as they had met for the first time. He puts on clothes, reasoning to himself that he’s just exercising good manners in front of a guest, and finds Kana touching Mike’s chest because she is fascinated by his bushy hair. Yaichi flies off into a fit of rage since he’s not used to seeing such physical proximity. Kana is immediately sent to bed but not before she points out the change in Yaichi’s usual attire. Yaichi’s annoyance is only aggravated by this incident - to him, the tempura sushi leaves a bad taste in his mouth. The third chapter cover depicts two young boys in hats and is titled “Memory” since this chapter deals with Mike and Yaichi’s individual memories of Ryoji. Mike spends the next day taking a tour of the neighborhood. Yaichi asks him if he wants to see the major tourist attractions of Japan like Kyoto and Akihabara, but Mike wants to visit the spots that Ryoji had mentioned to him when they had been talking about his childhood in Japan. He wants to visit the places from Ryoji’s memories. This surprises Yaichi and he remembers how they always used to be together as children. He wonders when exactly they stopped talking entirely. Even though Yaichi is modern and understanding, his mind is sometimes clouded by his doubts about himself. He is a single, stay-at-home father who lends out his parents’ property to earn a living. He is not proud of his career as a landlord because he cannot accept the idea of living off his parents’ inheritance as a real job. But Mike tells him that being Kana’s father, taking care of her needs like cooking meals for her every day, cleaning, and doing laundry, is a wonderful job in itself. That manages to console Yaichi.

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When asked why Kana finds Mike so charming in such a short time, the young girl says that the prospect of having a Canadian uncle is exciting and “really fun”. This idea of having fun is a recurring theme amongst many others in the whole manga. Yaichi finally considers that if he thought about it simply, then hosting Mike might be fun for him too and since Mike came all the way to Japan from Canada, he should have fun on his visit. An inquisitive Kana asks Mike, in their relationship between Ryoji and him, who the missus was. Yaichi is again nervous and displeased with Kana’s curiosity on such a topic but Mike explains that since they were both males, there was no wife, or a ‘missus’. They were both husbands. This is often an uncomfortable question that homosexual people are forced to face. Non-queer people who are curious and often like Yaichi are incredulous about how a homosexual marriage works, and pose some very personal and intimate questions like this to queer people (Mussen, 2019). While a child is curious by nature and their queries should be answered as much as possible since they are still learning about the world around them, an adult has many other resources they can consult to educate themselves. These questions are welcome only by individuals who are consenting to share their personal experiences upon inquiry. Just like one does not pry into a heterosexual couple’s lifestyle out of the blue, the same privacy that a non-normative couple deserves is somewhat lost in translation. Even Yaichi himself can’t help his thoughts drift toward Mike and his brother’s sex lives. He even wonders if it’s normal to think about how other couples engage in intercourse. His inner turmoil is somewhat put to ease when he hears Mike tell Kana, “My husband was Ryoji, and Ryoji’s husband was me.” But eventually, he does not think much about it and accepts the simple fact that they’ve been in love enough to get married and make a life together. That is enough. Yaichi often finds himself looking at his shadow and reflections on the surface of mirrors and thinking back to his brother during Mike’s visit. It’s a haunting presence at first when he’s out to visit some of their other play spots with Mike and Kana that Ryoji and he used to frequent. He reminisces about their childhood once again which prompts Mike to question if their eventual estrangement was due to Ryoji coming out to him as gay (Stalter, 2019). As far as Yaichi remembers, they weren’t even in high school by the time when their parents had died and Yaichi had got his first girlfriend. He was proud of that and kept pestering his brother to get one too, to which his brother replied that he was gay. It was a casual string of words accompanied by laughter and no hesitation, so Yaichi’s response to it was also the bare minimum. It was partly shocking for Yaichi because he felt that he already knew before his brother told him, and partly because he had no idea how he was supposed to respond to that since there was hardly any queer person around him. He acknowledges that it was not Ryoji who had changed suddenly, it was Yaichi 43

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who began to see him in a different light. From Mike, he gets to know that Ryoji did not think he reacted badly, but Yaichi had seemed to avoid him after that. That was what caused the rift between them and as they grew older they only grew even farther apart before Ryoji left for Canada. In another episode, a very drunk Mike comes home to Yaichi who again thinks being hugged is something indecent since Mike seems to mistake him for Ryoji and he is afraid of being subjected to Mike’s sexual advances. But even in his inebriated state, Mike is aware that Ryoji is no longer alive, and only weeps in Yaichi’s arms, lamenting his death like any other heartbroken lover. Yaichi tries to console him on understanding this and puts him to sleep. It reminds him of the time he lost his parents and Ryoji cried while he was unable to. All these years, it had felt unreal to him but now on seeing Mike in such a state, Yaichi finally finds the strength to cry. When a hungover Mike apologizes in the morning for doing anything untowardly the previous night that he does not remember, Yaichi dismisses it as being ‘no big deal.’ This incident is a turning point in their story as Yaichi begins to relate to Mike on a personal level and not treat him just as an outsider with a starkly different lifestyle that bars them from having any familial bond. The story is indeed a love story but it talks about different kinds of romantic love and family units than the ones people are most familiar with. Apart from Mike and Ryoji’s marriage as a homosexual gay couple, Mike also tells Kana about his friends, a lesbian couple, and their child who live as a family in Canada. Kana herself is a child brought up in what some may call a ‘broken family’. Yaichi and his wife Natsuki used to argue a lot when they were still married and were soon to get a divorce even before Kana was old enough to attend prep school. But after the divorce, the more peaceful domestic environment has been a healthier one for Kana to grow up in (B., 2018). They are still in touch with her mother Natsuki, who comes to visit and spend time with them every once in a while. This arrangement of a family works best for all three of them and Yaichi abhors the kind of thinking that makes people look down on a child with pity who grows up with no mother, just a parent, or no parents at all since he has been subjected to such comments. He believes saying that there could be only one type of family is plain discrimination. For a man who is capable of seeing his life and experiences in such a positive light, it may appear that Yaichi’s initial refusal to accept Mike and Ryoji being a family is hypocritical (Cooke, 2018). But on getting to know Mike better at a much more mature age in a more progressive time than when his brother had come out, Yaichi is more open to newer ideas and eventually warms up to him. Mike asks Kana if she is lonely without her mother around. Her first response is to say she isn’t lonely but then she explains that sometimes she does want to see her. Even though Kana is happy with the way her family is, she still misses her mother. But she is also a mature child, sensitive to her father’s feelings, and makes 44

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Mike promise her to keep it a secret from Yaichi. This is the first time Kana learns what a hug is from Mike, who explains that it is a way to show that one cares about someone and likes them. During dinner with her mother, Kana is so happy with the delicious meal that Yaichi cooks, that she accidentally says that she wants to stay like this forever with her parents and Mike. All the three adults look uncomfortable and sad as they all know that they cannot give Kana that. She tries hard to hide her true feelings of missing her family but is happy that she still gets to spend time with them. She understands that her parents’ marriage did not work and her family is better off this way. Once her mother leaves the next evening, she sleeps next to Mike, not yet ready to sleep alone in her room after spending the previous night with Natsuki. Kana does not want to let go of these happy times yet so she clenches Mike’s shirt in her little fist and expresses her concerns that he would also have to leave Japan one day. Mike assures her that he is not leaving yet because of his promise to Ryoji. Natsuki is still on friendly terms with Yaichi. They spend quality time together. She thanks Yaichi for being the best father for Kana, whenever Natsuki spends the night with her daughter, Kana only ever talks about her father. They tease each other about how that changed over the last few days and Kana only talks about Mike now. Yaichi admits that Mike is a nice guy but they don’t yet talk much about his brother the way Natsuki seems to think. When Kana’s mother first visits them to meet Mike, she is interested in knowing how Mike and Ryoji met each other, but Yaichi does not stay long enough to hear anything more than that they met at a party. His growing discomfort makes him excuse himself from the discussion. Mike’s reply is also only a half-truth since in actuality he had met Ryoji on a dating app. Not only in Japan or Asia, the idea of meeting one’s life partner through a dating app is still conceived as something frivolous and immature in almost every culture. Natsuki observes Yaichi’s reluctance to talk to Mike about it and advises him to do it as soon as he can so that he doesn’t regret not getting to know his brother during his happy days even through Mike. On the topic of showing physical affection openly, Yaichi refuses to accept a hug from his own daughter. Even though he watches them fondly when Kana hugs Mike before she leaves for school, he does not participate in one himself. When Mike comments on it and adds that Ryoji was also embarrassed about hugging in front of people but when he saw that it was normal in Canada, he grew used to it. This incident marks Yaichi beginning to take an active interest in getting to know more about his brother. Yaichi does not hate the idea of hugging but doing it himself is not something he is used to. Kana looks forward to introducing her friends to Mike but the mother of one of her friends had advised the kid against meeting Mike since he could be a ‘bad influence’ on the children. Kana and her friends are too young to understand what that means but Yaichi does and is enraged on her behalf. The cover picture for this 45

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chapter also has Kana dressed up as Little Red Riding Hood and Mike as the wolf from the well-known folktale, painting him as the conventional predator the way Yuki’s mother sees him. But Mike’s expression remains the same affable one hinting how he is still the friendly Uncle Mike to her and does not mean her any harm regardless of the way others see him because he chooses not to hide his sexuality. As Yaichi rants by himself in the bath, his words “Just because someone is gay, treating them like some kind of sex offender” is not right, shows how he has grown as a person during the time he has spent with Mike. He also mulls over how sex between a man and a woman is celebrated and discussed in front of children to a certain degree for them to understand the concept of a family, but if the couple is a same-sex one, then all of a sudden it’s too sexual. The prejudices he once held against his brother and Mike are in the process of being eroded. He also reflects on his initial reactions to Mike upon his arrival and feels guilty that he had reacted the same way as Yuki’s mother. The reflection in his mirror takes the form of Ryoji and appears hurt that he might have thought in the same way as his brother. He resolves to his shadow, which once again appears to be Ryoji, that his duty as a father to Kana would be to raise her as someone who won’t hurt others. Mike and Yaichi happen to meet the slightly older brother of one of Kana’s friends at school who confesses to often hanging around their house to get a chance to speak to Mike. It turns out that the boy, Kazu, had realized early on that he is gay and upon overhearing Kana tell his younger brother about her uncle being in a same-sex marriage, Kazu had been skipping school to talk to Mike. Kazu is an example of how lost and lonely LGBTQIA+ children are which often makes them scared of facing the world altogether. While Ryoji was given a cold shoulder by his brother when he came out, Kazu is afraid at the prospect of having to do so under any circumstance. He tries hard to hide his true self from his classmates, so all the repressed anxieties find an outlet when he is finally talking to Mike. He has never met someone like himself before and in Mike’s presence, he finds solace. Mike also makes Yaichi privy to their conversation with Kazu’s consent and together the two men try to create a safe space for the kid. The chapter is aptly titled “Hot Chocolate’’ as it signifies the warmth Yaichi and Mike are able to give him. Mike also shares with Yaichi how he was troubled in his childhood in a much similar way even though his parents were quite liberal and accepting. It requires a lot of courage. This episode makes Yaichi reflect on how Ryoji must have felt back when he came out to his brother. Just because of different sexualities, children and teenagers are bullied or disowned by their parents, and often kicked out of their homes but Yaichi says such discrimination is unheard of in Japan. This is mostly because such topics are either not discussed at all or people like Kazu do not reveal their true sexual identities. In fact, later in the third volume, Mike is asked to dine with one of Ryoji’s friends in secret. Katoyan was Ryoji’s only gay friend during his 46

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time in Japan. They meet each other in another city and previously when Katoyan visits Mike at Yaichi’s place, he asks Mike to keep their meeting a secret since Yaichi does not know about this side of him. Katoyan is a closeted gay man and does not plan on coming out ever and that is the reason they have to meet in secret. Mike does not like keeping it a secret from Yaichi but has to do so for Katoyan’s sake since the visibility can ruin Katoyan in such a way that Mike cannot help him out or even begin to comprehend since he is from an entirely different culture. Visibility is not the same as forcibly outing someone’s sexual or gender identity without their consent. In some cultures, the visibility of queer people helps the closeted ones to gather the courage to face the world as their true selves. This, again, requires a lot of courage and more often than not, a stable source of income to support themselves in case of a financial crisis in situations where they can be sacked from their jobs. But again in some cultures, the visibility of queer people can be a punishable offense. Even in places where such identities are supposed to be protected by the law, the general mindset of the people can justify any offense committed against them, even to the point of loss of life. So when Mike asks Katoyan if it’s better not to greet him if they see each other next time back in Tokyo, it’s not a surprise that Katoyan thinks that might be for the best (“From My Brother’s Husband series, Vol. 2”, 2018). Yaichi has a dream where he envisions an older version of Kana introducing him to her girlfriend and announcing that she wants to marry her. It troubles him but after a discussion with his wife on a trip to an onsen (a hot spring typically with bathing and lodging facilities), he concludes that whomever Kana falls in love with and chooses to marry, Yaichi will always be there to support her. The entire arc of Yaichi becoming more accepting of Mike and his brother concludes with this. When it comes to introducing Mike to other people, Yaichi first refers to him as just his brother’s friend to an acquaintance. The next time when Katoyan visits them, he is quite resolute in introducing Mike as his late brother’s husband but before he can, Katoyan declares that he knows Mike is “Ryoji’s that,” thinking he’s saving Yaichi the trouble of facing the question. But it only makes Yaichi feel guilty for not being more upfront about it. Finally, when he is summoned by Kana’s principal over the prospect of Kana being bullied if she continues to tell her classmates about her uncle being in a same-sex marriage, Ryoji refuses to budge and insists on calling Mike his brother-in-law (T., 2020). This gradual acceptance of Mike as family and at the same time not trivializing his sexual identity is what makes the manga such a genius work of art. In a willful act of defiance against their prejudiced parents, Kana brings over her friends, Yuki and Tomo, to meet Mike and Yaichi receives them as warmly as possible. Yuki says that she thinks it’s beautiful that people get married because they love each other but gets sad because she has already come across people who 47

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do not agree. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is brought up in this regard. Yuki mentions that her parents agreed that getting in the way of two lovers was bad when she mentioned the story but on the topic of Mike and Ryoji, her silence indicates that her parents do not think so. She herself is quite convinced that loving one another can never be a bad thing, and Yaichi and Mike reassure her. When Kana’s homeroom teacher reports to her father about her continuous conversations about Mike’s marriage to her uncle being an inappropriate subject for school, Yaichi rightfully thinks if the teacher means the issue of marriage as a whole or just gay marriage being labeled as ‘inappropriate’. Yaichi’s transformation is complete as he maintains his composure and defends his daughter, hoping the teacher will take care of her if she is ever bullied because of this. Finally, Yaichi can look at his shadow without feeling haunted and smile at it; he even seeks Mike out of his own accord and wishes to see pictures of their lives together, trying to get to know his brother better by making Mike fill in the gaps.

CONCLUSION Yaichi’s inner monologue about how he does not feel self-conscious being naked with Mike while they are bathing together at the onsen is depicted through the careful juxtaposition of image and text pointing out how Yaichi’s inner conflict is at peace (Weldon, 2012). The need for queering pedagogies and public spaces is raised in the manga. Without such education, the queer community will continue to remain marginalized. So whether Mike returns to Canada with a promise of Yaichi and Kana visiting him, is Yaichi’s conclusion of self-discovery or just the start of one along with Kana’s, is left ambiguous. This is indeed a story of family and love winning over socio-cultural values and questioning the previously unquestioned prejudices of human beings.

REFERENCES B. B. (2018, October 17). Graphic Novel Review: My Brother’s Husband, by Gengoroh Tagame. The Queerblr. Retrieved from https://thequeerblr.com/2018/10/17/bookreview-my-brothers-husband-by-gengoroh-tagame/ Cooke, R. (2018). My Brother’s Husband review - a Canadian gay man about the house. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/ jan/09/my-brothers-husband-graphic-novel-review

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Curvelo, A. (2012). The disruptive presence of the namban-jin in early modern Japan. Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient, 55(2-3), 581–602. doi:10.1163/15685209-12341246 Mussen, M. (2019, September 4). All the questions you need to stop asking LGBT+ people about their sex lives. The Tab. Retrieved from https://thetab.com/ uk/2019/09/04/questions-for-gay-couples-123054 My Brother’s Husband: From the My Brother’s Husband series, Vol. 1. (2018a, October 15). Kirkus. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ gengoroh-tagame/my-brothers-husband/ My Brother’s Husband: From the My Brother’s Husband series, Vol. 2. (2018b, October 23). Kirkus. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ gengoroh-tagame/my-brothers-husband-tagame/ Stalter, D. (2019, June 7). Review: My Brother’s Husband. Geeks Out. Retrieved from https://www.geeksout.org/2019/06/07/review-my-brothers-husband/ T. A. (2020, April 11). My Brother’s Husband series review. Al’s Manga Blog. Retrieved from https://alsmangablog.ca/2020/04/11/my-brothers-husband-seriesreview/ Tagame, G. (2017). My Brother’s Husband. Pantheon. Weldon, G. (2018, 12 October). In ‘My Brother’s Husband Vol. 2,’ family values (and the value of family). National Public Radio. Retrieved from https://www.npr. org/2018/10/12/639601426/in-my-brothers-husband-vol-2-family-values-and-thevalue-of-family

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Chapter 6

Subversion of the Dominant Logic of Heteronormativity in Akwaeke Emezi’s The Death of Vivek Oji: Queering the Society and the State Guhan Priyadharshan P. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0583-4963 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India

ABSTRACT Akwaeke Emezi’s 2020 novel The Death of Vivek Oji narrates the death of the eponymous non-heterosexual character—as suggested by the title—and the emotional turmoil faced by people with non-heterosexual orientation. This chapter demonstrates how his death is the product of dominant logic—the prudishness of the Igbo society, which manifests heteronormative practices, and the legal system in Nigeria that castigate persons who diverge from normative sexual behaviour. Further, it examines the narration in the novel that subverts the heteronormativity perpetuated by the state and society, opening new avenues of resistance for non-heterosexual people in Nigeria that might otherwise be obscured in the narrative. The chapter considers the location of the experiences of the non-heterosexual characters in the novel in liminality so that the contradiction between the lived experience and the conformity articulated by the state and the society is apparent, which prepares the ground for resistance to occur.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch006 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Subversion of the Dominant Logic of Heteronormativity

INTRODUCTION Akwaeke Emezi’s 2020 novel, The Death of Vivek Oji, is set in South-eastern Nigeria. It narrates the coming of age and the death of Vivek, the eponymous character, as suggested by the title. Emezi presents the narration through various voices— in the third person and the voices of Vivek and Osita. Vivek’s relationship with Osita is as crucial as his coming of age, as both are intertwined. Osita is Vivek’s cousin, whom Vivek addresses as “bhai” throughout the novel, and the former reciprocates it by addressing the latter as “brother.” However, their relationship is also sexual and covert to the public yet known to their friends; it would be condemned by society, the state and their families if revealed since their relationship is homosexual and incestuous. This chapter contains three parts, apart from the introductory and concluding parts. Firstly, the narrative in the novel that acquiesces to the existing homophobia and heteronormativity perpetuated by the Nigerian state through the legal system and the cultural disposition of the Igbo society— the existing logic of the state and the society—is elucidated. Secondly, the inferences made in the first part are contested to showcase how Emezi subverts through the narration the state’s existing logic and the social order, which informs the possible frontiers of resistance. The basic logic behind this methodology of the chapter is to foreground the role of liminality in subverting or transcending the existing dominant logic of both the state and the society, which are interlinked. Liminality is the position where the subjects find their lived experiences contradicting the dominant narrative perpetuated by the logic of the state and the society. Elisabeth Paquette (2020) notes that “such a contradiction is experienced because their lived reality is imposed upon by dominant positions that exclude them. At the same time, however, because of the experiences of the liminal position, marginalized persons are well situated to see the contradictions inherent to the normative view” (p. 142). The inference derived from the above is that liminality offers the understanding of the dominant narrative or logic and it also exposes the existence of a contradiction between the dominant narrative and the experience of the marginalised. Liminality is discussed in the third part. By inherently housing the narratives that contradict each other, the novel acts as a site of articulating liminality. This chapter considers the following argument of Alain Badiou, a contemporary French philosopher, as one of its core theoretical interventions. His argument is summarised by Paquette (2020) as follows: “Emancipation does not come through the expansion of the power of the state (....); rather, emancipation is when the logic of the state is interrupted and overturned such that the inexistent can become apparent” (p. 33). Though Paquette’s (2020) argument is in the context of identity politics in Badiou’s philosophy, it briefly summarises Badiou’s notion of emancipation—the dominant logic has to be overcome. However, there is a caveat here: Badiou revised his position concerning overcoming the state in his 51

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later philosophical works. Harrison (2014) notes the following, “....in Badiou’s early theory of revolutionary subjectivity, the state was something that was to be destroyed. In Badiou’s mature work, however, the object of revolutionary subjectivity is to keep the state at a distance, whilst nevertheless forcing it to acknowledge or ‘count’ something radically new” (p. 101). This context is taken into account in the concluding part to situate where Emezi’s novel stands: does it want the state and society to incorporate the non-heterosexual beings who are not “counted” or offer the radical shift outside the establishment? Moreover, Paquette (2020) departs from Badiou’s position after her agreement with his conception of emancipation grounded fundamentally in the notion of overcoming the dominant logic. This departure is in the context of incorporating identity-centric emancipatory politics, which is ruled out as dialectic and a state construct by Badiou. She relies on Sylvia Wynter to resurrect identity-centric politics through the importance laid on liminality. Paquette (2020) converges with Badiou’s fundamental conception of emancipation as an act of overcoming the dominant logic, but diverges from him and moves toward Sylvia Wynter and her notion of liminality in incorporating identity in the emancipatory discourse. This chapter does not deal with the question of identity-centric politics explicitly; instead, with the question of identity, the aspect of being homosexual, and the act of resistance articulated to preserve that particular being which, due to the deviant nature, contradicts the dominant logic straightaway.

Conforming to the Establishment The following section identifies the novel’s narrative that exemplifies the Nigerian state’s logic and that of the Igbo society. Firstly, Daniel Vignal notes the following while commenting about homoeroticism in the African context: For the majority of African writers, homophilia (homosexuality/ non-heteronormative sexuality) is exclusively a deviation introduced by colonialists or their descendants; by outsiders of all kinds: Arab, French, English, metis, and so on. It is difficult for them to conceive that homophilia (homosexuality/ non-homonormative sexuality) might be the act of a black African. (as cited in Dunton, 1989, p. 422) One of the recurrent ideas prevalent in African Literature is that homoeroticism and non-heteronormative sexuality is “Un-African.” Various narratives inform this. One of the significant narratives implying this idea is that of Mwanga, King of Buganda, who, it is suggested, was taught by Muslims to do what Sodom did and is ultimately purified of his desire to “satisfy his shameful passion.” This also implies that the native African is innocent and that non-heteronormative sexuality 52

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is imported to the continent by the outsiders (Hoad, 2007, pp. 1-21). Green-Simms (2016) discloses how homosexuality is portrayed as behaviour that comes from a foreign source through his analysis of the character of Joe Golder—an American gay professor living in Nigeria—in The Interpreters (p. 140). Though the tendency as mentioned earlier cannot be categorised as homophobia or the propensity to perpetuate heteronormativity since African states like Nigeria continue to criminalise non-heterosexual sexual practices, the failure to acknowledge the fact that Black African men could also be not conforming to heteronormativity makes the discourse reflect the homophobic logic of the state and society. In The Death of Vivek Oji, the titular character is interracial; his father, Chika, is a Nigerian of Igbo heritage and his mother, Kavita, is an Indian. His Indian first name, Vivek, reinforces his foreign connection. He is the one who is characterised as effeminate in the novel, and the narrative discloses his homosexual sexual orientation. This resonates with the earlier literary portrayal of the outsider as the sexually stigmatised “Other,” responsible for importing “Un-African” practices into Nigeria. On the other hand, Vivek’s homosexual partner, his cousin Osita, is characterised as someone who is masculine with a sexual interest in women as well. Vivek is the receptive partner in the homosexual union with Osita, who is the active partner— the narrative suggests that it is Vivek who introduces Osita to this sexual practice. This further strengthens the argument that a not wholly African Vivek introduced homosexuality to a wholly African Osita, which reinforces the general African imagination, at least in the form of literature, that homosexuality is alien to Africa and foreigners imported it. Secondly, the notion of the death that surrounds the non-heterosexual character is another idea perpetuated by the state’s logic. The Nigerian legal set-up also seconds this. In northern Nigeria, where Muslims are in the majority, Shariah law is effective (Msibi, 2011, p. 60). It assigns the death sentence to persons who indulge in sexual practices that are categorised as non-heterosexual. Though the novel is set in south-eastern Nigeria, where sodomy laws are not as draconian as in the northern region, Igbo-populated south-eastern Nigeria also criminalises non-heterosexual activities by imprisonment of up to fourteen years (Msibi, 2011, p. 60). In addition, the conclusion of Green-Simms (2016) in her analysis of Nollywood movies with gay characters (“Nollywood” is the video-film industry of Nigeria) is that “they are either killed off, imprisoned, or become born again Christians who return to heterosexuality and denounce their sins” (p. 143). She also notes that these movies portray homosexuality negatively, offering tacit support to the laws criminalising homosexuality (p. 143). The inference in the novel relating death to the nonheterosexual character is enabled by the state and also aids the state in establishing the required homophobic discourse. It is very evident from the novel’s title that the plot concerns the death of the titular character, Vivek Oji, who also happens to be 53

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non-heterosexual in sexual orientation. As mentioned before, he is characterised as effeminate. He asserts his presence throughout the novel as he sports long hair, loves to dress like a girl, prefers to be addressed using the female pronoun, has a female Igbo name in private and is passive during sexual intercourse —all of these continue to accentuate that he is not like any other person and he is not a heterosexual, and he is not normal. Despite homosexuality not inviting a death sentence in Southeastern Nigeria, where the novel is set, there exists a tension throughout the novel that Vivek might end up dying. A premonition of Kavita, Vivek’s mother, testifies to the fear of Vivek ending up dead: Kavita’s stomach dropped. The thought had worried her, too, but it was different— more terrifying—to hear it put into words. Vivek couldn’t end up like those lynched bodies at the junction, blackened by fire and stiffened, large gashes from machetes showing old red flesh underneath. Most of them were thieves, or said to be thieves, but mobs don’t listen, and they’d say anything afterward. (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 8) This is interconnected with the trope of Bury Your Gays. Hulan (2017) notes the following: Bury Your Gays is a literary trope which originated in the late 19th century, gained traction in the early 20th century, and which persists in modern media. The pattern of this trope’s usage states that in a narrative work (novels especially), which features a same-gender romantic couple, one of the lovers must die or otherwise be destroyed by the end of the story. Many instances of this trope draw a direct correlation between the couple confessing their feelings for one another, kissing, having sex for the first time and the character’s death; they often die mere moments or pages after their relationship is confirmed for the audience. The surviving lover will then go through a process of reacclimation…(p. 17) The Death of Vivek Oji’s plot follows the trope of Bury Your Gays. Vivek and Osita are inseparable, express love and have sex. However, Vivek dies, and Osita has to go through reacclimation by engaging in casual sex with random women in Port Harcourt. Hualn (2017) also notes that “(t)his trope was originally used as a way for gay authors to write about gay characters without coming under fire for breaking laws and social mandates against the “endorsement” of homosexuality” (p. 17). This shall also be viewed as an articulation of conformity. Thirdly, the sexual relationship between cousins—Vivek and Osita—is not fully disclosed when Vivek’s friends—Elizabeth, Juju, Somto and Olunne—show Kavita photographs of Vivek in the presence of Osita, which, although suggestive of Vivek’s sexuality, do not reveal the whole truth. Vivek’s friends concealed a particularly 54

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telling photograph. This succours Osita in continuing his love for Vivek and his same-sex attraction in the closet. The taboo associated with their relationship is not only due to its homosexual nature but also due to its incestuous disposition—and it is subtly conveyed in Osita’s narration while describing Elizabeth’s reaction as follows: Elizabeth’s mouth curled into a snarl. “Yes,” she said, her voice saccharine. “He was your cousin.” She was looking me straight in the eye; I could see her disgust. I wondered how much Juju had told her, or if it even mattered at this point. (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 19) The sexual relationship between Osita and Vivek would not be accepted along the lines of homosexuality and incest. This shall be contextualised in terms of how Igbo society views heterosexual union among cousins. Brian Schwimmer (2002) notes the following: Igbo marriage institutions are marked by extensive prohibitions on unions between close relatives and the use of marriage obligations to interlink basic social groups within numerous and widely scattered communities. Men and women are forbidden to marry within their own patrilineage or those of their mother and their father’s mother. This regulation eliminates not only parallel cousin marriage but also rules out cross cousins. As such, basic lineage groups do not become placed into paired or circular exchange systems as they do in many other societies with basic unilineal descent structures similar to the Igbo one. Alliances networks do develop but are more diffuse and temporary and tend to center on the pattern of complementary filiation, in which a child develops special relationships within his mother’s and father’s mother’s patrilineages. The pattern of lineage out-marriage is mirrored by one of village exogamy. People must marry outside of their community of origin, since all of its inhabitants usually belong to a common patrilineal group. Moreover, in those cases where separate lineages occupy the same village or someone is born and raised in a foreign settlement the local exogamy restriction still applies. The highly ramified nature of the Igbo system is difficult to explain. It may be related to the facts that in past centuries the territorial system was highly expansionary and that a related pattern of internecine warfare necessitated a mechanism for reducing hostilities. (Schwimmer, 2002) The fathers of Vivek and Osita are brothers, and it is in this context—to enable the logic of the Igbo society—that Vivek’s friends do not reveal the relationship. The photo concealed by Vivek’s friends would have revealed their doubly forbidden love— for being homosexual and incestuous— and it is narrated by Osita in the novel as follows: 55

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In the picture, Vivek was wearing the dress, a wraparound tied on the left of his waist. The neckline fell into a V, showing the bone of his sternum. His hair was down and falling around his face. Juju had combed and plaited it with gel into a hundred small plaits, then let them dry and released them into many small waves cascading down his body. He was sitting in my lap with his legs crossed, the dress riding high on his thighs, his torso leaning forward as he laughed into the camera. One arm was around my neck and I was looking at his face. My expression made me cringe. It was, for lack of a better word, adoring. Unfettered. As if there was no danger of anyone seeing me gaze at him like that. As if we were alone and I wasn’t afraid and we weren’t cousins and any of this wasn’t terrifying. (…...) Vivek had shaved his chest and legs—he did that often in those last few months—and his toes were painted a red that matched the flowers on his dress. I remembered the first time I saw him in that dress; I was surprised at its long sleeves and shoulder pads. It would have been almost demure if not for the neckline, which he would cover with his hair. But he spun around to show it off, and for once he looked happy and not tired, not like he was dying or suffering. I couldn’t help but be happy for him. (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 23) Fourthly, the novel’s narrative has an underwhelming supernatural disposition from the beginning that runs throughout. This is informed by the continuous reference to a certain part of the narrative that implies that Ahunna, Vivek’s grandmother, died on the day he was born. His leg had a starfish-shaped mark, just as his grandmother had, and it was described in the third person as “the beginning and end of everything” (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 2). This is supplemented by common incertitude that Ahunna might have reincarnated as Vivek, which occurs throughout the novel. This implies the possible subtext of locating the sexuality of Vivek— his passion for dressing like girls and long hair—as a natural by-product due to the reincarnation of Ahunna. Thus, the possibility of possessing a natural homosexual inclination is ruled out, which reiterates and sustains the societal construction of homosexuality as unnatural and foreign. Since homosexuality is linked to reincarnation or possession by a spirit, a new avenue of overcoming it through religion is opened up. Mary, the wife of Chika’s brother, manages to take Vivek to the local church, where the priest beats him to free him of the evil spirit so that he would cut his hair and become normal (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 8). This also testifies to the above argument that the existence of a supernatural subtext enshrouds the non-heteronormative narrative which conforms to the standards set by the state and society. From the aforementioned pieces of evidence, it is apparent that the novel enables the logic of the state and society. However, certain facets in the novel that do not comply with, or subvert the dominant logic are identified in the next section.

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Overcoming the Dominant Logic Firstly, it is significant to scrutinise the characterisation of Osita, who is Vivek’s cousin and lover. Vivek refers to him as “bhai.” It means brother in Hindi. Osita has multiple shades in this narrative. He likes to exhibit his masculinity and consented to Vivek’s request to allow Vivek to watch his sexual intercourse with Elizabeth, which is narrated in Osita’s voice as follows: I gave in. I actually knew some friends who did things like this (allowing their friends to see their sexual intercourse). They’d rent a hotel room and some of them would sit and drink on the room’s balcony in the dark, watching as the girl got fucked inside, laughing quietly behind the glass of the sliding door, hidden by sheer curtains and the lack of light. We were men together and we liked to show off, so I agreed. (Emezi, 2020. Ch. 3) Despite the earlier iteration that the characterisation of Vivek exemplifies the logic of the state and the society due to its problematic invoking of identifying homosexuality as a practice imported from outside, the characterisation of Osita— a black Igbo male, unlike interracial Vivek— as a passionate character who reciprocates same-sex love problematises the notion of conformity with the logic of the state and society the novel’s narrative expressed as shown in the previous section. The narrative also includes sexual intercourse between Vivek and Osita. Also, despite having the trope of Bury Your Gays, the end of the novel showcases that the living character among the same-sex lovers, Osita in this case, does not fully undergo reacclimation. He, instead, reasserts his love for Vivek. Though Osita does not seek to come out of the closet and remains a heterosexual person to the world outside of his friends, which embodies the aspects of heteronormativity, the third person narrative in the opening part of the novel accentuates that Osita would no longer be able to love any man after Vivek: The whole time in Port Harcourt, Osita had fucked only women—it had been like that since Vivek died. It felt safer, as if he wasn’t giving any important parts of himself away: not his soul or heart, just his body, which didn’t matter anyway. The stranger’s assault felt especially violent because of that, and Osita was glad he’d beaten him up. (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 5) Osita’s pain of losing Vivek, his cousin and lover, and the act of articulating heteronormativity through sexual intercourse with women in Port Harcourt is manifested by his extreme act of attacking a Lebanese man after the latter tried to assault him. He loved Vivek. He tries to cope with losing his love by physically 57

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attacking random men and having sexual intercourse with random women. This might seem like reacclimation, but, as mentioned earlier, he reasserts his love for Vivek while standing at his grave. He wants to carry forward the memories of Vivek with him. He decides not to bury the photo having him and Vivek together and Vivek’s necklace so that he could dwell forever in Vivek’s memories (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 23). These indicate that Osita’s characterisation overcomes the pitfalls of heteronormative “Love Laws”—he did not use Vivek for sexual pleasure but was also emotionally attached. They broke down what Arundhati Roy (1997) calls “Love Laws. That lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much” (p. 328). With reacclimation not achieved, the novel is not fully conforming to the heteronormative logic. Secondly, the relationship shared between Juju and Vivek is also significant in this context. Juju is in a relationship with Elizabeth, but she also acknowledges her attraction to Vivek. She does not label it as anything but kisses him once when they are alone. She conceals the episode of the kiss from her lover, Elizabeth, to some extent, but she eventually discloses it. Ever since that episode, ambiguity punctuates the relationship between Juju and Vivek until his death. When Juju reveals this to Elizabeth, the latter’s reply is this: “you missed penis so much that you had to make a move on Vivek, of all people? He’s not even a man, for God’s sake” (Emezi, 2020, Ch.18). As Juju confronts Elizabeth, the latter acknowledges her mistake. However, it is significant to note here that identifying Vivek as less than a man— a point that is articulated in his voice in the novel— in the context of the physical intimacy of the kiss shared between him and Juju makes sexuality and gender more ambiguous and nonconforming to the logic of the state and the society. Moreover, the same-sex relationship between Elizabeth and Juju undermines the dominant logic as well. Thirdly, the circumstances leading to the death of Vivek are very significant. Unlike the premonition articulated in the novel through various voices, Vivek is not killed by the mob but is dead in an accident. It is narrated in the novel as follows: She pulled herself away with such force that she stumbled, and her heel caught on a stone, and she fell. It happened so fast. I saw her head strike the raised cement edge of the gutter at the side of the road. I saw her body slump, eyes closed, blood pooling into the sand within seconds. (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 23) As mentioned earlier, the notion of homophobia is exemplified by the logic of the state and the society resulting in the tales that characterise and normalise the death of non-heterosexual persons. Though Vivek dies in this narrative, three factors have to be considered in this context to assert that there lies a notion of dominant logic’s subversion that contradicts the premise that death consistently exemplifies dominant logic’s homophobic stance. The first factor concerns the nature of Vivek’s death— he was not killed by a homophobic mob but in an accident, as quoted above. 58

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This testifies to the fact that the narrative in the novel does not seek to enable the homophobic logic of the state and the society per se. The second factor concerns another non-heterosexual person, Osita, who survives eventually. His survival transgresses the logic that such people should die. Similarly, though exclusively related to this context, the third factor concerns the same-sex relationship between Juju and Elizabeth. Their relationship does not end but continues to progress, similar to the complicated married life of a heterosexual couple— Ebenezer and Chisom. Through this parallel, Emezi subtly presents the optimistic future of the homosexual union in Nigeria. Fourthly, the ambiguity in the relationship between Osita and Vivek is reiterated when the former narrates in his voice towards the end of the novel as follows: I’m so sorry,” I told the grave. “It was an accident. I would never have hurt you, not in a thousand years. I swear to God. You were my brother and I loved you. I only wanted to protect you. (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 23) This is significant as the dominant logic always categorises everything and classifies certain acts or particularities as accepted and certain as not allowed. Osita’s labelling that Vivek is his brother and lover makes the categorisation problematic. This was one of the recurring phenomena throughout the novel. Finally, the acceptance of Vivek’s female name and the inclusion of the same in his gravestone by Chika, Vivek’s father, an Igbo man who sent his son to a military academy up north so that he would become masculine, testifies to the ultimate subversion of the dominant logic of the Nigerian state and the Igbo society. Departing from the narrative-centric arguments towards genre analysis, it is also evident that there is resistance to dominant literary narrative genre-wise. Green-Simms (2016) quotes the opinion of Harry Garuba that periodisation and categorisation of Nigerian Literature as “a messy business” (p. 142). She also juxtaposes this view with that of Hamish Dalley who identified the works of the contemporary Nigerian novelists as “spatio-temporal imageries” and contrasted these with “nationalgenerational framework”, which is used by the critics to categorise literary works (p. 142). By synthesising the above ideas, she locates the contemporary Nigerian novels— written by third-generation writers born after independence who began to incorporate previously taboo themes— as emergent; it is as follows: The concept of the emergent, as theorized by Raymond Williams, helps to avoid some of the pitfalls of periodization because for Williams it is a relational concept rather than a strictly temporal or “epochal” one. In other words, the emergent might express new structures of feeling, but it is not necessarily that which comes after or next. Rather, the emergent refers to social or cultural forms that exist in relation 59

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to the dominant or hegemonic, forms that are excluded from the dominant and that resist incorporation into it. And, as Williams writes, what modes of domination “exclude may often be seen as the personal or the private... since what the dominant has effectively seized is indeed the ruling definition of the social”. Emergence can therefore be seen as a process that pushes against modes of domination that often “exclude the full range of human practice.” (Green-Simms, 2016, p. 142) Synthesising the aforementioned conception of “emergent novels” with the narrative that subverts the logic of the state, it is evident that the novel not only resists the dominant narrative in a fictional narrative, but also genre-wise.

Liminality There are several instances in the novel where characters articulate their liminal conditions. Liminality is defined as follows: It is the experience [of] a structural contradiction between [one’s] lived experience and the grammar of representation which generate the mode of reality by prescribing the parameters of collective behaviors that dynamically bring that “reality” into being. The liminal frame of reference therefore, unlike the normative, can provide . . . the outer view from which perspective the grammars of regularities of boundary and structure- maintaining discourses are perceivable. (As cited in Paquette, 2020, p. 142) Osita articulates liminality in his voice by reminiscing the incidents that unfolded before the death of Vivek as follows: Everything would have stayed okay if he hadn’t left the bubble. If he hadn’t felt the need to start going outside and putting himself at risk. How were we supposed to protect him if he wouldn’t stay inside? (Emezi, 2020, Ch. 23) This was in line with the premonition of Vivek’mother as stated earlier. Consequently, this also implies the possibility of existing outside the logic of the state and the society which suggests the rejection of the dominant logic. Even the photographs that were finally shared with Kavita to reveal Vivek’s identity suggest that Vivek lived in a world of his own that rejected the dominant logic. This world consisted of his friends, Somto and Olunne, and two same-sex couples— Vivek and Osita, and Juju and Elizabeth. Also, there exists sexual tension between Vivek and Juju, as mentioned before, and Osita and Elizabeth, who are estranged lovers. This complicated web of relationships certainly obscures the dominant logic and exists 60

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outside the same. They are aware of their deviant and non-normative position in the world. They construct their own world, which does not align with the logic of the “normative” outside world. Their liminal existence is structured similar to that of a heterotopia. Heterotopia is a Foucauldian concept that signifies the space that defies the normative social order: Heterotopia are spaces in which an alternative social ordering is performed. These are spaces in which a new way of ordering emerges that stands in contrast to the taken-for-granted mundane idea of social order that exists within society. (Hetherington, 1997, p. 40) The construction of a heterotopic world as an alternative to the existing world order signifies that these subjects recognise that their being is contrary to that of the dominant logic and that their being is nothing but inexistent, which demands an alternative setup that subverts the dominant logic. Their marginalised nature makes the contradiction their existence faces at the hands of the dominant logic. This recognition and the alternate world they construct opens up new avenues for challenging the dominant logic. Moreover, as explained in the previous section, the novel is amalgamated with narratives that enable both conformity and resistance to the dominant logic. It sets in motion a dialectical narrative discourse which further mirrors the notion of liminality. By bringing together two narratives that are at loggerheads with one another, Emezi is able to articulate the subject position of the marginalised characters in relation to the dominant logic and situates them as sites of resistance.

CONCLUSION At the surface level, The Death of Vivek Oji appears to be a novel that strictly conforms to the logic established by the establishment. Nevertheless, it camouflages an entire discourse that is at odds with the dominant logic in its narrative. This enables the marginalised characters to become political subjects and articulate political resistance, undermining the prevalent dominant narrative. This suggests that despite having the semblance of being the cultural product of the hegemonic base, the novel also houses narratives that do not fit or conform with the dominant logic. Moreover, the marginalised characters become inexistent if they do not recognise their contradictory position to that of the dominant logic. Alain Badiou (2012) defines the inexistent as follows:

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In a world structured by exploitation and oppression masses of people have, strictly speaking, no existence. They count for nothing………Let us call these people, who are present in the world but absent from its meaning and decisions about its future, the inexistent of the world (p. 55,56). By recognising their actual position in relation to the dominant logic as theorised through liminality, these characters defy their inexistent being and become present. This problematises and subverts the dominant logic, and they also become active sites of resistance against the dominant logic. Finally, coming back to the question of whether this novel sides with the earlier philosophical stand of Alain Badiou that revolutionary subjectivity, as articulated by the non-heterosexual characters in this novel, needs to overcome or destroy the state (and the society), or should force these establishment structures to acknowledge and “count” them, it is clear from the narrative style and plot that there exists a dialectical engagement which calls for the synthesis of the contradictory elements; liminality supplements it. This suggests that the subjectivity of the non-heterosexual characters in this novel is premised fundamentally on defying or subverting the dominant logic. However, the presence of the narrative contradicting this demonstrates that subjectivity is rather premised as an opposition to the establishment and is in constant dialogue with it so that synthesis would organically count the radically new subjects.

REFERENCES Badiou, A. (2012). The Rebirth of History: Times of Riots and Uprisings (G. Elliott, Trans.). Verso. Dunton, C. (1989, Autumn). “Wheyting be Dat?” The Treatment of Homosexuality in African Literature. Research in African Literatures, 20(3), 422. https://www.jstor. org/stable/3819175?seq=6 Emezi, A. (2020). The Death of Vivek Oji: A Novel. Faber & Faber. https://www. amazon.in/Death-Vivek-Oji-Akwaeke-Emezi-ebook/dp/B0812DQFMH/ref=tmm_ kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Green-Simms, L. (2016, Summer). The Emergent Queer: Homosexuality and Nigerian Fiction in the 21st Century. Research in African Literatures, 47(2), 139161. doi:10.2979/reseafrilite.47.2.09 Harrison, O. (2014). Revolutionary Subjectivity in Post-Marxist Thought: Laclau, Negri, Badiou. Ashgate.

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Hetherington, K. (1997). The Badlands of Modernity: Heterotopia and Social Ordering. Routledge. Hoad, N. W. (2007). African Intimacies: Race, Homosexuality, and Globalization. University of Minnesota Press. Hulan, H. (2017). Bury Your Gays: History, Usage, and Context. McNair Scholars Journal, 21(1). https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1579& context=mcnair Msibi, T. (2011). The Lies We Have Been Told: On (Homo) Sexuality in Africa. Africa Today, 58(1), 55. doi:10.2979/africatoday.58.1.55 Paquette, E. (2020). Universal Emancipation: Race Beyond Badiou. University of Minnesota Press. doi:10.5749/j.ctv17db414 Roy, A. (1997). The God of Small Things. IndiaInk. Schwimmer, B. (2002, May). Igbo marriage. University of Manitoba. Retrieved May 3, 2022, from https://umanitoba.ca/faculties/arts/anthropology/tutor/case_studies/ igbo/igbo_marriage.html

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Chapter 7

Portrayal of Helen of Troy in the Select Poems of Sappho and Wislawa Szymborska: Shattering the Stereotypes Rushati Dasgupta https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9908-8350 Jain University (Deemed), India

ABSTRACT The Greek society was highly patriarchal; it was a masculine world where war was glorified. Helen of Troy is one of the most imperative characters in both ancient and modern literature. For centuries she has been portrayed as the woman whose beauty sparked the Trojan War. But there are writers whose characterization of Helen and description of her beauty differ from the stereotypical mainstream narrative. This chapter investigates how the mythical character of Helen has been explored by such female writers, through poems of Sappho and Wislawa Szymborska. In Sappho’s “Fragment 16,” the readers observe how she refashions the character of Helen and projects her as a “hero” because she had followed her heart. She only mentions her beauty and does not describe her in an elevated way. But Szymborska is more effective in describing the consequences of her unsurpassed beauty that becomes her weapon. In the poem “A Moment in Troy,” Szymborska criticizes the internalization of patriarchal values. She manipulates patriarchy by using a patriarchal narrative to empower women.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch007 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Portrayal of Helen of Troy

INTRODUCTION Feminist critics and thinkers bring to light that gender disparity exists not only in the society but also in terms of literature since time immemorial. In the same way, feminist activists have also unearthed and brought forward literary texts from the past that have seeds of feminism, break gender stereotypes, and empower women. The Greek civilization is believed to be the earliest European civilization. The Greek society was highly patriarchal; it was a masculine world where war was glorified. The mythical character of Helen has inspired poets and artists for centuries as the woman whose beauty sparked the Trojan War, but there are writers whose characterization of Helen and description of her beauty differ from the stereotypical mainstream narrative. Sappho and Wislawa Szymborska are two such female writers who had used the mythic character of Helen in their works to comment on the contemporary.

LITERATURE REVIEW Helen of Troy is one of the most imperative characters in both ancient and modern literature. In the earliest mythological accounts, Helen’s ancestry is stated as the daughter of Zeus and the goddess Nemesis. However, according to the most common origin story in Greek mythology, Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda; her putative father was Tyndareus − the King of Sparta. According to the myth, Zeus disguised himself as a swan and raped Leda. The Spartan queen then produced two eggs. From one egg Helen and her brother Pollux came out, while from the other emerged Clytemnestra and Castor. Helen was regarded as the most beautiful woman in the world, thus many men sought her in marriage. Menelaus was chosen to be Helen’s husband and her twin sister Clytemnestra married Menelaus’ brother King Agamemnon of Mycenae, who was one of the most powerful Greek rulers. Though Menelaus was valiant and prosperous, Helen’s love for him would prove tenuous. Paris, a prince of Troy, travelled to Sparta on the advice of goddess Aphrodite. She had promised him the most beautiful woman in the world after he proclaimed her the fairest goddess over Hera and Athena. When Paris saw Helen, he at once knew that Aphrodite had kept her promise. When Menelaus was away in Crete, Paris went back to Troy with Helen. Some stories say Helen went willingly, seduced by Paris’ charms. Others claim that she was abducted by Paris, who had defied the ancient laws of hospitality. When Menelaus discovers that Helen is gone, he and his brother Agamemnon along with the suitors of Helen who had sworn to support him if necessary set sail for Troy to wage a war against the Trojans. Their arrival at Troy marked the beginning of the Trojan War, thus Helen becomes “the face that

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launched a thousand ships/ And burnt the topless towers of Ilium” (Marlowe, 12.8182, Act V Scene 1, The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus; ancientadmin, 2021) Homer is attributed to be the author of the two earliest surviving epic poems of Greek literature, namely the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad, supposedly composed in the Eighth Century BC begins in the last year of the Trojan War and records a few weeks of the ninth year of the war. Interestingly, Helen, who has been portrayed by Homer as the pivotal figure in the outbreak of the war, appears only in three episodes of the poem. In her first appearance, she is seen knitting a tapestry illustrating the scenes of war. As she weaves, the Trojan elders talk about her unmatched beauty. She is depicted as the embodiment of the feminine ideal in the Greek society, as a dutiful woman who weaves at home, and at the same time, she is immensely beautiful. Homer portrays Helen as someone who is ashamed and guilty of the fate that has been forced upon Troy due to her actions. Throughout the poem, Helen articulates a sense of remorse for having left her husband, Menelaus. Her compunction is so deep that she goes to the extent of calling herself a whore. Her character evokes pity from the audience due to this remorse that is depicted by Homer (Homer et.al, 1998). Years after the Trojan War and the fall of Troy, Homer introduces Helen again in the Odyssey.The triumphant Greeks had returned to their homes and Menelaus brought Helen back to Sparta. In the Odyssey, Helen’s beauty is compared to that of goddess Artemis, for her beauty is “striking as Artemis with her golden shafts” (Homer & Fagles, 1996, p.135). She is depicted as a passive and dutiful wife, an efficient hostess nurturing every need of her guests. Nonetheless, the readers encounter the deceitful side of Helen when Menelaus gives an account of her role in the Trojan horse episode. The narration suggests that it was Helen who hoaxed the Trojans into bringing the wooden horse into the city. That act was the turning point of the Trojan War and it led to the victory of the Greeks. Therefore, it can beinferred that Homer portrayed Helen through the male gaze. She exhibits all the nuances of an ideal Greek woman, as viewed through the eyes of patriarchy. She is submissive and beautiful, but at the same time cunning and dubious. Euripides was a Greek playwright who has also portrayed Helen in three of his plays. In Euripides’ plays, the audience encounters two extremes in terms of Helen’saccountability. On one hand, she is the deceitful adulteress, as illustrated in his plays The Trojan Women and Orestes, while on the other she is the indignant onlooker who is an ideal wife, as depicted in his play Helen (Hayward, 2020). In both The Trojan Women and Orestes, Helen is blamed for the outbreak of the Trojan War and is brutally criticized for it. The condemnation is particularly harsh in The Trojan Women, wherein the consequence of the war Helen is fated to death by her husband Menelaus. Queen Hecuba of Troy is portrayed as her worst critic. When Helen pleads for mercy, it was Hecuba who convinced Menelaus to stand firm in 66

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his decision. Hecuba advocated that Helen had left Sparta willingly with Paris, despite being aware of the consequences. She also branded Helen as an adulterous wife and manipulative opportunist who was neither loyal to Troy nor to Greece (Euripides & Clay, 2005). In the play Helen, Euripides takes a very diverse approach. The plot of this play is written along the lines of a version of the myth which was originally created by the Sixth Century BC poet Stesichorus. This narrative locates Helen in Egypt during the Trojan War. Meanwhile, in Troy, a phantom Helen is acting antagonistically in her position, by the instructions of goddess Hera. In this eccentric tale, Euripides absolves Helen of any culpability regarding the Trojan War. Instead, she is portrayed as a submissive figure whose character is subject to and tainted by the will of the gods. Thus Helen becomes a victim of fate in this play (Euripides & Allan, 2008). Both Homer and Euripides are judgemental in their portrayal of Helen. They conform to the patriarchal perspective of the Greek society in the characterization of Helen. One can notice a strong influence of a masculine worldview in their depiction. Reba Alaina Wissner, in her article “The Face That Launched A Hundred Arias: Helen of Troy And the Reversal of a Reputation in Seventeenth-Century Venetian Opera”, delineates how Helen has been portrayed in the 17th Century Venetian Opera. Wissner points out that in the 17th Century Venetian Opera, the representation of Helen is in contrast to the archetypal Helen. She is by and large depicted as a victim of the circumstances. The two major chronicles narrated in opera libretti are − her abduction by Theseus and to Attica when she was young and her sojourn to Troy with Paris as an adult. Unfortunately, the affirmative image of Helen disappeared from European Opera after the 17th Century (Wissner, 2011). Sappho and Szymborska talk about a feminized world, which is uncharacteristic of mainstream Greek narratives and shatters the stereotypical narratives of Helen. While Sappho’s Fragment 16 is an unusual specimen of feminine perspective about the world of love and war in Greece, Szymborska incorporates the allusion to Helen to symbolize the power of confidence and sophistication that the little girls acquired simply by daydreaming. Sappho illustrates Helen’s gift of love and how it overpowers the brutality of war and Szymborska employs Helen’s beauty to expose the unrealistic beauty standards set by the society. Sappho was an archaic Greek poet known for her lyrical poetry and its passionate portrayal of love. She has also been referred to as the tenth muse. Sappho’s works can be seen as an illustration of what happened to women’s writing through the course of history. Although the bulk of her poetry has been lost, her reputation has endured through surviving fragments. It was during the Second Wave of feminism that her writings were resurrected. Sappho at times has been referred to as a lesbian. In fact, the word lesbian has been derived from her place of birth – Lesbos. However, there is no solid substantiation of her sexual preference. It could be because of her 67

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poems which express great fervour for a variety of people – both men and women (which may have been autobiographical) or it could purely be male fantasy. Sappho crafted her poems primarily as a tribute to the private world of women, something from which the readers are generally excluded in Greek literature. In Sappho’s Fragment 16: “Some There Are Who Say That the Fairest Thing Seen”, one of the most striking portraits of the infamous Helen of Troy is observed. Sappho refashions the villainous figure of Helen and portrays her as the lover who followed her heart, and hence became the hero. Sappho becomes a radical figure, as for her a hero is someone who sacrifices everything for the sake of love, in sharp contrast to the conventional notion of the hero. Sappho begins the poem with what is conventionally accepted as literature but contrasts the militaristic images of masculine kleos with her own evaluative judgement: Some there are who say that the fairest thing seen on the black earth is an array of horsemen; some, men marching; some would say ships; but I say she whom one loves best is the loveliest.” (Sappho, Lines 1-5, p.516) One can see how she begins by describing a troupe of horses, men marching and ships, images that are associated with war; but debunks it instantaneously by stating that love conquers war. Sappho expresses her desire to admire Helen’s beauty rather than the horrors of the Trojan War. She completely deglamourises war and states that love triumphs over war. Therefore, here one observes a feminine voice narrating the feminine world which is devoid of the violence of the masculine world that she belittles. Helen dynamically leaves her husband for the sake of love rather than being swayed away by Paris, which justifies her behaviour. In mainstream narrative, Helen is described as complicated and ambiguous, but in Sappho’s poems, she is a simple and passionate person who only pursues her lover and cannot think of anything apart from her love. Unlike other conventional writers like Homer and Euripides, Sappho is never judgemental towards Helen. The character of Helen is employed by Sappho to show the power of love and passion, and to remind the persona of her love, Anaktoria. One can also witness the element of pangs of separation when she talks about Anaktoria, who had gone away from her after she got married. It can be interpreted in association with lesbianism. Elements of courtly love can also be inferred in her love for Anaktoria, but Sappho does not place her on the pedestal. Rather, it becomes a relationship between two equals, unlike the courtly love tradition. Through Sappho, one can perceive how women’s writings were lost due to changes inliterary fashion. Although she enjoyed great popularity in antiquity, the general decline of knowledge in the early Middle Ages and Christian distaste for a 68

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poet who was considered vile resulted in the loss of most of her poetry. Since the late 19th Century, many new fragments of her works have been recovered from Papyrus found in Egypt. Szymborska was a Polish poet, essayist, and translator who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in the year 1996. While she was being awarded, the Academy praised her “poetry that with ironic precision allows the historical and biological context to come to light in fragments of human reality” (poetryfoundation.org). While the Polish history from World War II through Stalinism clearly informs her poetry, Szymborska was more of a personal poet who explored the large truths existing in ordinary, everyday life. In her poems, the context becomes important. “A Moment in Troy” was written in 1962, it was the time when the beauty industry was coming in. Women were judged based on their looks. Szymborska uses the mythic figure of Helen to expose the unrealistic beauty standards for women imposed by the society (Thompson, 2021). Furthermore, it was during the time of the Cold War. In any tyrannical regime, the values and restrictions are imposed on women; therefore it leads to a conservative society. The poem criticizes the internalization of patriarchal values. It manipulates patriarchy by using a patriarchal narrative to empower women. The theme of the poem is that beauty is power and can be used in various ways. Helen is considered the most beautiful woman, her beauty is a weapon. Men waged war because of her beauty. Power is equated with violence and destruction, therefore the poem is also a criticism of this notion of beauty. The title “A Moment in Troy” alludes to two concepts. The first being the Trojan War and the second is the titular “moment”. The Trojan War is “a backdrop of destruction” (Szymborska, Line 36) as mentioned in the poem. Yet, skinny little girls use their imagination to be transported to that world because of its grandeur: “In the grand boudoir of a wink/ they all turn into beautiful Helens” (Szymborska, Lines 12-13, p. 31). They hope to achieve prosperity, admiration and power. They are not escaping only the normalcy, but their powerlessness as well. And Helen of Troy becomes the epitome of beauty whom they aspire to be like. The moment refers to their short-lived escape from the mundane realities. Historically, in a patriarchal world, a woman had to be beautiful in order to achieve power. Her splendour was her effective tool.The little girls have internalized patriarchal values and the conventional notion of beauty. They believe tribute to beauty comes through acts of violence which is highly problematic. One might also wonder why the little girls do not want to match Helen’s strength or persistence, and question why the testaments of her virtues are notadmired as much as the demonstrations of her beauty. Szymborska mentions the mythical character of Helen as a paragon of beauty and portrays beauty as a powerful force that has caused much destruction. Helen is greatly desired. She is also emblematic of the occasional detrimental effects of beauty. Szymborska does not overthrow the conventional notion of beauty, but 69

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rather uses it to manipulate patriarchy. The daydream of the skinny little girls not only helps them to escape the reality, but also empowers them.Through transitions in mood and tone of the poem, as illustrated by the poetic persona, one may observe that the subject of the poem is more multi-dimensional and delves deeper into the poem and its meaning.

CONCLUSION Both Sappho and Szymborska seem to disregard the glorification of war as a theme in their poetry. While Sappho is more radical as she would rather speak of beauty and love rather than the death that awaits the fighting men, Szymborska creates juxtaposition throughout her poem in contrasting the innocence of the “little girls” and the violent disaster of the battle of Troy. These two opposing ideas are that which emphasize the two extremes of the poem. She allows the readers to make their own judgements on the characterization of innocence, whether they can be a product of circumstances or the cause of unnecessary brutality. In Sappho’s poem, Helen is seen as the most beautiful woman but she does not describe her in an elevated way because of her beauty. Sappho elevates Helen as a lover − because of her love for Paris and not her beauty (Senturk, n.d). But Szymborska is more effective in describing the effects of her unsurpassed beauty. She incorporated the allusions to Helen and the Trojan War in the daydreams of the “little girls”. Therefore one can deduce how the mythical character of Helen has been portrayed differently by various writers over the years. They use her story not only to wrestle with the legendary past but with questions of Greek identity, female subjectivity, human agency, and power of discourse.

REFERENCES Ancientadmin. (2021, Feb. 3). Helen–Iliad Instigator or Unjust Victim? Ancient Literature. Retrieved 3 Mar. 2021 from, https://www.ancient-literature.com/heleniliad/ Euripides & Allan, W. (2008). Helen. New York: Cambridge University Press. Euripides, & Clay, D. (2005). The Trojan Women. Focus Classical Library. Hayward, L. (2020, May 12). Helen of Troy: Wronged Queen of Sparta or Shameful Whore of Troy? The Collector. Retrieved 3 Mar. 2021 from, https://www.thecollector. com/helen-of-troy/ 70

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Helen of Troy. (n.d.). Myth Encyclopedia. http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/GoHi/Helen-of-Troy.html Homer, & Fagles, R. (1996). The Odyssey. New York: Viking. Homer, Fagles, R., & Knox, B. (1998). The Iliad. Penguin Books. Marlowe, C. (1995). The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. Dover Publication. Sappho of Lesbos. (1992). Some There Are Who Say That the Fairest Thing Seen. In The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Volume I (6th ed., pp. 514-517). W.W. Norton and Co. Senturk, R. (n.d.). Different Reflections of Helen by Homer and Sappho. Kadir Has Universitesi, Khas Web Team. http://sites.khas.edu.tr/bukalemun/ chl_number9-4-2.html#:~:text=In%20The%20Odyssey%20Helen%20is,as%20 Artemis%E2%80%9D(135).&text=In%20Sappho’s%20poem%2C%20Helen%20 is,metaphor%20as%20in% 20The %20Odyssey Szymborska, W. (1998). A Moment in Troy. In Poems New and Collected,1957-1997. Harcourt, Brace & Company. Thompson, M. (2021). The Joy of Listening: Three Voices in Poetry of Wislawa Szymborska. CMC Senior Theses. 2732. Retrieved 03 Apr. 2022 from, https:// scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2732 Wislawa Szymborska. (n.d.). Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation. org/poets/wisaawa-szymborska Wissner, R. A. (2011). The Face That Launched A Hundred Arias: Helen of Troy And the Reversal of a Reputation in Seventeenth-Century Venetian Opera. The Opera Journal, 8(1). Retrieved 03 Apr. 2022, from https://www.academia. edu/246284/_Helen_of_Troy_s_Reputation_in_Seventeenth_Century_Venetian_ Opera_?email_work_card=view-paper

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Chapter 8

Touching to Transgress and Transgressing to Touch: The Dalit Female Sexuality in Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry Sneha Roy Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

ABSTRACT Dalit feminist poet and author Meena Kandasamy’s poetry collections Touch (2006) and Ms. Militancy (2010) are daring explorations of how the flesh can inscribe its desires in all of its impulsive and unhindered spontaneity in the text – tender and violent at the same time, with the text treading across wired fences of gendered and segregated spaces only to return back to the flesh. This chapter acknowledges Sangari and Vaid’s sociological insight into how women’s sexuality has served as a pivotal gateway for the maintenance of caste-based and sex-based inequalities and attempts to critically explore the pathway Kandasamy cuts to overturn the Dalit female body’s very trajectory of “utility” in a society obsessed with purity and patriarchal hegemony. Locating Kandasamy in the socio-political matrix to read her poetry, an inter-disciplinary approach is adopted in scrutinizing the need to study the language she uses in her poetry, taking into purview its apparently “sexually provocative” content and its maneuverings around the notion of “touch” in the text.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch008 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Touching to Transgress and Transgressing to Touch

INTRODUCTION Meena Kandasamy in a recent interview with John Rufo (2015) had gone on to express her belief how languages are biased structures which often contribute in embedding already- inherent inequalities deeper into the societal stratum– What with her poetry being a means of her vocal resistance against caste and gender-based oppression, one need not thus go further to understand therefore as to why the very language of her poetry thus, in both her anthologies Touch and Ms. Militancy is a drift apart from the mainstream ; replete with images of the corporeal, in all its undressed and unpolished physicality. One might further go on to posit that, it is through this language of flesh and blood without its garb of artificiality, societal regulations and restrictions that Kandasamy (2006) seeks to assemble the marginalized, not to offer them mere lip-service metaphorically but by letting them inscribe themselves with the ‘ink’ of bodily traces on the untouched and inaccessible pages of literary text- Thus evoking, if not completely, but partially, a sense of their suffering in all its physical and literal sense. Locating Kandasamy in the socio-political matrix to read her poetry, one needs to reflect on how being a Dalit female writer, she is thrice removed from mainstream society and her voice when pinned to this location, creates the need to study the language she uses in her poetry by taking into purview its apparent ‘linguistically sexual’ content and its maneuverings around the notion of touch in the text. And it is this very volatility of desire and sexuality which Kandasamy makes advantage of to detonate the very gate-kept rigid boundaries of casteism and sexism controlling the Dalit woman’s body, thus destabilizing the orthodox foundations of sexuality to help strengthen further the stronghold of a Brahminical patriarchy in order. What this paper then attempts at is to navigate how the linguistically sexual language employed by Kandasamy establishes the convergence of the social and the sexual trajectories of this desire to be touched by the Dalit women. There is further reflection on how the realization of this socio-sexual politics makes Kandasamy use the Dalit female body in all its corporeality as the site of her socio-sexual subversion/ transgression as a ‘radical’ means to emancipation; with the founding idea being how the extreme corporeal vulnerability of the Dalit female has the radical potential of being a building block for developing an effectively subversive discourse or pathway for emancipatory body politics. In using a language which is consciously and deliberately fleshly, Kandasamy attempts at a overturning of the Dalit-female body’s very trajectory of ‘utility’ in society. From their bodies being exploited by majoritarian forces as a site of oppression, there is a reclaiming of the same body as a means to active resistance. It is in this context that that one can place Gopal Guru’s (1995) argument in the essay ‘ Dalit Women Talk Differently’ where he goes on to justify the difference in language and tone often used by Dalit women which arises as a voice not just 73

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against the systemic violence perpetrated against them by the upper-caste members of society owing to Brahminical patriarchy but also as a reminder against the inherent sexism practiced by the male activist leaders of their own caste. Thus, Kandasamy talking in a language which makes one overtly conscious of the body and all of its uninhibited desires and demands, is an intent at destabilizing certain core principles which consolidate the functioning of the caste-system by controlling the bodies of women. Her naming of her first anthology as ‘Touch’ thus, can also be read through this very perspective where the sense/sensuality of the body, as can only be felt throughout the whole of her body through her skin and hence through touch is also accurately where the very polemics of casteism and sexism are ‘inseminated’; which is why it is only justified that she begins from the very beginning. However, what will impress upon a reader on careful observation is how Kandasamy does much more to impress upon us the significance of the ‘touch’ by going a step beyond the usual – There is a conscious structuring involved in deciding upon the contents of the anthology and the same can be realized through the powerfully playful ‘nested looping’ effect she creates in sequencing and creating sub-sections for the poems. Kandasamy uses the word ‘touch’ thrice for labelling throughout her anthologyOnce as a title to the entire anthology, second as one of the sub-sections, within which again lies the poem titled ‘Touch’, thus making it a third time. On this realization there is often the obvious creation of a strong imagery in one’s mind – Images which are very near to that of concentric circles (circles having the same center) often used for symbolizing infinities within greater infinities or talking digitally, it almost feels like coding on the web to create loops within loops, popularly known as nested loops. Interpreting it otherwise, this evocation of the word thrice almost sounds like a heady mumbling of passion or desire or if one were to tread down the lines of Hindu spirituality, it almost creates a satirical somber effect of sacred utterances chanted by the priests during sacred Hindu rituals (and other such ‘ pure’ festivities and rituals from which the Dalits are completely left excluded) performed by the upper-caste Hindus, where the chants conclude with the invocation of the concluding verses thrice, like ‘Om-Shantih Shantih Shantih’ . This three-timed utterance in Kandasamy’s anthology does almost seems. like a Dalit women’s subversive path to liberation-social, sexual and spiritual, where her version of ‘Shanti’ that is, peace is almost synonymous to touch and being touched; and hence the evocation – ‘Touch, (within) Touch, (within) Touch’. What one can take away from such imagery is Kandasamy’s structurally-artistic agreement to the assertion of many scholars of the caste system that- Touch is where the caste system begins and ends. Simplistically speaking, it is what counts as the empirical unit of practicing and strengthening the stronghold of the caste-system. We have Aniket Jaware’s (2018) agreeing to this assertion, who in his book Practicing Caste- Touching and Not Touching remarks on how touch is constitutive of one’s feeling of ‘self-presence’ – 74

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Touching others and touching oneself, being touched by others, all these seem to be forms. of Self-Presence as strong our own speaking voice. Untouchability then, in both its forms, seems to be a denial of bodily presence. It is not surprising at all therefore, that metonymies of bodily presence are submitted to similar regulations. (Jaware, 2018) Metonymically thus, touch is representative of the feeling human skin and the skin in turn, thus covering the whole of the body represents the body. All of these observations only making Kandasamy’s naming of her anthology an extremely potent beginning act of subversive expression. To touch and be touched (let’s put in the word ‘consensually’), thus, is a sensation which throbs with a socio-sexual anticipation/implication- one of validating tranquility for the Dalit woman whose very segregation in society has pushed her to a state where she is beyond all reach and hence touch, in all its physical possibility. In order to continue further speculation along these lines, one needs to first broach Kandasamy’s treatment and expression of sexuality in her poetry before moving on to analyze in detail how it furthers the social significance of the same. What strikes one is the employment of an apparently’ provocative ‘jargon’ which is scathing in its direct encounter with all that she deems. predatorial and prejudiced in her experience for the Dalit woman. The ‘provocation ‘is in the unabashed utterance of the sexual – the body, its ravenous hunger and desire, its many complications where the physical and the social entangle, unfiltered and unhindered in their assertion. Interestingly, her second poetry anthology ‘Ms. Militancy’ comes with a preface/ forward from the author herself, titled ‘Should you Take Offense’ which shows her conscious involvement in using such language and her deliberate intent at provoking the unperturbed privileged in societyI choose my words coarse as the conned Kannagi’s colorful curses, chaste as her breast that burnt down a capital city. This tongue allows me to resist rape, to rescue my dreams. My language is not man-made; it is beyond the while-hot rules of your seminal texts. My language is dark and dangerous in its eagerness to slaughter your myths. My lines are feverish with the heat of the bodies you banish in your Manusmriti and Kamasutra. (Kandasamy, 2010, pp. 8) Kandasamy thus intends at the usage of such language whose potential lies in its very refusal to be bridled and harnessed only to be put into existing linguistic matrices which, if even if not actively or consciously, end up consolidating the regime of barricaded textual or literary spaces which preach banishing the marginalized to the boundaries. The linguistically sexual language charged with all that pleasures and pains the physical is somewhat radical in its intent at rebelling against the oppressive forces at place – Not simply for its outright departure from mainstream 75

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women’s writing but for the very reclaiming the body as a personal space for rebellion as a counter-move to the suppression. The usage of such a linguistically charged language and the very purposes steering it forward are stated by Teresa Hubel (2019) in her work titled ‘Tracking obscenities: Dalit women, devadasis, and the linguistically sexual’– The obscene language in these narratives is part and parcel of the aggressive activism that both these texts implicitly and explicitly advocate; it embodies that aggressive activism by drawing attention to the female Dalit body itself on which acts of caste and gender oppression are imposed. It signifies a refusal to be humiliated even by the language that is meant to humiliate and demean them. The use of such openly offensive language also allows for the redefinition of the poetic and the beautiful. Kandasamy’s work thus is bolstered by this same intent. This explosive capability of the body in all its physical and sexual connotations finds a remarkable example here: On the edge Ms. Militancy bade for more blood. Vending vengeance, she made a bomb out of her left breast and blew up the blasted city long after the land had turned to ashes. The rest of her plucked breast bled. (Kandasamy, 2010, pp 36) Here there is a complete inversion taking place- From women’s bodies being battlefields (a trope made cliché since prehistoric times), women here polarize their own bodies into active agency to create battlefields with their bodies Here, the war is not fought upon them but for themselves, by themselves with their own involved bodies. The ‘making of a bomb out of a breast’ is a metaphor projecting how the female body when unleashed to its fullest strength has the ability to detonate the larger, artificial working of things and it is out of this fear of this fierce potential which makes the patriarchal society keep it under leash, chained and tied only to be used in ‘domestic’ ways. There arises the creation of an apparent dichotomy here – Breast versus the city or body versus society. It is to ‘blow up the blasted city’ or society and its many shackling, rigid and dehumanizing for Ms. of prejudice and discrimination that Kandasamy here take the most natural and potent form of recourse to rebel against it- The body and its fluid sexuality which in desire and rage catches fire. Kandasamy in another poem says ‘Men are afraid of women who make poetry and dangerous portents’ (Kandasamy, 2010, pp 37); one can thus see from where poetry comes from. Kandasamy here writing ‘linguistically sexual’ poems. is making poetry with dangerous portents and it is from this realization that she wants her readers to draw power from to rebel, including herself.

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How the power of the touch locates the physicality of the body to the societal stratum is located is best felt through the poem titled ‘Touch, where Kandasamy’s discovery of the body’s sensuality as a means to resist societal prejudice to use it as a pathway to emancipation is felt best: …amidst all that pervading emptiness, touch retained its sensuality. You will have known this. But you will never have known that touch – the taboo to your transcendence, when crystallized in caste, was a paraphernalia of undeserving hate. (Kandasamy, 2006, pp. 35) The above poem illustrates the clear pathway Kandasamy uses, projecting before us a clear picture of how and where the socio-sexual implications of the touch gain relevance for the Dalit female. Enough has been said and done by social scientists and Dalit activists on solely, the social significance of the touch for the untouchable but what gains traction the most when it comes to the Dalit woman specially, is the claim to a space, a personal territory which renders them with a sense of self-visibility. Aniket Jaware (2018) remarking on how ‘Space manifests itself phenomenally as touch’ in his book Practicing Caste- On Touching and Not Touching is based on the idea of a sense of territory, which comes only when something is within ones’ reach, close enough to be touched and felt through contact. Thus, when reterritorialized or ghettoized women seek to touch and be touched, it comes laden with the desire to finally be visible and leave their personal trace on all that they wish to, it is an act of ‘instrumental touch’ claiming space, voice and visibility. And it is this very rebellious fervor which marks the poem ‘We Will Rebuild Words’. These following lines are what sing this motive out the loudest: We will singe the many skins you wear to the world: the skins you change at work, the skins called castes and skins called race, the skins you mend once a week, the skin you bought at a sale, the skin you thought was yours, the filthy rich stinking skin you thought you could retain at bed. We will learn how to fight with the substantial spontaneity with which we first learnt how to love. (Kandasamy, Touch 68) Herein we find yet another reason how touch evolves as a means to militarize; after all, for it is through the caresses and fondles, the stroking and the kisses – that we express our spontaneous expressions of love ; hence touch developing as a means of rebelling is only as handy, ubiquitous and omnipotent a weapon for resistance as can ever be. It is acknowledging the assertion of women’s sexuality as the pivotal gateway to the maintenance of caste-based and sex-based inequalities (Sangari and Vaid, 1989) that Kandasamy weaponizes the female body to militate gate-keeping instead 77

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of letting it be a submissive gate-keeper of atrocities. There is a militant detonation of such gateways which forge, filter, and fortify caste-based segregation through exploiting and suppressing women’s sexuality as can best be illustrated through the ‘breast bombing up a city’ metaphor employed in the poem ‘Ms. Militancy’; thus, tearing up an aperture which leaks and flows like blood from the remains of the breast blind to boundaries and gates which keep women and their sexualities choked in locked closets. Touch thus transcending in ways more than the immediate and the physical- If and when realized and used fully, Kandasamy shows how Dalit women can render their battered bodies bearing the brunt of bigotry into bombs blasting barriers and boycotting bloody boundaries.

REFERENCES Cixous, H. (2009). The laugh of the Medusa. FeminisMs. Redux, 416-431. Guru, G. (1995). Dalit women talk differently. Economic and Political Weekly, 2548–2550. Hubel, T. (2019). Tracking obscenities: Dalit women, devadasis, and the linguistically sexual. Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 54(1), 52–69. doi:10.1177/0021989417717578 Jaware, A. (2018). Touch and its Elements and Kinds. In Practising Caste: On Touching and Not Touching (pp. 11–36). Fordham University Press. doi:10.2307/j. ctv75d9m7.5 Kandasamy, M. (2006). Touch. Peacock Books. Kandasamy, M. (2010). Ms. Militancy. Navayana Publishing. Rufo, J. (2015, August 5). “Digging out weapons in the arsenal of Language”: An interview with Meena Kandasamy. The Ploughshares Blog. Retrieved from https:// blog.pshares.org/digging-out-weapons-in-the-arsenal-of-language-an-interviewwith-meena-kandasamy/ Sangari, K., & Vaid, S. (1989). Recasting women: An introduction. Recasting women: Essays in colonial history, 1-26.

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Chapter 9

Foucauldian-Feminist Reading of Mo Yan’s Select Novels Aaradhana https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4236-5345 Lovely Professional University, India

ABSTRACT With his imaginative and humanistic fiction, Mo Yan has shed light on numerous social and political issues prevalent in Chinese society during the 20th century. Alongside his political narratives, he has remarkably represented women’s roles and treatment, where gender hierarchy is evident. Moreover, to satirise the patriarchal society, Mo Yan has boldly designed his female characters to overshadow their male counterparts. The present study explores the systemic subjugation of women depicted in the novels and how some female characters actively resisted them. The issue of sexual violence during the war period in China will also be examined as the selected novels portray the cultural and historical experience during the series of civil and national wars. To comprehend and examine these issues, the theoretical framework of Michael Foucault will be applied. His discourse on power relations will be used as a medium to explore the problems mentioned above.

INTRODUCTION Mo Yan is the first person from mainland China to become the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. His short stories and novel are categorised as the work of hallucinatory realism, which are an amalgamation of the past, present, and folk tales of China. Mo Yan is often compared to Charles Dickens for his narrative maintains a balance between rapid advancement of the plot and drawing back to DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch009 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Foucauldian-Feminist Reading of Mo Yan’s Select Novels

enlighten the readers with his perspective (Duran and Huang 2014). Having grown up during the most turbulent period of the twentieth century, the novels of Mo Yan subtly fondle sensitive incidents in Communist China such as the fall of the Dynastic period, Second Sino-Japanese War, Cultural Revolution etc. Moreover, the name Mo Yan is the pen name of Guan Moye, which in Chinese means ‘to say nothing’ or ‘do not speak’. Looking carefully at the period in which Mo Yan started writing, the strict censorship exercised in the country made the citizens understand the gravity of what should be spoken and what should not. These circumstances brought criticism towards Mo Yan’s writing for his alliances with the state, but it also allowed his works to discreetly represent the Chinese people’s unique cultural and historical experience from the inside. Therefore, making him the first author in China with the most banned books widely pirated among its readers. With a significant readership in the home country, Mo Yan debuted in the western market in 1987, when his novel Red Sorghum was adapted into a film with the same title. The movie won the Golden Bear Award at Berlin Film Festival, consequently introducing Mo Yan to the world. Red Sorghum is a dynamic narrative that unfolds the life and struggle of three generations in Shandong province during the 1930s. The main plot of the novel centres around the brutality and violence during the second Sino-Japanese War, narrated by a young man at the end of the cultural revolution. The young man retells the account of his grandfather, the most ferocious and notorious bandit in Shandong; his Grandma’s love story that starts after she was raped on the third day of her arranged marriage; and the survival journey of his father, Douguan. Eventually, with his polemic description in his political backdrop with a fictional narrative, Mo Yan became an essential voice. Unlike G.G. Marquez’s enchanting plots, his dreamlike narrative wittingly intertwines the fantasy into the framework of his plot that insinuates the Chinese history, stories, and folklore that he grew up experiencing and listening to (Duran and Huang, 2014, p.96). Such narratives of Mo Yan dangerously skirt the censorship border as he boldly gives a comprehensive and graphic description of the socio-political situation in twentieth-century China. Another family saga novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips published in 1996, with a rural backdrop, scrutinises Chinese society through the ups and downs faced by the Shangguan family. Following the life of Shangguan Lu and her eight daughters and a son, Mo Yan has highlighted the Chinese social structure wherein gender roles was his target. In this microcosm, Mo Yan has represented the association of male and female through his characters and has also subverted gender roles. He brings out the barbaric instinct of his male characters in the warfare, and its reversal is represented through his main character of Jintong, the only son of Shangguan Lu. While another novel, Life and Death are Wearing Me Out, brings out the brutality experienced by the peasants during the second half of the twentieth century. Through this fictional narrative, Mo Yan has provided its readers with a polemic commentary 80

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on brutal revolutions and reformations during the reign of Chairman Mao and, later, Deng Xiaoping. Other heterogeneous elements in Mo Yan’s novels include- the treatment of females in patriarchal China, which is their understood subjugation. To speak up on such social evils, Mo Yan has focused his attention on foot binding custom in some selected novels. The novel Sandalwood Death, which highlights the political corruption during the final year of the Qing Dynasty, is set during the Boxer rebellion, an anti-imperial fight against western influence. With this extensive canvas, the novel also discusses the systemic subjugation of the females through Sun Meiniang, who also fights these social evils and shows active resistance. Since the study on the novels of Mo Yan from Foucault’s perspective has not been extensively done before. Using Foucault’s theoretical perspective, the present paper intends to examine women’s representation in the four selected novels and analyse the use of violence, specifically sexual violence, which Mo Yan has represented through incidents of rape and genital mutilation. Therefore, the paper is divided into three sections distinguished by roman numerical I, II, and III. First section elaborates on Foucault’s genealogical approach, highlighting the relationship between power and knowledge established through discourse. Second section discusses the issue of systemic subjugation as illustrated in the novel of Mo Yan will be emphasised. While the third section of the paper discusses the issue of sexual violence and examine it in the selected novels. Michel Foucault is a French historian-philosopher who became the most influential postmodern thinker with his broad spectrum of historical and political inquiries. His investigations concern the formation of discourses and their role in employing and sustaining power relationships with the interplay of power and knowledge, along with the concept of subject and the importance of resistance in power relations. With his research in psychiatry, medicine, human science and institutional practices, Foucault has argued about the working of both micro-power and macro-power. As a result, the anthropologist and the feminist, post-colonialist, and critics from other areas of study seek Foucault’s guidance to understand how power stabilises itself and exercises in different socio-political setups, be it in patriarchal society or the colonies. Similarly, from the Foucauldian perspective, the subjugation of women can be understood through the production and reproduction of power relations in the patriarchal society. In his genealogical approach, Foucault has examined the established institutions such as the penal system and psychiatry to uncover the working of power regimes and knowledge in society. Similarly, in his first volume of History of Sexuality, he analysed how sexuality was made into a discourse to control it. Foucault argues that the regime of power creates certain realities in the social system with the production

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and circulation of meaning and knowledge through various disciplines. That, in turn, sets the foundation for social relation, wherein the discourse …constitute the ‘nature’ of the body, unconscious and conscious mind, and emotional life of the subject which they seek to govern. Neither the body nor thoughts and feelings have meaning outside their discursive articulation, but the way in which discourse constitutes the minds and bodies of individuals is always part of a wider network of power relation, often with institutional bases. (Weedon, 1987, p.108) Foucault denotes this discursive production as epistemes as a social apriori, a kind of meaning or knowledge that proceeds any possible original discovery and any possible truth to the world. This episteme segregates meanings and knowledge across various disciplines as valid or invalid. The valid knowledge becomes the acceptable truth in society, while the power regimes subjugate the invalid knowledge. Therefore, making episteme a “strategic apparatus” of power is discursive, i.e. linguistic rules and protocols and non-discursive, i.e. architectural proposals and economies (Foucault, 1980, p.196-197). This further results in the creation and regulation of established social relations. In simple words, power uses episteme to condition the human mind into believing or knowing something. Power, according to Foucault, is similar to the knowledge in a way that both of them depend on social setup for their existence. Foucault’s primary works, such as Birth of Clinic or Madness and Civilisation, are categorised as archaeological because they study the history of the established system through which the mechanism of power is examined. While his works from the 1970s, such as History of Sexuality and Discipline and Punish, followed a genealogical approach, through which he examined the ontology of these systems, i.e. penal system and sexuality. Foucault questioned the established truth discourses on sexuality and the penal system to underline the technologies of power relations in work. He argued that “truth is a concept that the genealogist rejects as a ‘truth,’ an essence; the genealogist looks at the formation of truths and of the systems of meaning which they presuppose” (Phelan, 1990, p.424). He further argues that this truth is hidden and ingrained in our minds, making it impossible for us to refute it. Therefore, power relations use truth discourses to determine and authorise its operation. Moreover, his discursive shift from archaeology to genealogical approach targets how specific knowledge or discourses are subjugated by the grand narratives that legitimatises the power relation. As Foucault claimed that in order to understand contemporary society, we need to not only look at the established institutions, discourses, or truth which the archaeologists do, but also look underneath these institutions to “desubjugate historical knowledges which were considered minor in form. Against the coercion of unitary, formal, and scientific 82

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theoretical discourses” in order to get the whole picture of the socio-political condition (Foucault,2003, p.10). Foucault termed the pre-modern form of power as sovereign power dominated its pre-formed subjects by using violence, where the distorted truth was propagated. That resulted in suppressing the subjects’ desires and constructing false consciousness and ignorance among the subjects (Dreyfus and Rainbow, 1982, p.129). This hostile and repressive power aimed to institutionalise knowledge to legitimise its authority. However, Foucault argues that the modern power is complex and “is tolerable only on the condition that it mask a substantial part of itself. Its success is proportional to its ability to hide its mechanism” (Foucault, 1978, p.86). This modern power is formulated and works through the net-like organisation, where apparatuses like discourse, i.e. working of knowledge, target the cognitive capacity through various social institutions such as prisons, hospitals, schools, law, or family to govern and subjugate the subject. Modern power hides its true form and prevents us from sighting it using such institutions, differentiating it from the earlier juridical power model. Therefore, the main goal of Foucault’s genealogical approach was to highlight the positive and productive aspects of these modern power relations. Since power relations, apart from oppressing and subjugating the subjects as believed to be the only characteristic associated with it, are also responsible for producing various discourse and institutions that “construct our selves and self-understanding” (Phelan, 1990, p.424). According to Foucault, the modern apolitical and ahistorical practices of meaning that he calls the ‘regimes of truth’ are creative, universal, and absolute epistemological structures that show that they are independent of the power-knowledge relationship. This argument of Foucault brings us to question the institutions, law, and order of our society and urge us to understand it by separating it from the perception built by the power relations. That is why Foucault (1980) argues that “we need to cut off the King’s head” (p.121). In Discipline and Punish, Foucault’s case study on the discourse of the punishment system provides us with the understanding of how power relations at work in the carceral institutions go way beyond all other social relations. He argues that the shift from the punishment to the discipline of the delinquents (subjects) in the modern period became the foundation of other institutions such as schools, hospitals etc. Rejecting all the previous domination-repression model of power and juridical power model, Foucault provides a framework of power relation that does not regard it as centralised or a possession, but as capillary and relational as it only exists in the space between free subjects that are related to each other. Thus, power can be defined as a relationship established to affect the actions of others indirectly, instead of forcing its intention upon the bodies, power relations guide “the possibility of conduct and putting in order the possible outcome” on independent subjects (Dreyfus and Rainbow, 1982, p.221). This modern power 83

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Foucault mentions in his 1970s work as disciplinary power. Wherein the discourse about sex is used for regulating and controlling people. The discourse on sex in the eighteenth century acted as a medium to showcase the shift from sovereign power that was hierarchal and restrictive to disciplinary power that controlled and normalised subjects. Considering that revelation, Foucault (1978) turned towards bio-power, where the apparatus of sexuality is used for the “administration of bodies and the calculated management of life” (p.140). With this apparatus, the subjects are not forced or killed if they resist, but instead, they are turned into worthwhile, docile bodies. In bio-power, the population is treated as one productive mass under the regulation of power relations. Thus, the discourse of sex becomes centralised with this transition to “disciplines of the body” and the “regulation of population” (Dreyfus and Rainbow, 1982, p.145). The discourse of sexuality in China was built through the age-old pastoral institutions of Confucian teachings. The earliest form of disciplinary power evident is the selected novels of Mo Yan. This capillary patriarchal power relation was established by implementing subjectivities through customs and regulations on women’s bodies to govern their habits, conduct, and action. One example of such forces is the conditioning of women to “three obediences” where they were to yield under three male figures in the family (Mo, 2013, p.116). First was her father, second her husband, and her son in old age, making her dependent and bound to these male figures. This misery of women Mo Yan has represented in his novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips, where Young Lu Xuan’er was trained and disciplined by her aunt to marry into a good family and get a rich husband. With the change in the socio-political condition in republic China, Xuan’er married Shangguan Shouxi, son of a blacksmith. However, after getting married for three years, she could not give birth to a single child. All the blame was put on her, and she was accused of being barren. When she brought up the fact that her husband might be the problem, she was usually beaten up by him, which gave her scars and bruises, while her mother-in-law never left a chance to curse her. Shangguan Lu’s aunt got her examined by the doctor and found she was fit to be a mother, it indeed was her husband’s fault, and she could not blame him for that. So, her aunt suggested she get impregnated by other men. Therefore, Shangguan slept with other men, and the first man was her uncle that gave her first two daughters. Nevertheless, her mother-in-law was still unhappy as she prayed for a son. It was when Shangguan Lu realised “the cruel reality for a woman, not getting married was not an option, not having children was not acceptable, and having only daughters was nothing to be proud of. The only road to status in a family was to produce sons” (Mo, 2012a, p.59). After that, Shangguan Lu slept with different men, some on her own accord, while there were times when she was forced or gang-raped in different 84

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situations. After giving birth to seven daughters, she gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy who were the seed of Swedish missionary Pastor Malory. While these three obedience teaching made women dependent on men for survival, the “‘four virtues’ of fidelity, physical charm, propriety and fine needlework” limited their behaviour and desires (Mo, 2013, p.116). Through three obediences, the dependence on the males was further actualised through other forces resulting from various discourses and customs imposed upon women. One of them is the thousand-year-old custom of foot-binding in China, a disciplinary apparatus that is part of this net-like organisation of patriarchal power relation, where the body of women is transformed into a docile subject. The foot-binding custom established discourse on beauty and accustomed women with the belief that tiny feet were the new way to appeal to a good life which was ultimately related to getting a good husband. Other characteristics and values were linked to this custom to make it more acceptable by the women. Therefore, wealth was associated with the tiny feats, considering that the tiny feet were treated as good luck that would bring prosperity. Getting their daughter married into wealthy families also affected her parent’s life, and this union acted as a ladder for them to move towards the upper class. Many parents took pride in and advantage of golden lotuses and treated them good luck. As Lu Xuan’er’s uncle boasted his niece’s golden lotuses by hanging a sign in front of his house saying, “Fragrant Lotus Hall”, and he even went around the village announcing that his niece will either marry a top scholar or provincial military governor or a county magistrate (Mo, 2012a, p.49). This relation of wealth and tiny feet encouraged male counterparts to prefer women with golden lotuses to display their wealthy family status. Accordingly, women willingly bound their feet to the tiniest size possible to live with such status. The “most desirable bride possessed a three-inch foot, known as a ‘golden lotus’. It was respectable to have four-inch feet—silver lotus—but feet five inches or longer were dismissed as iron lotuses” (Foreman, 2015). Such disciplining of women from a young age was done by the family’s matriarch as women were obligated to follow the custom and Confucius teaching to be accepted in the society or be marriageable. Consequently, the perfect female in Chinese society was represented through her feet size. The smaller the foot, the purer and tempting the woman was considered. This rendered feet size valuable as “currency” and a commodity that determined the women’s value and the family associated with them. In Red Sorghum, Dai Fenglian was only six years old when her Grandma bound her feet. The process involved tying the feet with a binding cloth first around the smaller fingers of the toe to break their bones. The bounding cloth was tightened every day till a hoof shape was formed of a three-inch size (Mo, 2003, p.42). Mo Yan went into more detail about the process of bounding through his character of 85

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Lu Xuan ’er. She was also five years old when her aunt first “bent the toes back with bamboo strip and wrapped them tightly, wrenching loud squeals of protest from her niece. Then her Grandma wrapped the feet tightly with the alum-treated white cloth, one layer after another. Once that was done, she pounded the toe with her wooden mallet…the pain was like banging her head against the wall” (Mo, 2012a, p.49). This procedure altered not only the body of women but also their minds. It assured them that this pain would later bring them good fortune and wealthy life. Since this repetitive technique with gradation “assured, in the form of continuity and constraint, a growth, an observation, a qualification” (Foucault, 1991, p.161). As a result, the women who go through this process were assured with the feeling of pride. Dai Fenglian coming from a low-income family, was only able to marry into the affluent Shan family because of her tiny golden lotuses spotted by Shan Tingxiu, the patriarch of the Shan family, when she was playing outside. Because of her tiny feet, the sedan bearer Yu Zhan’ao was fascinated by her and later married her. That being said, bound feet became the sole criteria for women to get married as there was a saying that goes like- even if a woman were ugly as a duck, she would still be married if her feet were bounded to the tiniest size possible. Alternatively, no matter how beautiful a woman is, it is impossible for her to marry into a good family if her feet are natural and not bound. In the novel Sandalwood Death, Sun Meiniang had natural feet because she did not have a mother figure in her family to bound them. That made her feet a major defect alongside her beautiful face, preventing her from a peaceful life. She had to face the humiliation that was passed on to her via comments like “the top part is to die for; the bottom part will petrify you” (Mo, 2013, p.17). Her natural feet also forbid her from getting the position of Imperial consort as her beauty was up to that mark. The people of Gaomi county gave her several nicknames such as Big-Footed Fairy, Half-Way Beauty, and Dog-Meat Xishi because she sold delicious dog meat while comparing her beauty with one of the four most beautiful women from the ancient legend of China named Xishi. “It was this damning flaw—big, unbound feet—that caused her to be considered unmarriageable at the age of twenty” (Mo, 2013, p.116). Since no man wanted a wife with big ugly feet, thereby leaving a dumb butcher like Zhao Xiaojia the only option available to her. After marrying a stupid husband, Meiniang’s mother-in-law hated her unbound feet. She wanted to cut Meiniang’s standard feet to the size of bounded feet. However, Xiaojia denied her wish, and she went to cut them off, as a result, Meiniang knocked her so hard that she died after a couple of days. Meiniang rejected all the stereotypes attached to how a woman should act with her standard feet, as she was the head of her family after the death of her mother-in-law. She also opened up her shop, where she sold cooked dog meat. She became an independent woman who fulfilled her desires because when she fell in love with Magistrate Qian, she headstrong went after 86

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him and expressed her love for him. Since Meiniang “had never been schooled in the traditional feminine imperatives of “three obediences” …and the “four virtues” …. She was, not surprisingly an untamed young woman” (Mo, 2013, p.116). The only virtue she had was the physical charm which she used to run her business that was thriving because of this charm. Her resistance to the patriarchal power relation made her an unusual figure in the society, and the people in the village never let her forget that she was unfit for society. One such incident was when Meiniang was humiliated at a celebratory convocation in front of Gaomi county. During the gathering, “First Lady casually adjusted her skirts, revealing a pair of tiny, pointed golden lotuses. A gasp of admiration rose from the crowd behind [Meiniang] …. The woman has exquisite feet and Meiniang felt as ashamed to show her face” (p.122). As Meiniang was the only female in the crowd who had unbound feet, she felt horrified and wanted to cut them to the correct size. Revealing her golden lotuses had been a conscious act, intended to humiliate her, to go on the offensive. Meiniang did not want to look, was unwilling to look at the women’s bound feet, but she could not help her. They had pointed, slightly upturned tips like water chestnuts… The First Lady’s feet were magical weapons that subdued Meiniang, the girl from the Sun family, as she felt a pair of mocking rays pass through pink gauze and land unerringly on her face. No, not her face—they passed through the veil and her skirt to land on her big feet. (Mo, 2013, p.122) She tried so hard to hide her ugly feet with her skirt and fell in front of everyone during this commotion. Magistrate Qian’s wife used her bounded feet to suppress Meiniang’s desire for her husband publicly. Therefore, this simple act affected Meiniang and reminded her of reality. The foot binding ritual of China was a useless custom with only decorative purposes, which made it sure that the females were bounded literally and figuratively. This mutilation process made it impossible for women to walk properly on these hooves, let alone do hard labour or run in them. Thus, binding women inside the domestic realm. When Lu Xuan’er started getting her feet bound, “she’d stopped going outside, spending nearly all her time weaving nets or doing embroidery” as it was not easy to walk on the mutilated feet (Mo, 2012a, p.50). In order to stand on these hooks, Xuan’er had to take support of her aunt. In his novel Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, Mo Yan also represents the hardship women with bounded feet faced doing the republic period. During the Land Reform of the 1950s, all the landlords were put into labour camps to reform their minds. Ximen Bai, the wife of the executed landlord, Ximen Nao, suffered 87

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more than the rest of the people. As it was hard for her to work in her tiny bound feet, that made her “stop and rest every four or five steps” even though she was only “carrying half a basket of dirt” (Mo, 2012b, p.33). All that soft snow made it even difficult for tiny bound feet to maintain their balance during the winter season. Even after years of labour work, she still could not walk properly. When she was assigned to feed the pigs during the cultural revolution, she “came each day with two buckets of feed on a carrying pole, slowly making her way through the snow on tiny, once-bound feet… As she made her way through the farm, she kept from falling by using her long-handled ladle as a crutch” (Mo, 2012b, p.271). It shows how before China became Republic, it was impossible for women to even think outside their domestic realm. Since the foot-binding custom made sure of it, even if such thought occurred, it would entirely be impossible and painful for women to catch up with men. That further developed their reliance on men for knowledge bourgeoning outside their assigned space in society. Moreover, the fact that the women themselves enacted this act of mutilation upon young girls also manipulated their minds. As “the lesson of “never trust a woman” was branded upon her soul, and emotional dependency upon the seemingly less involved males was guaranteed… Thus her mind was purely possessed, and it became axiomatic that the possessor of tiny feet was a paradigm of feminine goodness” (Daly, 1978). Thus, men held no responsibility for this brutality upon females as they accused women of doing it to themselves. The incident when Lu Xuan’er pleaded in front of her aunt not to tie her feet too tight, her aunt replied by saying that “it’s tight because I love you…if I didn’t, I wouldn’t care how loose they were. One day, when you have a perfect pair of golden lotuses, you’ll thank me” (Mo, 2012a, p.49). Her uncle had no say in it, he even asked the aunt to loosen them a bit, but his plea was ignored. Thereby, all the blame was on the shoulders of the aunt, whom Xuan’er hated from the bottom of her heart. According to men, women did it out of obligation and fear, the fear that “girls who don’t bind their feet grow up to be big-footed spinsters that nobody wants” (Mo, 2012a, p.48). However, little did they know that this is how patriarchal power relations actually work. It hides its actual mechanism by fooling its subjects. The real mastermind behind it was not women but men who exerted their power to determine that maimed feet were criteria that provided men with authority to approve of a woman. This apparatus of foot binding provided men with the capacity to accept or reject whether a woman was suitable for marriage, thereby giving them an upper hand in the institution of marriage. This male sadism also concealed itself behind the feeling of compassion associated with golden lotuses. “Throughout… long history, the delicate, pointed tips of women’s feet have been viewed as genital organs, in a way from which men have derived a sort of aesthetic pleasure that sets their sexual juice flowing” (Mo, 88

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2003, p.94). Since men only showed compassion or pity towards this ritual, it never occurred to women that they were the agent behind their mutilation since they only saw women as the ones responsible. The ritual hiding behind beauty and pleasure blamed women, while men became advocates. The torture of women in the name of beauty and pleasure established new normal that persisted for nearly a thousand years. Nevertheless, during the republic period in China, the new master debased this normative and decided to free women from this sado-ritual. The nationalists banned binding the foot, saying that “those so-called fragrant lotuses were once nothing but stinky feet” that had a “poisonous legacy of a feudal system” which were no more than a “morbid aspect of life” (Mo, 2012a, p.50). The women with golden lotuses that once lined the prospects from affluent families were now treated as “fallen phoenix” (Mo, 2012a, p.53). The aunt of Lu Xuan’er, who dreamed of marrying her niece with an emperor, had to now settle with a blacksmith’s son because the bounded foot in the republic era had lost their importance. “The insensitivity of the new masters to the suffering of these women manifested that this was hardly a gynocentric revolution… evidently males were able to change their aesthetic standards for female beauty when their politics required this” (Daly, 1978). Therefore, the discourse was reversed, and tiny feet became the new way women were disdained and humiliated. After thousand years of conditioning, what was normal for women was not suddenly treated as unnatural. It also shows how power relations are present everywhere and constantly changing with time. Since the primary goal of any power relation is to attain its stability, it keeps on changing its strategy, which is evident from the explanation. The traditional discourse on sexuality from before the twentieth century, instead of implicating “a massive censorship, beginning with the verbal proprieties imposed by the Age of Reason,” regulated it and led to “polymorphous incitement to discourse” (Foucault, 1978, 34). Since sexuality for Foucault is centralised in power relations, with its interplay in the hierarchal setup, sexuality becomes “dangerous because of its likely integration into hegemonic system of knowledge” (Chiacchieri, 2019, p.23). Consequently, in the modern period, new technologies of sex were introduced via various institutions such as medicine, pedagogy, and economics. These institutions for Foucault targeted four approaches. First is the “hysterization of women’s bodies”, in which women’s identity was decided through sexuality, and this sexuality was alleged to be essential for raising children and taking care of domestic life. Second, “pedagogization of children’s sex”, where Foucault discussed masturbation by children; third “, socialisation of procreative behavior”, where reproduction became a technology for the state to govern the population. Fourth is “psychiatrisation of perverse pleasure”, in which doctors considered aberrant sexual practices to understand the cause of such deviations.

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Foucault argues that sexuality is used as an instrument by which people establish power relations over others in the modern period. For him, sexuality “appears rather as an especially dense transfer point for relations of power… Sexuality is not the most intractable element in power relation, but rather one of those endowed with the greatest instrumentality: useful for the greatest number of maneuvers” (Foucault, 1978, p.103-105). Moreover, the issue of sexual violence is one of the aspects of such instrumentality. The power relation associated with sexual violence is that of domination power relation. In his later works, Foucault introduced the theory of domination, wherein he argues that there are cases when the network of power relationships cannot diffuse spontaneously within the social body, and such structure of power is categorised as domination. In a state of domination, “the relation of power are fixed in such a way that they are perpetually asymmetrical, and the margin of liberty is extremely limited” (Raul et al., 1984, p.123). Mo Yan has represented brutal incidents of sexual violence occurring throughout the twentieth century in his novels, providing the reader with a sneak peek of how women were treated in China, specifically during wartime. During the Second SinoJapanese War, when the Japanese massacred the villages and invaded Chinese land, they were also known for brutally ravaging women. One such incident Mo Yan has described in his first novel Red Sorghum, through the character of Second Grandma named Passion. When the Japs came to her village, Passion was three months pregnant and was with her little girl. She was aware of the fact that “Japanese soldiers were like beast who wouldn’t even spare seventy-year-old women” (Mo, 2003, p.333). The sudden attack by the Japanese gave her no time to escape, so instead, she stuffed her top with clothes to look like a pregnant woman thinking the soldiers would spare her. She also rubbed ash on her daughter’s face and hers too, to look ugly, as she wanted to try anything possible to protect her daughter. Nevertheless, when six soldiers broke into her house, one “soldier’s thick lips parted as he reached out with a coarse, fleshy finger and touched her [Passion’s] face, making her skin crawl”. He felt her body with his hands, and when he found that Passion was faking her baby bump, he “drove his fist down into it, hard. Then, pinning her legs with his knees, he reached down and undid his belt” (Mo, 2003, p.337). Passion bit off his nose while trying to resist. Then one soldier grabbed her daughter by her hair and flung her against the window. To save her daughter, Passion undid her clothes and offered herself to the soldiers. The five soldiers gang rapped her one after another, thereby flaunting their “abilities without a trace of shame or embarrassment, making a grand display. [Passion] felt dead below the neck” (Mo, 2003, p.342). One young soldier out of six beasts showed some shame while trying to get it done. He could not do it and was made fun of by the other five Japanese soldiers. 90

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To prove himself, the young soldier instead stabbed Passion’s little daughter with his bayonet and gave her dead body a swing and then tossed her away. The brutality by the Japanese during the twentieth-century war is a well-known fact, as they hated their neighbour Asian countries. The incidents of sexual violence were used as a strategy to break the soul of their enemy. During the war, women were not the only ones to be subjected to sexual violence. As Mo Yan also mentioned, the case of genital mutilation of men by both Chinese and Japanese to abuse their masculine identity. When the Japanese were invading China in 1938, “four hundred thousand mandays were spent by the local workers from Gaomi, Pingdu, and Jiao counties in the service of the Japanese army to build the Jiao-Ping highway” (Mo, 2003, p.15). Japanese abducted people and animals to enslave them. The highways were built by the forced labour of the Chinese peasants so that the Japs could easily transport resources, their men and weapon across the country. Uncle Arhat, the servant of the narrator’s Grandma, was also abducted from Northeast Gaomi County and forced into labour. One night, when he found a way to escape hell on earth, he was unfortunately caught and was punished by skinning alive in front of all the other captured peasants, including women and children. Arhat’s ears and genitals were sliced and fed to the Japanese officer’s dog. After removing the skin from his whole body, he “turned into a mass of meaty pulp, his innards churned and roiled, attracting swarms of dancing green flies. The women were on their knees, wailing piteously” (Mo, 2003, p.39). Finally, his body was mutilated into bits and pieces and scattered around. However, the power relation shifted again, and the Chinese held the upper hand later in the war. During the ambush of the Japanese convoy on the Jiao-Ping highway, the men of Commander Yu killed the Japanese General Nakaoka Jiko and his men. In order to get rid of the dead bodies of the enemy soldiers, they decided to dump them into the Black Water river, as “if we bury them, they’ll stink up put soil! If we burn them they’ll foul our air!” (Mo, 2003/1992, p.142). Commander Yu told all the women to look away and ordered his men to slice the genitals of the dead soldiers and “stuff the things into the mouth of their owners” and shoved them into the eastward flow of the river (p.143). The incident of sexual violence during conflict can be considered “an attempt to suppress challenges to the social status of the dominant group” (Sivakumaran, 2007, p.268). In this case, it can be understood as a strategy, where the Japanese intended to emasculate the Chinese people reminding them that they failed to protect their women and their own (masculine) identity. Therefore establishing “empowerment and masculinity of the offender but disempowerment of the individual victims” (p.268). It shows the working of domination power relation in the war, that occurs not only from the body of women but also from the body of men.

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Apart from the exploitation from the Japanese, women were also abused by their countrymen. Many resistance groups were formed to fight off the Japs during the resistance movement. As in the novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips, the five Black Donkey Musket Band men lost their senses when they saw Shangguan Lu in the church. They tossed Shangguan Lu’s newly born twins among the donkeys and harassed her. When Pastor Malory, the father of the twins when tried to stop them, they shot him in the leg. After which all the five muskets “soldiers took turns ravaging” her, and when “[s]atisfied, the soldiers tossed” her and her new born twins out into the street (Mo, 2012a, p.105). In conflict, the sexist approach will not justify sexual violence. The brutality of the Japanese soldier can also be understood through the genocidal theory, where specifically Chinese women were targeted. However, as illustrated above, the incidents of Chinese men raping Chinese women can be explained by the sexist approach and other factors. Since power relations work in a net-like organisation, from multiple points, this allowed different reasons to be applicable or be regarded as the perpetrator of sexual violence during war. One of them is “poor discipline within military group”, which means that sexual violence was not part of some strategy used by the Japanese soldiers upon their victims, but another reason was because of the “breakdown of social order and control”, which explain the rape cases by the Chinese men (Gordon, 2018, p.31). Therefore, when we consider micro-level certainties of rape during war, Foucault’s analysis allows multiple local points for domination power relation to exercise. Such a framework also allows the understanding of rape “reportedly motivated by preexisting interpersonal conflict” (p.31). It is evident when the Speechless Sun raped Lingdi, the third daughter of Shangguan Lu, when the first daughter Laidi who was promised to him, ran away with Sha Yueliang. Here the incidence of rape results from the mutual conflict between the families. Therefore, “we cannot case rape or sexual violence in generic terms because of the phenomenological differences between social identities. As rape may occur different harm on different situated subjects” (Chiacchieri, 2019, p.23). Moreover, the traditional approach that only women are the target of sexual violence, that domination power relation works only from men to women can be adjusted according to Foucault. The above incidents where women and men both experienced violence explain Foucault’s capillary motion of power since the one propagating the power relation can also be affected when the relation and situation are changed. The number of rape cases that Mo Yan has presented in his novels stresses that sexual violence against women can be considered “systemic sexualised control of women” (Cahill, 2000, p.45). Therefore, Foucault argues that sexual violence should not be problematised; instead, it should be treated as physical violence. He wants to desexualise the incidents of rape, as he believes that this would be “a liberating 92

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blow against the disciplining discourses which construct sexuality as a means of social and political power” (p.44). Foucault argues that women’s body acts as a ground for this domination power relation. That is, the discourse of sexuality produces women originally as a victim, as their body is repeatedly sexualised and threatened by male sexuality and “produce the feminine body as violable and weak” (Henderson, 2007, p.229). Thereby such social treatment at the hand of dominating male sexuality fashioned the feminine body “as the body of the guilty pre-victim” (Cahill, 2000, p.94). According to Foucault, this sexist mechanism of power upon the body of a female is the central component in the case of rape. As women are not only prone to violence alone, instead that violence is sexualised where the body of women becomes essential to understand such threat. To conclude, speaking up against patriarchal power relations in the west in contemporary society is relatively an easy task. However, it is something different issue in a country like China, where the reality of women still has not changed much. There has been an improvement to some extent, which is evident from the narrative provided by Mo Yan. Speaking up about the inequality and despair experienced by women through his wide-ranging characters is also an act of resistance against the power relation. Moreover, using Foucault’s ideas on power and discourse, the paper further allows the reader to understand Mo Yan’s way of rewriting history or exposing the subjugated reality concerning women. Mo Yan’s fictional narratives provide its readers with experiences of systemic subjugation of women through various micro-level and macro-level power relations. Where the relationship of power and knowledge visualised by discourse produced docile subjects. This discourse shaped the feminine body that became the instrument of the patriarchal society. The discourse on sexuality can also become a dangerous instrument used by men during conflict, such as the Second Sino-Japanese War and Civil Wars as depicted in the novels. That further traumatised and dominated men as well as women. Therefore, Foucault’s multidirectional aspect of power relations allows women to show active resistance. To completely shatter the patriarchal power structure might seem impossible, so instead, women can resist the various technologies working for the patriarchal power relation. For instance, in Sandalwood Death, Meiniang’s natural feet opened her to other ways to show resistance towards systemic subjugation. Such as breaking the shackles by being independent of the male figures for survival, as she never respected her father and even subdued her husband. She was the only businesswoman in her village who discarded the four virtues and followed her own heart that had fallen in love with Magistrate Qian Ding. Therefore, the only way to resist such systemic power relations is to resist the tentacles one by one that spread out of patriarchal power relations. Mo Yan’s characters resisted sexual violence through suicide during the war, where the dominating power 93

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relations is evident. Qian Ding’s wife poisoned herself when the Qing Dynasty fell; on the other side, Shangguan Lu’s mother hanged herself to protect her chastity and hid baby Lu in the flour basket during the first Sino-Japanese war. Foucault argues that to avoid it, there is a need to desexualise the body and not treat the sexual organs as something vulnerable. Furthermore, sexual violence is a complex issue. Foucault’s argument regarding resistance towards it does not fully justify its intensity. However, we can also not ignore his argument.

REFERENCES Cahill, A. J. (2000). Foucault, Rape, and the Construction of the Feminine Body. Hypatia, 15(1), 43–63. doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2000.tb01079.x Chiacchieri, A. M. (2019). Sexual Violation, Feminism, and Foucault: Against a Confessional Politics of Truth [Master’s thesis, CUNY]. https:// academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3206?utm_source=academicworks.cuny. edu%2Fgc_etds%2F3206&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages Daly, M. (1978). Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism. Bacon Press. Dreyfus, H. L., & Paul, R. (1982). Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics. University of Chicago. Duran, A., & Huang, Y. (Eds.). (2014). Mo Yan in Context: Nobel Laureate and Global Storyteller. Purdue University Press. Foreman, A. (2015, Feb). Why Footbinding Persisted in China for a Millennium. Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-footbindingpersisted-china-millennium-180953971/ Foucault, M. (1978). The History of Sexuality: An Introduction (Vol. 1, R. Hurley, Trans.). Pantheon Books. Foucault, M. (1980). Power/ Knowledge: Selected Interviews & Other Writings 1972-1977 (C. Gordon, Ed.). Pantheon Books. Foucault, M. (1991). Discipline and Punish: Birth of Prison (A. Sheridan, Ed.). Penguin Books. Foucault, M. (2003). Society Must be Defended (A. I. Davidson, Ed., MaceyD., Trans.). Picador.

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Gordon, H. (2018). A Foucauldian-Feminist Understanding of Patterns of Sexual Violence in Conflict. The Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence, II(1), 22–40. doi:10.22618/TP.PJCV.20182.1.171002 Henderson, H. (2007). Feminism, Foucault, and Rape: A Theory and Politics of Rape Prevention. Berkeley Journal of Gender. Law & Justice, 22(1), 225–253. doi:10.15779/Z38M90226M Mo, Y. (2003). Red Sorghum (H. Goldblatt, Trans.). Arrow Books. (Original work published 1992) Mo, Y. (2012a). Big Breasts and Wide Hips (H. Goldblatt, Trans.). Arcade Publishing. (Original work published 1996) Mo, Y. (2012b). Life and Death are Wearing Me Out (H. Goldblatt, Trans.). Arcade Publishing. (Original work published 2006) Mo, Y. (2013). Sandalwood Death (H. Goldblatt, Trans.). University of Oklahoma Press. (Original work published 2001) Phelan, S. (1990). Foucault and Feminism. American Journal of Political Science, 34(2), 421–440. doi:10.2307/2111456 Raúl, F. B., Becker, H., Müller, A. G., & Gauthier, J. D. (1987). The Ethic of Care for the Self as a Practice of Freedom: An Interview with Michel Foucault on January 20, 1984. Philosophy and Social Criticism, 12(2–3), 112–131. doi:10.1177/019145378701200202 Sivakumaran, S. (2007). Sexual Violence Against Men in Armed Conflict. European Journal of International Law, 18(2), 253–276. doi:10.1093/ejil/chm013 Weedon, C. (1987). Feminist Practice & Poststructuralist Theory. Blackwell Publisher.

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Chapter 10

There Was No Escape Epiphany: Subversion and Symbolic in Clarice Lispector’s “Love” Malvika Manisha Lobo The English and Foreign Languages University, India

ABSTRACT Clarice Lispector is one of the most prominent figures of literary modernism in Latin America. Her oeuvre explores themes of existentialism, narratives of silence, and various ideas of freedom. Her self-reflexive style of writing and experimentation with the Portuguese language reflects her attempt to invoke alternate meanings through her narrative. The characters’ identities in her short stories through their exploratory nature give rise to a great deal of identity and gender play. They provoke possibilities and prospects to create new gender roles and subversive practices by the manifestations of thoughts and actions in various ways. This chapter examines her use of the epiphany in her short story “Love” from the collection of short stories entitled Family Ties. The focus rests on the symbolic violence that ensues from this deviation through thought (language) and action as a response to subversion under patriarchy. The theoretical approach reads against the grain in the light of Viktor Shlovsky’s “defamiliarization” and Pierre Bourdieu’s notion of habitus and field.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch010 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

There Was No Escape Epiphany

INTRODUCTION Clarice Lispector is one among the major modernist literary figures in South America. Her fiction has actively engaged in the process of reconfigurationand manipulation of the Portuguese language in twentieth century Brazil. This reconfiguration of language is intimately connected to complex relationship between identity and language. She is known for her creative use of language, depicting the implications of language, and articulating multiple meanings. Lispector’s literary practices reflect the inexpressible notion of self and being and the isolation that a human being faces within various societal structures. She depicts subversion of identity by depicting the limits of the language used itself. Her writing embodies the stream of consciousness mode of narrative and explores the boundaries of Portuguese language, thus contributing to the modernist movement of Brazil. The female characters in her short stories are portrayed strongly, and their thoughts are described in immense depth through her language. This paper’s focus rests on the analysis of Lispector’s narratives to explore the link between language and a form of symbolic violence, namely epiphanic violence in her texts. This paper analyses her short story titled ‘Amor’ or ‘Love’ from her collection entitled Family Ties. It defines violence in the context of her text and then addresses how she has used language to convey this violence by analyzing her use of epiphany to express this symbolic violence. The existing scholarship on Lispector’s literature identifies the silence that pervades her stories, existentialism faced by women, and Lispector’s skepticism towards language due to its inability to convey and articulate meaning. Martha Peixoto’s text Passionate Fictions: Gender, Narrative, and Violence in Clarice Lispector’s Fiction presents a critical introduction. Of how one of Lispector’s main innovations is her inscription of the female who is sensitive to the struggles of power. Peixoto claimes that in Lispector’s fiction the female is an active participant in the power struggle (Peixoto, 1994). She disagrees with Helene Cixous’s approach, which involves aspects of American and French feminism. In readings of representative moments in Lispector’s fiction, Peixoto explores the nexus of “gender, violence, and narrative” that looks at Lispector’s “repositioning of the female, which she adopts a gendered approach rather than a feminist one” (Peixoto, 1994, p.39). She shows how in the “perplexing moments” of Lispector’s narratives, in which the “distinctions of autobiography and fiction are a blur, the structures in the narrative are ambiguously gendered which results in the victimization of characters” (Peixoto, 1994, p.82). She also talks about how Lispector uses violence in her characters and stories and the impact that this violence has on the psyche of her characters. Through the use of violence, both physical and symbolic, the reader is made to connect and sympathize with the characters that are in a struggle to conform to rigorous patriarchal structures. This alienation suffered by Lispector’s characters is 97

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exclusively a product of their condition as gendered women who reside in nuclear, patriarchal, and heterosexual families.

BACKGROUND This paper contends that along with using violence just as a way to enable the reader to sympathize with the characters in the text, she uses violence also as a way to alienate the reader from the experience of the character itself, thus compelling the reader to analyze and ponder further. By making the narrative’s meaning and perception appear strange to the reader as in the act of ‘defamiliarizing the reader’ as defined by Viktor Shklovsky in his essay ‘Art as Technique’ (Shklovsky, 2017, p.9), she reorients her reader towards violence by portraying the limitations of language and its inability to articulate the feelings of capitivity experienced by Ana, the protoganist of ‘Love’. Lispector’s experimentation with language shows how the violence in her stories breaks out primarily through epiphanic moments. Moreover, to place this symbolic violence and its implications in a context, Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus and field is used to analyze Ana’s interaction with her surroundings in which she experienced the epiphany. Commonly violence is often attributed to causing harm, whether physical or mental. The American Heritage Dictionary defines the term violence as physical force exerted to cause damage or injury and is an instance of violent action. Alternatively, the word violence is defined as “distortion of meaning or intent (in a text)” (HarperCollins n.d.). The textual violence in ‘Amor’ occurs through her use of free indirect speech and epiphany. This suggests that violence can exist both through its physical manifestation and at the level of language used in the narrative insofar as the narrative is looked at as the amalgamation of the meaning, content as well as intent is susceptible to a detriment. This phenomenon occurs at the level of reading and introspecting of the narrative by the reader. Lispector chooses to present her narratives in such as way that includes only the thoughts of her characters. Both the epiphanies experienced by the characters and the free indirect speech result in the distraction of the meaning-making process and the disorientation of the truth. The intent of the author remains concealed to the reader engaged in the text. She includes only certain scenes, thus enabling access to thoughts of specific characters. The epiphanic moments serve to alienate or defamiliarize the reader. Viktor Shklovsky defines it under “defamiliarization or estrangement” engaging the reader in such a way that the reader is introduced to the “familiar in the new” often in jarring ways (Shklovsky, 2017, p.10). He claims that ordinary thoughts and familiar aspects should be presented to the reader in a new way through words of art. Rather than using familiar language to describe things, the writer ought to provide ample space 98

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to the reader so that they can view the ordinary afresh in a new light. Though the aspects portrayed might be familiar to the reader, the effect of this estrangement should make the reader feel as though he is indeed viewing the aspects of the text for the first time. Shklovsky talks about art as a medium to be engaged with and deliberated on slowly, thereby forcing people to think about what they are reading (Shklovsky, 2017, p.11). Being a modernist writer Lispector used techniques that slowed readers down and presented the world in new ways. Through this, she tried to portray the multifaceted nature of reality and the subjectivity experienced by women. These include interpolating repetitions, silences, the engagement with the thought process of the character and perpetual redirection by the characters along with calculated representations of the pained physical body or gazes. Lispector’s skepticism of language is due to the inability of language to convey meaning. Earl Fitz in his post structuralist analysis of the Lispectorian universe claims that through the “refection of silences and inner cognitions, languages play a role in reshaping the identities of her protagonists” (Fitz, 1998, p.33). The function of language is vital and an enigmatic force in human existence. In fiction, language gradually emerges as the real subject matter of the novel. This is more so evident among her female characters who are constantly negotiating their identity in the patriarchal society. This negotiation leads to the characters experiencing epiphanic moments in which they suddenly have desires to get away from their respective families and move towards freedom and independence. Yet this is only restricted to and reflected through their thoughts, and does not materialize into action. The idea of the epiphany is prevalent in modernist criticism. Sharon Kim in the analysis of the epiphanic moments claims that the epiphany is a moment of realization often invoking spiritual sentiments of a higher order (Kim, 2006, p.152). A similar view of the epiphany is in line with Robert Langbaum’s expression of the epiphany in fiction as “a manifestation in and through the visible world of an invisible life”. A close range study of Lispector’s epiphanic moments seems to resonate with that of Woolf’s epiphanies that Langbaum characterizes as “moments of being”(Langbaum, 1983, p.335). In the initial passages of her story ‘Love’ in the collection, Family Ties Lispector describes the protagonist Anna who is a housewife and says: Deep down, Ana had always needed to feel the firm root of things. And this is what a home bewilderingly had given her. Through winding paths, she had fallen into a woman’s fate, …The man she’d married was a real man, the children she’d had were real children. Her former youth seemed as strange to her as one of life’s illnesses. She had… continuity, joy. What had happened to Ana before she had a home was forever out of reach: a restless exaltation so often mistaken for unbearable happiness.

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In exchange she had created something at last comprehensible, an adult life. That was what she had wanted and chosen (Lispector, 2017, p.44). Ana fails to perceive her life before she became a homemaker and links her happiness to her housewifely duties. Ana is well settled into her domestic life and she mainly focuses on her responsibilities as a wife and a mother. She spends her life doing the same thing every day which includes taking care of the children, cooking food, tending to her husband and making sure the house is spotlessly clean and in order. Her worries are restricted to her family and these worries have distanced her from the outside world. She believes that she has chosen the vocation of being a homemaker and performs accordingly. Here, Ana’s role as a homemaker dictates her identity and her ‘self’. As Maria Clark in her analysis of the story claims “family relationships which in the form of a social tie draw the boundaries of the individual’s existence” (Clark, 1990, p.14) and the dynamics of these relationships are bought to the forefront in Lispector’s stories. Ana’s performance and vocation dominate her life as she fears the times when she has nothing more to do or no one in her family requires her services. The story takes a turn with an epiphany when Ana encounters a blind man chewing gum as she was worrying about her family on the tram. On seeing the blind man, she is forced to think about the world outside her home. Ana is unable to deal with the incomprehensibility of the open space that is different from the predictability of her domestic space. This leads to her disorientation and lack of understanding. She is so restricted in her identity within her familial structure and her home that she is unable to grasp the existence of problems that exist outside her home. The problems of the outside words manifest as a shock and an epiphany. Ana’s solace comes from being needed by her children and her husband. Freedom from this role and breaking away was a terrifying experience. her heart beat violently, at intervals. Leaning forward, she stared intently at the blind man, the way we stare at things that don’t see us. He was chewing gum in the dark. Without suffering, eyes open. (Lispector, 2017, p.45) Ana falls over unexpectedly, breaks her eggs and spills the contents of her bag in the tram. This action which is very careless and unlike her; it mimics the turmoil that the beggar causes to her mind. Life goes on as usual for the other passengers on the tram. Lispector’s use of interior monologues showcases the epiphanic development in Ana’s mind that manifests due to the otherwise mundane encounter with the beggar. Ana is sympathetic towards the blind man, which to Ana is an experience that is out of the ordinary. Through the epiphany, Lispector critiques the domestic sphere that the woman is restricted to and attempts to portray how 100

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it limits a woman’s thought process. Lispector, through the epiphany, claims that even fundamental feelings like sympathy towards others can lead us to question the nature and the foundations of being. She had pacified life so well, taken such care for it not to explode. She had kept it all in serene comprehension, separated each person from the rest, clothes were clearly made to be worn and you could choose the evening movie from the newspaper— everything wrought in such a way that one day followed another. And a blind man chewing gum was shattering it all to pieces. (Lispector, 2017, p. 46) The knowledge of the beggar, who to Ana was not privileged, led her to question her own identity. On witnessing the blind beggar’s ordeal, Ana realizes that she had not ventured outside on her own and thought about the world outside. The home is a space that limits her thoughts. Hence, it ceases to be the place of comfort and definite happiness as she has progressed beyond it through that experience. Ana finds it hard to place her experience with the beggar into her domestic sphere and familial thoughts. Her effort was only further restricted to her husband and her children. The problems of the world have no space in the realm of her household. However, on coming home, it is her husband and her kids who drag her back into reality by stating that they require her assistance. “…in a gesture that wasn’t his (her husband’s), but that seemed natural, he held his wife’s hand, taking her along without looking back, removing her from the danger of living.” The dizziness of benevolence was over. And, if she had passed through love and its hell, she was now combing her hair before the mirror, for an instant with no world at all in her heart. Before going to bed, as if putting out a candle, she blew out the little flame of the day. (Lispector, 2017, p. 47) By virtue of being a mother, a wife and a woman in accompanying patriarchal structures, she is forced to leave the epiphanic experience behind and continue with her day-to-day chores. The blowing out of the metaphorical flame represents her moving on from the incident to go back to her old life in which her family occupies the central role. She is drawn back to familiarity after her epiphanic moment. This moment of Ana’s epiphany is deeply rooted in her thoughts. Ana’s reaction to these thoughts is very physical. Ana negotiates with the domestic “terrain of struggle” and the public field that is alien to her on is unable to cope with the experience. The follow section reflects on how the domestic ‘field’, traditionally seen as belonging to women, limits Ana’s possibilities of a radical reconstitution of her self by stripping her sovereignty, leaving only faith and fatalism behind. 101

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This paper draws on two concepts of Bourdieu’s work namely habitus and field. While his work simultaneously draws criticism for its obscurity and praise for being irreducibly complex, these concepts resonate strongly with the notion of violence as a detriment in Lispector’s epiphanic moments to analyze further implications of the epiphany itself as presented in the story. The notion of habitus can be understood as “the internalised form of class condition and of the conditionings it entails” (Bourdieu, 2012, p. 95), or as “mediating notion that revokes the common sense duality between the individual and the social by capturing the internalisation of the external and the externalization of the internal, that is, the way society becomes deposited in persons in the form of lasting dispositions” (Navarro, 2006, p.16). The concept of field in Bourdieu (2012) can be understood as an arena within which habitus functions. The field is a structure that embodies cultural, social and political capitals, within which individuals contest for space based on their habitus (ibid.). Upon plain reading, Ana is seen being overwhelmed and anxious by the general chaos and commotion of the market, the place where she spends time buying groceries until she decided to board the tram back home. A deeper reading reveals that she isn’t passively engaged in the environment of the marketplace. She is engaged in this new field through the act of looking and observing, especially so in her perception of the beggar. Early in the story, we know that Ana’s life revolves solely around the domestic. The market place is not however innocent of its gendered and class baggage. The marketplace serves as an extension of the domestic itself with its familiarly rooted in the domestic sphere, however, the presence of the beggar to Ana is alien and off putting. Thus, the act of coming into a newer field that is not a part of the domestic that her life revolves around is not free of demanding violent reconstitutions of social and cultural norms that make up Ana’s habitus. Though physically she feels handicapped but her mind is racing with the realization of her restricted self. The plot of the story is devoid of any action as the epiphany takes centre stage all so suddenly while serving as a detriment to the narrative to present a deeper perspective to the reader. Ana’s engagement with this new field of the marketplace on encountering the situation gives it “time and thought” on her own terms. Even after this realization, Ana goes back to her former life. She is very much aware of her restrictions within structures but there is no active rebellion in her action. Ana’s is unable to actively articulate her thoughts. However, though the epiphany she along with the reader is ‘defamiliarized’ with the domestic that was initially familiar to Ana brings now discomfort and estrangement. It serves as a detriment to her day to day chores that she is bound to complete that are patriarchal, to which she offers resistance though thought in a very minimal way. Reading Ana’s account against Bourdieu’s (2012) idea of habitus allows for an interplay between free will and social structures in a way that avoids the overused tropes 102

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of both the helpless woman incapable of participating in society and the oppressive evil society that inhibits its women from their full self-expression. Lispector’s craft lies in conveying the violence of the burden of epiphanic participation in a public space without undermining Ana’s epistemic standpoint. For it is Ana’s gaze that inhabits the field and describes its gendered composition. Ana’s character resists being cast as merely the object of the readers’ sympathy and portrays her as someone who is aware of her condition. Lispector takes great care to emphasize the domesticity of her characters. The opening lines of the story that begin with Ana’s thoughts in the market revolve around her family and her household affairs such as her children, her husband’s brothers coming to dinner and her warm comfortable house. She even compares herself to a farmhand who sowed the seeds that now are her grown up children. This can be read as a conscious ordering of the domestic field as an intimate space that the women’s habiti inhabit. Ana seems to be at home both literally and figuratively in her thoughts almost all the time in the time frame of the story. Another interesting aspect to note is Ana’s perception of her youth. She associates it to be being happy and carefree but states that one has to get accustomed to “living without joy”. The domestic milieu to Ana is a routine, devoid of joy and freedom at the same time this was something she “wanted and had chosen” and in which she ought to find fulfillment by virtue of being a woman. However, even here Lispector problematizes the narrative by asking questions about Ana’s sovereignty over herself and her thoughts. This conflict of sovereignty plays out at multiple levels throughout the story. At one level is her sovereignty over her vocation that the domestic engagement robs her of. Through claiming that she is ‘in love’ with the beggar and experiencing a sudden burst of sympathy, Ana nurtures a great desire to break away from her family and children to move to the more ‘public field’. She looks at herself as though someone whom the beggar needs. She is also aware that she would never belong here as the beggar would prefer a more “poorer love.” The second aspect is Ana’s perception of happiness and youth. She does not look at her youth with nostalgia, though she associates it with happiness. Youth to Ana is a phase of illness and something she has left completely behind. She refused to acknowledge her youthfulness. As the narrative progresses Lispector’s choice for an epiphany that leads to self realization allows for a poignant interplay of Ana’s losing battle for meaningful self understanding. Her sovereignty over her own time is denied through the frequent and jarring interruptions in her thought process that keep her rooted in her family and her children pressing for her attention. These interactions prevent Ana from further thoughts as well. Such interplay heightens the sense of bereavement at the loss of Ana’s sovereignty. This makes for a very literal “externalizing of the internal and internalizing of the external” (Navarro, 2006, p.16) talks about when describing habitus. Once again, this grotesque interplay of epiphanic love towards the strange and her love for 103

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family is as shocking as it is thought provoking. What comes through this play is the impossibility of radical contestation of power within the domestic field. Among the two ‘loves’, we see that the familial love wins and Ana moves back with her family. She also internally pleads with her children to ensure that they do not let her abandon them. The security of Ana’s husband’s good nature, a nice household, and children paradoxically limit the possibilities of self-expression within the home. Lispector’s characters deceptively simple characters and stories resist simple, prescibed classification into established tropes. Hence, Ana can be read as a character in an alien field trying to negotiate her habitus on her own terms, rather than merely an unfortunate reading of a woman who is unable to completely assert herself in the last space that she can claim as her own. Lispector compels the reader to think and challenge both the legitimacy of the emancipatory project and the false dichotomy of domestic female and public male. For Ana being thrust into a new field opens up possibilities of tepid engagements with gendered and classed spaces. The familiarity of the domestic field allows the violent and creative possibilities of fashioning a different habitus that comes due to her position as a woman.

REFERENCES Bourdieu, P. (2012). Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Routledge. Clark, M. (1990). Facing the Other in Clarice Lispector’s Short Story ‘Amor.’ Letras Femeninas, 16(1/2), 13–20. www.jstor.org/stable/23020927 Fitz, E. (1998). The Passion of Logo(Centrism), or, the Deconstructionist Universe of Clarice Lispector. Luso-Brazilian Review, 25(2), 33–44. www.jstor.org/ stable/3513257 Kim, S. (2006). Edith Wharton and Epiphany. Journal of Modern Literature, 29(3), 150–175. www.jstor.org/stable/3831692 Langbaum, R. (1983). The Epiphanic Mode in Wordsworth and Modern Literature. New Literary History, 14(2), 335–358. www.jstor.org/stable/468689 Lispector, C. (2017). Complete Stories. Penguin. Navarro, Z. (2006). In Search of a Cultural Interpretation of Power: The Contribution of Pierre Bourdieu. IDS Bulletin, 37(6), 6, 11–22. doi:10.1111/j.1759-5436.2006. tb00319.x

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Peixoto, M. (1994). Passionate fictions: gender, narrative, and violence in Clarice Lispector. Univerisity of Minnesota Press. Shlovsky, V. (2017). Art as Technique. In J. Rikvin & M. Rya (Eds.), Literary Theory: An Anthology (pp. 8–14). Blackwell Publishing.

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Chapter 11

An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama Sayantani Sengupta St Xavier’s University, India

ABSTRACT The relationship between women and nature is powerful. Through various legends and folktales, women have been projected as the goddesses who would save the forests as well as save the world from overconsumption and greed. The focus of this chapter is one of the popular legends of India, the legend of Bonbibi in Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama. Bonbibi is widely worshipped by the people of the Sundarbans, which has been mentioned by Ghosh in his novel The Hungry Tide. But the primary focus of Jungle Nama is on the three central characters, Dukhey, Dhona, and Dokkhin Rai, and how Bonbibi comes as a saviour of the young boy, Dukhey, and thus becomes the preserver of the natural order. On the other hand, Manasa, the snake goddess can also be portrayed as someone who maintains a balance between life and death, avarice and generosity, as well as good and evil. The chapter intends to critically study Ghosh’s retelling of the Bonbibi legend through an ecofeminist lens and also includes the story of Manasa to substantiate the interconnections between women and nature.

INTRODUCTION Though the term “ecofeminism” is contemporary, the primary motive behind it has always encouraged women to save their surroundings, the nature and the livelihood, as mentioned by Ariel Salleh in the foreword of Ecofeminism (ix). (Mies and Shiva, 2014) One of the earliest successful environmental movements in India is the Bishnoi DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch011 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

An Ecofeminist Reading of Amitav Ghosh’s Jungle Nama

movement of the 1700s. Amrita Devi and the Bishnoi villagers hugged the trees to stop the massacre which was led by the soldiers of the king. Due to this movement, the king ordered to protect the land and the animals from further attacks. A similar movement can be found in the Tehri-Garhwal region in 1973 which is popularly known as the Chipko movement. The role of women in this movement was remarkable and this became a turning point in the history of environmental movements, both locally and globally. Many such movement followed after this and they were dedicated to safeguard the natural resources, which is the primary essence of ecocriticism. Vandana Shiva, in her book Staying Alive (Shiva, 1988), established the fact that women and nature are intertwined, “nature is symbolized as the embodiment of feminine principle” and she is also protected and nurtured by a woman for sustenance and life (p. 37). Shiva further emphasized on the importance of the dynamic energy called Shakti because everything arises from this energy itself and the “manifestation of this power, this energy, is called nature (Prakriti). “Nature, both animate and inanimate, is thus an expression of Shakti, the feminine and creative principle of the cosmos; in conjunction with the masculine principle (Purusha), Prakriti creates the world.” (p. 37). Thus, the presence and interconnectedness of men and women forms the focal point of the Indian ecology because the two are inseparable and important to maintain a balance in the world. Since the humans started to exploit nature in the name of development, their greed intensified, and the economic growth became the most important aspect. Soon, instead of being a part of nature, humans became the center of it and disregarded the nonhumans. It affected the bond between human beings as well, the survival of the fittest became the ultimate truth because individuals could go to any extent to acquire wealth and fame in the society. Through several folktales and legends, humans have given the responsibility to a woman to save nature from repeated exploitation. One of them is the famous legend of Bon Bibi, which is popular among the people of Sundarban. Since it is meant to read aloud and performed, they regularly enact the legend as a stage-play in the villages as said by Amitav Ghosh (2021) in his afterword of Jungle Nama (p. 74). In an article, “Tales From the Forest”, Ghosh mentioned, “the basic message of the Bon Bibi legend is that it is essential to place limits on human greed in order to preserve a balance between the needs of humans and those of other beings. This message does not belong to any one religion: it recurs frequently in the stories of Adivasis and forest peoples around the world” (Ghosh, 2021). This article also highlights a major practice, the practice of acceptance without any discrimination on the basis of caste or religion. People of the Sundarban region read, follow and respect the legend of Bon Bibi irrespective of their religion and caste, hence Ghosh said, “The story provides a kind of ethical charter—almost a law—for how people should relate to the forest, and it has an enormous influence on the lives of the inhabitants.” 107

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RETELLING OF THE BON BIBI LEGEND BY GHOSH In an article, “Tales from the Forest”, Amitav Ghosh (2021) declared that “Jungle Nama is not intended to be a definitive or accurate version of the narrative; it is rather, yet another interpretation of a story that already exists in many forms.” Though Ghosh has retained the essence of a panchali (a genre of Bengali narrative folk songs), by using a variation of the Bengali dwipodi poyar (two-footed line, especially used in Mangal kavyas and panchali) meter, his primary focus is on the story of Dhona, Dukhey, Dokkhin Rai and Bon Bibi, which is only one-third of the entire legend. The writer has glorified the preserver of the Sundarban forest, Bon Bibi, in Jungle Nama to create a balance between the needs of humans and the importance of the other beings. The appearance of Bon Bibi was primarily to create a demarcation between the forest and other species and the space of humans. Dokkhin Rai could rule the southern part of the forest with pride but he cannot come out and there would be no human intervention as well, as per the blessings of the goddess. Hence Ghosh mentioned the crucial point right at the beginning of the poetry, Thus did Bon Bibi create a dispensation, that brought peace to the beings of Sundarban; every creature had a place, every want was met, all needs were balanced, like the lines of a couplet. (p. 6) Dhona or the Rich One had enough wealth to lead a prosperous life but he was not satisfied, he wished to acquire more. Thus, irrespective of his brother, Mona’s warning that the “tigers know the smell of greed” (p. 10), he planned to visit the Sundarban to collect the treasures of nature in his seven grand ships and also included his poor nephew, Dukhey in this journey. Though his mother did not wish to let him go to the land of dangers, Dukhey insisted and so did Dhona because the latter’s intensions were false; he took the young boy just to satisfy his own thirst for wealth and thus committed the second sin. The old widow had difficulties in trusting the rich and the proud Dhona because her experience told her that Dukhey will not be in safe hands in the dangerous tideland. However, being a mother, she had faith on another mother, the Mother of the Forest, “Ma Bon Bibi” (p. 23) who would save his only son from all the dangers and spirits of the mangrove forest. Hence, before Dukhey left with Dhona, she made him aware about the power of the goddess and also the power of the words and rhyme, so much so that a prayer addressed in the dwipodi poyar can reach Bon Bibi if uttered with enough faith in the heart. Bon Bibi is the mother of all life forms, hence, she always protects everyone from the evil, primarily from the evil sights of Dokkhin Rai.

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The unearthly Dokkhin Rai wanted the life of the innocent Dukhey in return for wealth, that would be given to the avaricious Dhona. Though his uncle wanted to save Dukhey from the evil spirit, he was soon entrapped and enchanted by Dokkhin Rai, who wished to taste the young blood. His greed turned Dhona into a merciless man, who did not care about the safety of his poor nephew because money was more important to him. However, the blessings of Bon Bibi saved Dukhey and both the goddess and her brother, Shah Jongoli, taught Dokkhin Rai a lesson. As a result, Dukhey was turned into a wealthy man because Dokkhin Rai wanted to harm an innocent individual which does not fall under the law of nature. Dukhey and his mother were simple and virtuous beings, his old mother never wished to become wealthy because her son was her greatest wealth, their trust and faith in Bon Bibi pushed them closer to her and thus, their lives were the happiest of all. Ghosh concludes the poem with some of the most crucial lines which sums up the impact and importance of Bon Bibi: With Bon Bibi’s blessings, Dukhey was no longer sad; he lived life in contentment, not downcast but glad, grateful forever to his teacher, Bon Bibi; who’d taught him the secret of how to be happy: All you need do, is to be content with what you’ve got; to be always craving more, is a demon’s lot. A world of endless appetite is a world possessed, is what your munshi’s learned, by the way of this quest. (p. 70)

BON BIBI AND MANASA AS THE PRESERVERS OF NATURE Sundarban, which literally means a beautiful forest, is also the place of the ferocious Royal Bengal tigers along with other dangerous animals. Since the people (both Hindus and Muslims) of Sundarban depend on the forest for their livelihood and food, they have to visit the forest frequently, where they are often exposed to the ferocity of the tigers. Hence, they, irrespective of their religions, pray to Bon Bibi, who had come from Medina, before they enter the forest because they believe that only she can save them from dangers. Annu Jalais (2010), in the article titled, “Forest of Tigers: People, Politics and Environment in the Sundarbans” writes that “her worshippers do not think of her in terms of ‘Muslim’ or ‘Hindu’ but as a ‘forest super-power’ who extends her protection over individuals of all communities equally.” (p. 69) An individual must enter the forest empty handed and he or she must have a pure heart so that Bon Bibi blesses them. She does not need an offering to help the ones in distress, one must have the faith that she would protect them because she is the mother of all beings. Anuja Adhikari, a woman who plays the role of Bon Bibi in the Bon Bibi’r palagaan showcased her immense belief in the goddess when she said, “The money I bring home runs the family. The only time I 109

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forget my troubles and feel happy is when I act and sing as Bon Bibi. I have faith that Bon Bibi will look after us.” After the terrible cyclone, Amphan, which had swept through Sundarban in 2020, the people of that place were happy that Ma Bon Bibi had saved their lives, and in a news article, “Why the Sundarbans has unwavering faith in Bon Bibi --- a forest deity with a stage presence” by Dipanita Nath (2020), one of the residents had mentioned, “We do not have a roof but I feel blessed. Bon Bibi saved our lives.” The people of Sundarban encounter with multiple challenges and life risks every day but their main source of strength is the forest goddess who takes care of them and their livelihood along with the other forest animals. Just like every child is equal and important for a mother, each and every species is equal in the eyes of the mother of Nature, Bon Bibi. On the other hand, though Manasa is a marginalised goddess, who is primarily worshipped by the indigenous people, as stated by Azhar Uddin Sahaji (2019) in his article, “The Divine Marginalized: The Case of Goddess Manasa in Ketkadas Khemananda’s Manasa Mangal.”, she is full of beauty, vigour and youth, who is the preserver of nature and the goddess of snakes, as argued in another article, “The Art & Artisans of Tripura: Living Tradition of Goddess ―Manasa.” (Das 2020). With her blessings, people can be saved from the dangerous and poisonous snakes, who are mostly seen during the monsoon season, hence Manasa is widely worshipped in the Bengali month of Ashaara, when rain envelops the areas and people are scared of the snake bites. In the Manasa Mangalkavya, we can find a reference to the unique stories of Manasa but the one with Chand Saudagar, the devotee of Shiva, is the most famous. Being the manas kanya of Lord Shiva, Manasa was never allowed to be a part of the mainstream gods and goddesses. Hence, she had to engage in a serious conflict with Chand Saudagar to showcase her valour and strength and to break his pride and his belief on one God only. Manasa has the power to control the natural calamities which is also portrayed in the mangalkavya when Chand’s ships get destroyed and his sons die in a terrible storm, launched by the goddess. However, at last, Behula’s (Chand’s daughter-in-law) devotion and faith in Manasa gave her the power to convince Chand to worship the snake goddess and as a result Manasa returned the lives of his sons, including Lokhindar (Behula’s husband). This episode marked the victory of a marginalised, indigenous and deformed goddess over the primary Aryan gods and goddesses. Since Manasa is also known as Bishohora (the destroyer of poison), she is the saviour of people from the deadly snake bites. The goddess also cleanses the poison inside our minds and hearts in the form of avarice to gain more than required and hatred towards other individuals as well as species. Manasa is also called Padmavati because in some of her depictions, she is found seated on a lotus holding a serpent in one hand, thus, portraying herself as the mother of all living beings and nature. The legend of Manasa makes us aware of the fact that humans are a part of nature and the time has come to get rid of the 110

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anthropocentric beliefs so that further destruction of nature and climate change can be controlled.

CONCLUSION Both Bon Bibi and Manasa are portrayed as warriors in the respective legends since they fight against all odds to establish their foremost roles in the conservation of nature. In his famous novel, The Hungry Tide, Ghosh dedicated quite a few pages to introduce Bon Bibi and her valour and projected her as a warrior who rules over the forests of Sundarban without the assistance of a king. Coming out of the domestic sphere, which is mostly dedicated to a woman, she dedicated herself to eternally conserve nature and show the right path to the people. On the other hand, Manasa being the indigenous goddess and also deformed because she is blind in one eye and her head is often projected like a fish head or snake head, she is marginalised physically, socially, financially and geographically as stated by Azhar Uddhin Sahaji (2019). In spite of getting rejected by Chand Saudagor and the mainstream gods, she, through her ability and power, could win over them and since then Manasa has been worshipped by all. Though she had the divine qualities, Manasa’s journey towards establishment was never untroubled and undisturbed like most of the women in our society. Hence Bon Bibi and Manasa become the voices and strengths of women who wishes to showcase their identity by overcoming the hurdles of patriarchy and dominance. They are intertwined with nature, which is the source of all beings.

REFERENCES Chowdhury, S. (2018). Women In Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide: Their Struggle Against Norms And Desperate Attempt To Transgress Gender Roles. Quest Journals: Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science, 6(4), 54–58. Ghosh, A. (2021). Jungle Nama. Harper Collins. Ghosh, A. (2021). Tales from the Forest. Daak Bangla. Jalais, A. (2014). Forest of tigers: People, politics and environment in the Sundarbans. Routledge India. doi:10.4324/9780203085516 Nath, D. (2020). Why the Sundarbans Has Unwavering Faith in Bon Bibi — A Forest Deity with a Stage Presence. The Indian Express.

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Panchali. (n.d.). Banglapedia. en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Panchali Sahaji, A. U. (2019). The Divine Marginalized: The Case of Goddess Manasa in Ketkadas Khemananda’s Manasa Mangal. Lapis Lazuli: An International Literary Journal, 9(1), 118–23. pintersociety.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Gen-5-AzharUddin-Sahaji.pdf Shiva, V. (1988). Staying alive: Women, ecology, and survival in India (Vol. 84). Kali for Women. Shiva, V., & Mies, M. (2014). Ecofeminism. Bloomsbury Publishing.

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Chapter 12

The Women in the Fictions of Arundhati Roy: Forming Solidarity With Other Marginalities Jagriti Sengupta Visva-Bharati, India

ABSTRACT Arundhati Roy, the world-renowned novelist and political essayist from India, is a dominant voice against injustice perpetrated against the marginalized in the country. For her, the marginalization of women is part of a process through which social oppression is unleashed upon the weak. Roy got the prestigious Booker prize for her debut novel, The God of Small Things. The fiction brought out the unjust politics of caste and gender discrimination inherent in an orthodox society. However, after her first fiction, Roy shifted gear to non-fictions that she continued to write for almost two decades. Roy got engaged in more serious political debates and became a powerful critic of corporate globalization. In 2017, Roy published her second novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. In it, Roy offered a journalistic review of all the sociopolitical events of the post-Independent India. This chapter examines that the women protagonists in Roy’s fictions extend solidarity to others who are in the margins because, according to Roy, feminism should be a powerful force against oppression in general.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch012 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

The Women in the Fictions of Arundhati Roy

INTRODUCTION More than two decades ago, Arundhati Roy could understand that instead of glorifying the Big and the mega-narratives of Power and Progress we should pay heed to the small tragedies of the people living in the edges. By undermining the mega narratives Roy introduced a counter argument to the majoritarian, orthodox and patriarchal system, which had been in vogue. Roy is a powerful voice against marginalization of the Dalits, Adivasis and other ethnic minorities in India. As a woman writer, she is equally vocal against the politics of gender-based discrimination inherent in society. Gendered marginalization is one of the dominant themes in her writings. Roy thinks it to be the same unjust process through which social oppressions perpetuate. Roy came to the limelight with the publication of her epoch-making debut novel The God of Small Things in 1997. The novel was much acclaimed for its universal theme, linguistic inventiveness, non-linear storytelling and multiple narratives. The fiction was translated in more than forty languages and Roy herself became a phenomenon as she won the Booker Prize for it in 1997. However, Roy shifted gear to non-fictions after it and plunged into intricate political debates over issues like nuclear detonations, democracy, development, privatization, displacement, terrorism, genocide etc. Roy shows that these apparently disjointed matters are inter-connected and outcomes of the capitalist agenda of global and local oppressive regimes. In 2017, Roy’s much-awaited second novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness came into publication. Roy takes us beyond the broken walls of Old Delhi where the ghettoized Muslims recall their past glory, and to the war-torn valleys of Kashmir that reverberate with the sound of Azadi (freedom) repeatedly. In this novel, Roy has offered a journalistic review of the political events of India since Independence. Roy has dealt with some major gendered issues like transgender identity, Dalit woman identity, homosexuality, motherhood etc. Roy is keen to understand that in every war, massacre, pogrom and displacement, the women suffer most. Fascism and fundamentalism affect them the most. In Roy’s fictions, the women, though vulnerable to atrocity defy power with their calm dignity and freedom of spirit. They take initiative to transgress borders and refute social norms. They are mysterious, singular and strong as well as fearless to take unusual decision. This paper attempts to analyse that the women protagonists of Roy extend solidarity to other marginalities, as it is Roy’s contention that Feminism should offer powerful resistance against oppression in general. Marginalization means exclusion−exclusion from social, political and economic decision-making. In a way, gendered marginalization is associated to capitalism. Capitalism is rooted in human greed for power and wealth and it needs a continuous process of exclusion to concentrate more wealth in fewer hands. According to Roy, every movement of present time should join hands with

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the other to dissent against power. Along with Roy’s fictions, my paper refers to Roy’s non-fictions also for a fuller understanding of the topic. In The God of Small Things, Roy (1997) brings out the complex politics of gender and caste discrimination in Ayemenem, a village in Kerala during the 1960s. While telling out the family history of the Ipes, Roy narrates the socio-political history of Kerala, its religious plurality and the rise and growth of the Communist Party in Kerala. Kerala is one of the progressive states of India. Having been raised in Kerala Roy knows that the society there is a complex mix of parochialism and progressiveness (2009a, p. 31). Roy’s brunt of criticism in the fiction is the Communist party and the leaders who are mostly from upper-caste communities and are extremely prejudiced against women and bottom castes. The image of Roy’s own childhood, the setting of Ayemenem and the influence of her mother Mary Roy are very dominant in The God of Small Things. Roy’s mother Mary Roy, a Syrian Christian from Kerala had married a Bengali, a manager of a tea garden in Assam. However, she got separated from her alcoholic husband and returned to her paternal house in Ayemenem, unwelcome. Arundhati Roy was born in Shillong but raised in Ayemenem. Roy says about her childhood: …I thank god that I had none of the conditioning that a normal middle-class Indian girl would have. I had no father, no presence of this man ‘looking after’ beating or humiliating our mother occasionally in exchange. I had no caste, no religion, no supervision. (2009a, p. 34) From her mother’s experience Roy learns that marriage can never offer a woman respect and freedom neither her return to her own house can, as the brother is the authority there. Without financial independence, there will be only subjugation for them. According to Roy, the women of Kerala work all over India and the world as nurses, yet when they get married, they pay a dowry and end up having subservient relationships with their husbands (p. 33). Roy’s mother Mary Roy became well known in Kerala for challenging the Syrian Christian Inheritance Law that offered a woman only one forth of her father’s property. The Supreme Court ruled the case in her favour providing equal right to the women. Mary Roy also started a school that was very unconventional and famous. Roy grew up on a culturally rich environment. This explains pretty much the poetics and politics of her work. In the fiction (1997) the marginalities defies power by transgressing borders that have been set for them. Marginalization has various dimensions in the fiction. Velutha, the god of small things, is an untouchable Paravan who had all the potential to be big. He is an excellent artisan. He works in the pickle factory and does all the odd jobs for the Ipe family. Ammu, the divorced daughter of the family, married a Bengali outside her Syrian Christian community. Ammu and her twins 115

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are marginalized within the family. They are often ignored and even mal-treated as they have no claim in the property. Chacko, the man of the house is treated very differently from his sister. Chacko was sent to Oxford, but Ammu’s education was abruptly terminated. Though he is also divorced from his British wife Margaret, his daughter receives all the attention and affection of his mother (Mammachi) and Aunt (Baby Kochamma). Mammachi has allowances for her son’s frivolities, as he must satisfy his man’s needs. She even arranges for a secret door in his room for the supply of his needs. However, when she comes to know about Ammu’s love for Velutha, her rage against her own daughter has no bound. She thinks that by loving a Paravan, Ammu has defiled generations of breeding and brought the family to its knees (p. 258). The novel (1997) shows that gendered discrimination is deeply rooted in Indian society. Like other oppressive structures, Patriarchy is run by mutual acceptance from both the oppressor and the oppressed. It pervades every strata of social order. Pappachi, an Imperial Entomologist was in habit of beating his wife on a regular basis. Even Ammu as a child learnt to endure the calculated cruelty of her father. When Ammu’s relation with her husband deteriorated, he took recourse to domestic violence. After the nightlong performance in the temple, “The Kathakali men took off their make-up and went home to beat their wives. Even Kunti, the soft ones with breasts” (p. 236). Even the Communist leader Comrade Pillai “had the easy authority of the Man of the House” (p. 272). He could ignore or treat his wife like a maid in front of guests. Mammachi’s violin lessons were terminated out of sheer jealousy on part of her husband. Her rescuer from her husband’s beating, her own son Chacko took over her pickle business and reduced her to a sleeping partner. Having born in an orthodox colonial India, Baby Kochamma had to suppress her passion for Father Mulligan, the Irish monk. The most she could expect was to stay near him. When this least demand remained unfulfilled, Baby Kochamma internalised the stubborn morality of the society. Every night throughout her life she used to write in her diary “I love you I love you” (p. 298) in his memory. Her pent up feelings was transformed into bitterness, cruelty, jealousy, mistrust and fear. Both Mammachi and Baby Kochamma were victims as well as perpetrator of patriarchal injustice. The story begins with the arrival of Sophie Mol to Ayemenem to visit the Ipe family, but the real beginning according to Roy, is long ago, in the days when love laws were made. The dominant image of the fiction is the sky blue Plymouth waiting at the level crossing with the family going to receive Sophie Mol at the Cochin Airport and being engulfed by a procession of Communist marchers (1997, p. 65). Rahel saw Velutha among the protesters. Ammu’s face offered a strange reaction. It revealed not only her passion for Velutha, it expressed a feeling of solidarity in rage. After Sophie Mol’s arrival when everybody was in the drama of welcoming her, Rahel sneaked away to play with Velutha. Ammu was astonished to see her 116

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daughter’s intimatcy with Velutha. Suddenly a revelation occurred to her. She realised that they all were victims of injustice and a strong desire for resistance occurred surged inside her: Suddenly Ammu hoped that it had been him that Rahel saw in the march. She hoped it had been him that had raised his flag and knotted arm in anger. She hoped that under his careful cloak of cheerfulness, he housed a living, breathing anger against the smug, ordered world that she so raged against (pp. 175-176). That night was the beginning of their rendezvous that continued for a fortnight. In the span of this period, they lived their lives. However, their affair was soon disclosed. Ammu was locked in her room and Velutha was summoned, abused and threatened by Mammachi. The three children while out for a boat riding on river Meenachal had their boat capsized and Sophie Mol died of drowning. Velutha was charged with a false allegation of murder and abduction. The local Communist Party leader, Comrade K. N. M. Pillai disowned him out of jealousy and selfishness. Velutha was beaten to death, Ammu was driven out of house and she eventually died, sick and alcoholic, and Estha was returned to his father. As tragedy befell on the Marginalities, the people in power could not achieve much. The turmoil in the pickle factory went beyond Comrade Pillai’s control and it was closed down, Chacko had to leave India for good, Mammachi died and Baby Kochamma continued to live in terror of being dispossessed. Years after when Rahel and Estha were reunited, they again transgressed boundaries and by committing incest. However it was not an act of pleasure, rather it was an act of pain−their helpless quest for completeness in which Estha’s Quietness and Rahel’s Emptiness fitted together (p. 328). Hardly before the euphoria around the success of her first novel was over, Roy (2002b) wrote her essay “The End of Imagination” criticising the nuclear detonation at Pokhran in 1998. It was the beginning of her more than twenty years long essay writing. According to Roy, in the nineties, the Indian society underwent a massive change. The shift can be traced back to 1989 when with the Fall of Berlin Wall Capitalism won over Communism (2009b, p. xii). It altered the concept of welfare state. Roy’s political perspective in her first fiction and in the essays that follows has a significant continuity. Deep-rooted gender and caste discrimination had fractured Indian society centuries ago. In the nineties, neoliberal economic policy along with fascist governing principles destroyed the spirit of democracy in the country. The result was further marginalization of the weak and powerless. Roy turned out to be a major critic of Corporate Globalization, which is the greatest malaise of present time, and under it, marginalization is not only exclusion, it is elimination also. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness (Roy, 2017) is a story of the marginalities. Within the scope of this single novel, Roy has surveyed all the socio-political issues 117

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of India since Independence. Roy’s second fiction takes up the subjects she dealt with in her non-fictions. We have the Bhopal Gas-leak tragedy in 1984 and the massacre of the Sikhs after the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi in the same year. The story provides glimpses of the attack on the Twin Towers (through news telecast) in the USA in 2001; the Godhra incident and the pogrom against the Muslims in Gujarat in 2002; and, the ugly, horrific image of ‘Occupation’ the bloody war in Kashmir. Incidents of lynching the dalits and Muslims by the cow vigilantes or fanatic mob become alive in the pages of her novel. More over the novel also offers a critique of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement at Jantar Mantar for re-directing people’s rage to serve corporate interest. The fiction shows how the Indian democracy deals with her marginalities and how her marginalities learn to live within it. The novel has two distinct threads ̶ one centring Anjum, a transgender Muslim, and the other centring Tilottama, a quiet, strange and unconventional woman with indomitable free spirit. The two threads are connected at the end as we find that the transgender, the dalit, the woman, and the orphan all find happiness under the sheltering shed of a graveyard turned guesthouse. In the first half of the novel we find that Anjum, who is doubly marginalized for being a Muslim and a transgender, goes through a traumatic experience during her visit to Gujarat when the Godhra incident followed by a heinous pogrom against the Muslims takes place. Anjum was born as Aftab, a hermaphrodite child to a Muslim couple in Old Delhi. Roy connects the narrative to the legend of Hazrat Sarmad Shaheed and his shrine where Jahanara Begum, Aftab’s mother goes to seek blessings for her son. Sarmad was a Jewish Armenian Merchant who travelled to Delhi from Persia in search of his male love Abhay Chand. His search became a quest of spirituality. He embraced Islam but roamed as a naked fakir. He was given death sentence for not reciting the Kalima fully. With this narrative, Roy seems to be conveying that sexuality even homosexuality may lead to spirituality. While his parents waits for his girl part to be healed and cured, Aftab shows different ‘tendencies’ and eventually embraces his transgender identity and enters Khwabgah (a house of dreams) where there are many like him. Aftab becomes Anjum and goes through surgery to become more feminine, she even enjoys motherhood when she finds Zainab, the little girl at the steps of Jama Masjid. The motherly protectiveness in her leads her to Gujarat to pray for Zainab. The word Duniya (world) has several connotations in the story. The first part takes us to Sahajanabad or Old Delhi where the Muslims are ghettoized. It is the Duniya of the Muslims, the Others. Anjum leaves Duniya for Khwabgah which is the dream world for the Hizras. Then she moves to the graveyard and makes it Jannat or Paradise, a waiting place before one leaves for real heaven. The graveyard becomes a place of close bonding where Anjum makes friend with Saddam Hussain, a dalit who had watched his father being lynched by

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a Hindu Mob, the Blind Imam, and Tilo who became Ustanji or teacher of the poor children of the surroundings. The most important incident in Anjum’s life was her experience of Gujarat pogrom in 2002 that left her traumatized and shaken. Anjum set out for Gujarat with Zakir Mian, an old friend of her father to visit Ajmer Sharif and the shrine of Urdu poet Wali Dakhani to seek blessings for sickly Zainab. Both of them became victims to the massacre that went on for weeks. Zakir Mian was killed and Anjum got a ‘butcher’s luck’ for being a Hizra. Anjum witnessed the killing, burning, raping and looting that went on for weeks. She saw how the men were folded and women were unfolded (2017, p. 63). Upon her returning, Anjum, shaken from inside, was unable to stay in Khwabgah any longer. She entered an old cemetery and made it her home. She was still haunted by ‘folded’ Zakir Mian and the fanatic mob who were “Newton’s Army, deployed to deliver an Equal and Opposite Reaction. Thirty Thousand saffron parakeets with steel talons and bloodied beaks...” (p. 62). Anjum remembered how they found her, called her names, but let her go after forcing her to chant some nationalistic slogans like “Bharat Mata Ki Jai! VandeMataram!” (p. 62). The second half of the novel deals with Tilo, a dalit girl and an architect who goes to Kashmir to meet Musa her ex-lover and who has turned a separatist due to his horrific experiences in life. The narrative evokes the conflicting images of Kashmir, its dissenting people, deaths, disappearances, torture centres, and the funeral processions. Tilo is introduced as a mysterious and unconventional woman, who elopes with an abandoned child from Jantar Mantar. Tilo is a tenant of the apartment owned by Biplab Dasgupta who is employed in the Intelligence Bureau. Tilo keeps some mysterious cartons with her and after she has left for Jannat guesthouse, Biplab finds that the cartons contain documents and objects sent by Musa, a Kashmri separatist and an old friend of both Tilo and Biplab. The narrative takes us to the consciousness of Biplab and reveals how the old college friends Tilo, Musa, Biplab and Naga have been caught up in a complicated relationship and how their lives are transformed by the incidents of Kashmir. After meeting Musa, Tilo moves around the valley. She visits the Pahalgam meadows, Lolab Valley, villages and forests along the Line of Control – all the dangerous places teeming with both militants and military but the night before she is about to return from Kashmir transforms her altogether. On that day, a boy is killed and the mass protest and the subsequent firing tolled fourteen lives. Deep in the night Major Amrik Singh, a saddist killer and interrogator conducts a raid on the House Boats and Tilo and Gulrez the benevolent caretaker of the boat are captured. Gulrez is badly beaten and shot. Tilo is interrogated by ACP (Assistant Commissioner of Police) Pinky in the Siraj JIC (Joint Interrogation Centre), where her hair is shaved off. She manages to send a message to Biplab Dasgupta and Naga rescues her. Tilo returns with a feeling of solidarity for the people of Kashmir fighting so long for 119

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freedom. Her stay in Jannat guesthouse provides her solace. Musa, who continues to keep his cartons with her, visits her. The ending of the novel offers an image of utopia with the marginalities living in close solidarity as against the chaotic and oppressive state. It is not easy to withstand power. For Roy, fighting means understanding. Fighting is demanding accountability and listening to those who are truly powerless (2002a, p. 286). The process of exclusion always seeks new targets. So, according to Roy, the writers, the artists, people who are fighting their individual battle and those who believe in justice and plurality, should come forward and join hands. We should give a forum to the hundreds of resistance movements and talk about real issues−about bonded labour, marital rape, sexual preferences, women’s wages, uranium dumping, unsustainable mining etc. (p.287). At the same time, we should not let power divert movements from real issues or separate them from each other. She regrets the fact that the liberal feminists in India or the ‘official’ women’s organizations keep a safe distance from the organizations working in rural areas, central forests and villages (2019, p. 643). These grassroots women fighters are fighting both patriarchy inside their own community and the capitalist invasion on their land and resources. The liberal feminists on the other hand are being detached from anti-imperialist movement at large. In her fictions, Roy has shown that women irrespective of their class and location can connect themselves to the deprived and put up powerful resistance against oppression.

REFERENCES Roy, A. (1997). The God of Small Things. IndiaInk. Roy, A. (2002a). Democracy: Who’s she When She’s at Home? In The Algebra of infinite Justice (pp. 265–294). Penguin Books. Roy, A. (2002b). The End of Imagination. In The Algebra of infinite Justice (pp. 1–41). Penguin Books. Roy, A. (2009a). The Colonization of Knowledge. In Conversation with David Barsamian, February 2001. In Shape of the Beast: Conversations with Arundhati Roy (pp. 31–54). Penguin Books. Roy, A. (2009b). Introduction: Democracy’s Failing Light. In Listening to the Grass Hoppers: Field Notes on Democracy (pp. ix–xxxvii). Penguin Books. Roy, A. (2017). The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Penguin Random House. Roy, A. (2019). Capitalism: A Ghost Story. In My Seditious Heart (pp. 621–653). Penguin Random House. 120

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Chapter 13

Gender and Sexuality in Toni Morrison’s Home Anita Devi Ahanthem Kumbi College, India

ABSTRACT Before venturing into the term “gender,” the biological differentiation of male and female as “sex” is inevitable. Moreover, if “sex” is a biological categorization based primarily on reproductive potential, then “gender” is the social elaboration of biological sex. Hence, gender gradually builds on biological sex, but it exaggerates biological difference, and it carries biological difference into domains in which it is completely irrelevant. For reference, in a heterosexual society, “masculine men” are seen as sexually dominant, active, and initiating whereas “feminine women” are sexually passive, receptive, and submissive. In this chapter, the author has taken up Toni Morrison’s novel Home in order to discuss the dynamics of “gender” and “sexuality” based on “race,” as it gives false perception of self, identity, and trauma. It will also analyze how women of any race are always the victims of violence associated with male sexuality.

INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the author has analyzed the two main characters namely Frank Money and his sister, Ycidra (or as they used to call her ‘Cee’) of Toni Morrison’s novel Home (2012). In the broad sense, the discussion and study is focused upon the treatment of the key concepts of “gender” and “sexuality” along with the panoramic view of “race” as well. The novel, in general, is a story about the most painful experiences of black people; and in particular, Frank Money and Cee (the brother-sister duo). It DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch013 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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consists of “the war between Korea and the United States, medical experiments on some poor people for genetic investigations, violence against children and women specially, the black American women and brutality in the history of race in America” (Soleimani and Zarrinjooee, 2014, pp. 497). Furthermore, the novel has important themes of uprooting, homecoming and ownership. There are many instances that portray how “race” can become a factor of dehumanizing and exploitation of African American people irrespective of gender and class in interest of the Whites. According to Anne Whitehead, ‘’Home … can be read as “trauma fiction,” which focuses on recovering. African Americans’ daunting history from the blacks’ point of view” (Siboueka and Ahlem, 2016, pp. 33-34). On the one hand, Morrison has portrayed the social complexities and the negative side that African Americans experienced such as – racism, racial abuse, female issues and medical experimentations – unlike the ideal image of the 1950s America. On the other hand, there is the depiction of psychological trauma of the Great Depression and Vietnam War experienced by the black people and black soldiers analyzing their traumatic experiences. In other words, the author vividly experiences those terrible events as well as recovers from them along with the characters of the novel. Judith Lewis Herman, the psychiatrist, has opined in her book Trauma and Recovery (1992): To study psychological trauma is to come face to face both within human vulnerability in the natural world and with the capacity for evil in human nature. To study psychological trauma means bearing witness to horrible events. […] The study of war trauma becomes legitimate only in a context that challenges the sacrifice of young men in war (p. 34). Therefore, the concept “Psycho-traumatic” includes both psyche and traumatic experiences i.e. psychological trauma. And based on this experience of trauma by Frank and Cee, the author has discussed further the treatment of “gender” and “sexuality” in the novel analytically.

BACKGROUND The terms “gender” and “sex” are often used interchangeably; but these terms define different concepts and are not interchangeable. Before we venture into the term “gender,” the biological differentiation of male and female as “sex” is inevitable. According to Lindsey, the term “sex” refers to the biological, hormonal, and chromosomal differences that determine if a person is male or female. Further, there is reference of the term “gender” for “meanings that societies and individuals ascribe to male and female categories” (Copenhaver, 2002, pp. 16-17). In case of 122

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“symbolic interaction theory,” gender itself is strictly a social construction based on what the society has defined as masculine and feminine. In fact, these stereotypical traits and roles are reinforced and inherited from one generation to another where selective conditioning is being practiced by different mechanisms within society. For instance, working women’s demands for maternity leave and equal pay in certain parts of the world has a long way to go. Moreover, “sexuality” as a term is associated extensively to sex, gender identities, orientation, pleasure, intimacy, expression, and reproduction. It is a natural occurrence; however when more focus is directed towards “female sexuality” and “freedom”, then it becomes particularly controversial due to the shift in power dynamics between men and women. Here, the author realizes that actually the male dominance in society is connected with “the role of men in reproduction” (Bass, 2016, pp. 430). On the one hand, women in some societies were valued for their reproductive role like the livestock with very little social status. . On the other hand, the control over female sexuality and female reproduction by the aggressive and dominating male sexuality is generally accepted. Hence, with this approach in consideration, the author has initiated to discuss the treatment of “gender” and “sexuality” based on the main two characters of Toni Morrison’s novel, Home (2021) namely Frank Money and Ycidra/Cee Money, when they experience traumas and go through Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as a consequence. In addition, the discussion becomes more dynamic when “race” as a factor is added. For instance, when a black man like Frank is admitted in a mental institute, then he is considered not just “dangerous,” but a sexual pervert, beast and cannibal as well. Likewise his girlfriend, Lily, in the workplace is called “girl” by the actresses “as in – ‘Where’s the girl?’ or, ‘Say, girl, where’s my jar of Pond’s?” (p. 71). Here, the term “girl” is “far from being innocent or unintentional” (Andres, 2014, pp. 29). Instead it becomes much more dark and complex, as a derogatory term with hidden meanings referring Lily both as a child and a servant who isn’t worthy of respect or consideration based on her black race.

Treatment of Male Gender and Sexuality in Frank’s Trauma Frank represents masculinity, adulthood and responsibility; while his sufferings in home and war compel the author to reflect upon these experiences as a community. Frank is an African American veteran, who joined the army to escape his too small world; and so he has to leave behind his beloved fragile little sister. After the war, his shattered life has no purpose until he hears that Cee is in danger. As he returns to his native Georgia in search of Cee, it becomes clear that their troubles began well before their wartime separation. Together, they return to their rural hometown of Lotus, where buried secrets are unearthed. Later with much mental struggle, Frank 123

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is able to bury his shame and trauma and finally learns what it means to be a man, what it takes to heal, and—above all—what it means to come home. In the first chapter of the novel, Frank is seen to be admiring some horses as if they represent the “masculinity” of a man (Fitriani and Saraswati, 2015, pp. 66). This comparison itself is somewhat off where “an animal” is considered more “masculine” than an actual human. Frank’s words indirectly reflects the restriction that black men faced under the Whites as they can’t dare to be free to embrace their self-identity: … they stood up like men. We saw them. Like men they stood…because there right in front of us, about fifty yards off, they stood like men…they bit each other like dogs but when they stood, reared up on their legs, their forelegs around the withers of the other, we held our breath in wonder. (Morrison, 2012, pp. 3-4) In one instance, the author encounters direct hatred and violence against the black people as it turns out that Franks’ friend, Billy Watson’s son, Thomas, was shot by a policeman because he had a toy gun in his hand and the police man thought that it was a real one at that time. Thomas merely eight years old ended up with a disabled arm as “Cops shoot anything they want. This here’s a mob city” (p. 31). Paradoxically, the young boy, Thomas even after the tragic incident manages to envision something that others hesitate to even think about. He says without any hesitation that he will go deep and not just merely far. He then turns towards Frank and asks: “Were you in the war?” “I was.” “Did you kill anybody?” “Had to.” “How did it feel?” “Bad. Real bad.” “That’s good. That it made you feel bad. I’m glad.” “How come?” “It means you’re not a liar.” 124

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“You are deep, Thomas.” Frank smiled. “What you want to be when you grow up?” Thomas turned the knob with his left hand and opened the door. “A man”, he said and left. (p. 32-33) Here, the phrase – “A man” – unknowingly strikes hard as it speaks aloud and asks every reader who and what qualities can be considered “a [true/real] man”. Moreover, the open-ended nature of this statement makes the author wonder whether the writer herself is mocking at the superficial aspect of the interpretation and portrayal of manhood in general. In terms of gender based “masculinity”, Frank displays two different sides. In one side, he is the protector of Cee both as an elder brother as well as the father-figure. At some point of his first person intrusions into the omniscient narration, he warns a potential offender with these words: “If they […] touched [Cee] I would kill” (p. 104). In fact, he comes back to Georgia only to save his beloved fragile sister after receiving the news that she was in danger. Later on, he isn’t scared to face the villain, Dr. Beau unarmed while the latter was threatening him with a loaded gun. Unfortunately, on the other side, this gentle and caring side of his “masculinity” as a protector flips aside into something monstrous as he fails to save his comrades from dying during the war in Korea. Furthermore, when Frank realizes that he has the potential to sexually exploit a Korean scavenging girl, he can’t take it as it triggered the traumatic incident when Cee got flashed by a pervert. In fact, acting upon an extreme unconscious defense mechanism, he ends up shooting the Korean girl. This incident itself is a multi-layered complex portrayal of his masculinity and sexuality. On the one hand, in order to suppress his fetish sexual attraction towards a child, he ends up using his masculine power to kill an innocent fragile girl. Thus, even though he is black/victim in his own country, he ends up being the exploiter/ abuser of the Korean girl who was the victim of his “sexuality” as the exotic female of the concept of “otherness”. In other words, it is another reflection of the binary between the colonizer and the Orient women being stereotyped. In addition, this incident reveals the harsh reality that irrespective of race, women in general are exploited as part of the aggressive male dominance and desire. Here, the former is “masculinized” being courageous, strong, heroic while the latter is “feminized” being passive, submissive, exotic, luxurious, sexually mysterious and tempting. These series of violence and deaths as traumatic experiences ends up damaging the core of his identity and integrity, which he has earlier tried to create and develop as a protective brother for Cee. However, he is fortunate enough to reclaim his self and identity only after accepting his sin and repenting over it in front of Cee.

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Treatment of Female Gender and Sexuality in Cee’s Trauma Cee as a female character represents the sufferings of African American women during that time by linking between psychological wounds of black individuals and the healing of collective traumas. Her story is also the portrayal of African American women who were traumatized and victimized in a patriarchal society. Indeed, Cee symbolizes the feminine voice for representing her alienated self and the black female who suffered racism. Interestingly, Crane, another character in Home, has described the dichotomy of the “good girl” versus the “bad girl” within “female sexuality”. Here, as women typically have less sexual freedom meaning increase risk of exploitation and less protection or remedy against violence against them. In fact, more ill-treatment, negligence, violence and exploitation are evident among marginalized women, including women of colour and poor women. For example, women of black women are often portrayed as oversexed, sexually objectified, and plagued with myriad negative sexual stereotypes. In this context, Cee is treated as the “bad girl” based on her colour. It is paradoxical to find her in such perception by the Whites for she is merely a fragile feminine girl who is overly protected by her brother, Frank. Further, the latter is portrayed as an utterly idealized paternal figure, like a surrogate father who provides the love and care she has not received from her parents. However, his sheltering suppresses Cee’s sensual energies, since he would keep all possible suitors away from her: “When Cee and a few other girls reached fourteen and started talking about boys, she was prevented from any real flirtation because of her big brother, Frank. The boys knew she was off-limits because of him” (p. 47). Therefore, when Frank leaves their hometown, Cee cannot live without him. It is as if she were “broken. Not broken up but broken down, down into her separate parts” (p. 54). In Frank’s absence, the sudden freedom, inexperience and hormonal energy of her new-found “sexuality,” attracts her irresistibly low self-confident persona towards Prince, who happens to be the first man with whom she interacts. She ends up getting married at fourteen years of age to Prince as she needed love and to flee from the horrors of her household. Shockingly, it turns out to be merely the beginning of a series of nightmares; for Prince had pursued Cee just to get her grandfather’s car, and then he soon abandons her. Unfortunately, with her kind of low self-esteem and lack of self-identity due to her extreme femininity and ignorance, Cee ends up getting exploited as she joins the service of Dr. Beau (the patriarchal colonizer) as his assistant. Later, he was using her as a “guinea pig/laboratory rat” for his experiments on female body and “sexuality”. In fact, according to Gonzalez (2012), his laboratory seems to symbolize the Western patriarchal menace towards the “black woman’s body”, which is evidently 126

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performed on, and towards “her sexuality” (p. 120). In this context, M.H. Miller says, Dr. Beau is “a eugenicist who likes to hire childless young black women in order to perform sexual experiments on them;” while Cynthia Wolff opines that the doctor actually operates on the young girl with his scalpel, the phallic symbol of penetration into the female body (Ramirez, 2015, pp. 124). Danger for the damsel is equated with “a specialized form of ‘inner space.” Furthermore, the latter adds that such act hints at the innocent maiden’s metaphorical “rape” as it is similar to the medical procedures the evil scientist carries out on her. Surprisingly, even after going through those physical and mental traumas, in the hands of the barbaric Dr. Beau, Cee gets rescued by Frank at the nick of time. However, she is no longer the innocent and defenseless little girl. During her healing period, the black women community encouraged her to vent and introspect in order to gain her self-assertion and self-respect. Cee gradually realizes that she is not powerless because of her school deprivation or her dumbness because matriarchs of her community are completely illiterate, and yet, they possess confidence and self-reliance. And finally, Cee understands how her rugged upbringing has hindered the development of her self-identity and self-esteem extensively. For instance, she was categorized as a “gutter child”, and “she had agreed with the label and believed herself worthless” (Morrison, 2012, pp. 129). However, she has “to be the one who rescued her own self” (p. 129). Thus, she thoughtfully refuses any further protection and excessive comfort from Frank after she had confessed regarding her barrenness to him while embracing her own suffering with confidence. Finally, for healing her psychological wounds, Cee commences a quilt, which signifies her determination to stitch the dismembered parts of herself like a bildungsroman.

CONCLUSION From the above discussion and analysis, the author finds that both masculinity and male sexuality is not exactly clear as black and white for Frank. When “racism” dilutes them, the self- identity and self-awareness is compromised as false concepts of “self” takes over – destroying them from the already weak and crumbling core. In the case of Cee, her femininity and sexuality results into her physical and emotional exploitation as a part of Dr. Beau’s dehumanizing horrific experience making her “barren” for life. Fortunately, with the support of her women community and her brother, Frank, she is able to rediscover and develop a completely new and confident “self-identity” and “self awareness”. In fact, the burial ceremony of the unknown black body epitomizes the need to come to terms with the dreadful past. For Frank, it represents the burial of his shameful sin of killing the Korean girl, while for Cee, 127

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the buried quilt represents her shattered self overall that she has now patched and created brand-new. However, the author opines that there are some points which are beyond this chapter’s discussion and yet worth pondering further later on. It would be fascinating to imagine Cee to interact and discuss with Mrs. K as well as Lily regarding women’s “identity” and “freedom” of sexuality. This kind of proposition is important for they are women who actually represent self-empowered and confident black women; and they are also those who do not submit easily. In conclusion, these women with their freedom of choice, confidence and sexuality are standing mighty against the traditional black women’s femininity and sexuality.

REFERENCES Andres, M. H. (2014). Empowering The Dispossessed: A Postcolonial Reading of Toni Morrison’s Home [Master’s Thesis]. University de Zaragoza. https://core.ac.uk Bass, T. (2016). Exploring female sexuality: Embracing the whole narrative. North Carolina Medical Journal, 6(6), 430–432. doi:10.18043/ncm.77.6.430 PMID:27864498 Copenhaver, B. B. (2002). A Portrayal of Gender and a Description of Gender Roles in Selected American Modern and Postmodern Plays [PhD Thesis]. East Tennessee University. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/632 Fitriani, R., & Saraswati, R. (2015). The influence of childhood experience in Frank’s desire for home in Toni Morrison’s Home. Allusion, 4, 63-69. https://journal.unair.ac.id Gonzalez, D. Y. (2012). House of fear, domesticity and community in Toni Morrison. InvestigacionesFeministas, 3, 117–127. doi:10.509/rev_INFE:2012.v3.41140 Morrison, T. (2012). Home. Chatto &Windus. Ramirez, M. L. (2015). Gothic tropes in Toni Morrison’s Home: The scientist-villain figure and the maiden in distress. Revista De Filologia. 33, 119-132. https://dialnet. unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/5120310.pdf Sibouekaz, A., & Dahmani, A. (2018). Trauma and Black Self-Discovery in Toni Morrison’s Home [Master’s Thesis]. People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, University of Mohamed Boudiaf-M’Sila. http://dspace.univ-msila.dz:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/7747 Soleimani, Z., & Zarrinjooee, B. (2014). Home in Morrison’s Home. Journal of Novel Applied Sciences, 3(5), 497–502. https://www.jnasci.org 128

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ADDITIONAL READING Arya, K. (2010). Blackhole in The Dust: The Novels of Toni Morrison. Adhyayan Publishers & Distributors. Das, S. (2009). From Margin to the Centre: A Morrison Reader. Manglam Publications. Devi, A. A. (2013). Reinterpretation of Female Sexuality in Sula and The Joys of Motherhood. Spectrum. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 1(2), 1–6. Dhanavel, S. P. (Ed.). (2008). Critical Perspectives on American Literature. Saroop & Sons. Gupta, M. (Ed.). (2008). Women Writers in the Twentieth Century Literature. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd. Mittali, R. (Ed.). (2001). Modern American Literature. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd. Sengupta, J. (2006). Reflections of Desire: Feminist Perspectives in the novels of Toni Morrison, Michele Roberts and Anita Desai. Atlantic Publishers & Distributors (P) Ltd.

KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS Bildungsroman: A type of literary genre in which the journey of the moral and psychological development of the protagonist, usually from a lost and vulnerable child to a mature adult, is often portrayed in the novel. Femininity: A socially constructed and learned set of characteristics, behaviours and mentality connected with girls and women, in general. For example, in a matriarchal society, “women” need to possess and display attributes of strength and integrity, as opposed to the submissive and dependent ones of a patriarchal society. Gender: Beyond the biological division of male and female sex, there are the socially constructed roles, behaviours and characteristics of men and women considered as masculine and feminine. For example, use of make-up by women is universally accepted; and yet, its use by men is a controversial topic in many conservative societies. Masculinity: A socially constructed and learned set of traditional characteristics, that society and culture has defined, as masculine in nature and appropriate for

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boys and men in a given society. Showing strength and dominance is an example of showing masculinity. PTSD: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is treated as a mental health condition after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. Some common symptoms are experiences of flashbacks, nightmares, and severe anxiety, followed by emotions of fear, anger or sadness and acts of alienation and detachment. Race: In the narrow-minded view of division given by the colonizers, “race” determines who is superior from whom based on physical features of colour, hair, body structure, etc. Self-Identity: Refers to how one individual’s identity of being what and who he/ she is including his/her identification, awareness, and portrayal as a separate person in the social context, in particular. Sexuality: An important aspect of one’s identity and sexual orientation which further dictates how one understands one’s body, experiences, and shares relationship with another person sexually. Trauma: Generally referred as a physical injury of medical emergency. The other reference is associated with a deeply distressing, shocking or disturbing experience as psychological trauma which can be triggered by a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster.

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Chapter 14

Gender Roles Portrayed in A Room of One’s Own and Orlando Antara Naha K. R. Mangalam University, India

ABSTRACT Virginia Woolf has raised her voice through her works on the challenges of women and freedom of thought. This chapter focuses on the gender roles as portrayed in the works of Virginia Woolf, focusing on A Room of One’s Own and Orlando. She states through A Room of One’s Own that the strongest creative minds are the ones with the balance between masculine and feminine components, and through Orlando, she presents the idea of gender through an androgynous view, using a character who changes genders in their lifetime of 300 years. The theoretical focus of the chapter will be through Judith Butler’s theory on gender, which relies on the action of gender interconnected with the identity of the person. The chapter will aim to present the idea of gender representation through a broader view for achieving wider acceptance for different gender identities.

INTRODUCTION Virginia Woolf often focuses on gender and its roles, and the challenges of a woman. She is undoubtedly one of the famous writers of the modernist era who wrote about women and their struggles in her works. Her feminist theory revolves around the need for freedom in every field for women. She states that the rights given to men in the fields of employment, wages, and education should be given to women as well DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch014 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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(Koç, 2015). Her use of fiction to illustrate her point by using Judith Shakespeare brings focus on the need to redefine gender roles (Benthin, 2008)). She emphasises on how nascent talent and creativity will not develop until they are sculpted in adequate conditions (Koç, 2015). She mourns for the loss of geniuses due to the lower position given to women in the society. Furthermore, it can be seen that her works not only reflect on the gender roles constructed by the society, but also that it creates a constant effort to effectively shape the rules and identity a woman had to go by in the Victorian era (Benthin, 2008). The Victorian woman was seen as an ideal woman, often staying mostly in the homes rather than being in the public spheres, where the majority of women have given themselves to their husbands and believe that they are inferior to men; hence their marriage becomes a major goal in life (Benthin, 2008). Education that women received was majorly centred towards domestic goals and housework, preparing them more towards marriage than their individual lives. This lack of freedom and individualism affected women massively. While A Room of One’s Own is a semi autobiography of Woolf’s life and perspective over the roles women has to play in the Victorian society, Orlando focuses on a character who has been living for 300 years and changing genders throughout their long lifetime. These works present the idea of freedom, personal or artistic. Woolf preferred to create a character who possessed characteristics and secrets from both sexes, a “dual personality” (Knopp, 1988, p. 30) which she believes as the way to achieve the ultimate state of creativity. The idea of androgyny presented in both of these works shows Woolf’s way of liberation from the patriarchal society. Woolf uses her works to reflect the issues of gender roles, identity and begins to construct the idea of gender as a performance rather than an internal entity (Bakhtiar & Serveh, 2019, p. 12). Gender from the perspective of Judith Butler is a norm that can never be fully internalized, the internal is a surface signification and the norms are phantasmatic, impossible to embody (Leitch, 2001, p. 2388). Butler stresses on the idea that nothing is natural, not even the sexual identities created culturally and anatomically in the society (Leitch, 2001, p. 2382). She uses this to emphasise how the gender roles have majorly highlighted the ‘natural way’, and she argues that there is nothing natural about this as they are social constructs. She writesThe possibilities of gender transformation are found to be precisely in the arbitrary relation of between such acts, in the possibility of a failure to repeat, a deformity, or a parodic repetition that exposes the phantasmatic effect of abiding identity as a politically tenuous construction… if gender attributes are however not expressive but performative, then these attributes effectively constitute the identity they are said to express or reveal (Butler, 1999, p. 145).

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Butler’s perspective of gender is that of which cannot be regarded as a radical choice of individual, nor can be imposed or inscribed upon them (Bakhtiar & Serveh, 2019, p. 14). Gender is merely a construct with a collective agreement, created by cultural definitions and the history of the society. In her book Gender Trouble, she statesIf the inner truth of gender is a fabrication and if a true gender is a fantasy instituted and inscribed on the surface of bodies, then it seems that genders can be neither true nor false, but are only produced as the truth effects of a discourse of primary and stable identity. (Butler, 1999, p. 141). Her concept of gender is not that of a consistent one, gender only comes to existence when performed under the eyes of the society and the rules of the society. The individual’s identity is below that performance, it could either work against or for the gender it has been defined for.

Gender Roles Defining Identities A Room of One’s Own is considered to be one of the first feminist essays that highlighted the need for independent thoughts by women, free from the patriarchal society. Woolf presents the problem of women’s individual thoughts being absent from literature, their representation created by their male counterparts in an inferior and disoriented (Dalvai, 2018). Woolf very intellectually uses fiction as an experimental way to discuss women, their relationships, their speech, and independent thoughts. “One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well (Woolf, 1929, p. 13)”, she writes emphasising how raw talent, concentration and creativity will not develop until they are sculpted in adequate conditions (Koç, 2015). “But you may say, we asked you to speak about women and fiction—what, has that got to do with a room of one’s own?” (Woolf, 1929, p. 1). Woolf opens her essay with these lines, focussing on the importance of a woman having her own room. The keywords here, woman and literature interweave together to present the inequalities of education and the overwhelming presence of patriarchal values constructing the Victorian society. She uses her narrative skills to weave a life for the fictional sister of Shakespeare, a life that is rather full of misfortune unlike her brother, whose creative soul caged with no respite to draw a stark contrast between the two. She writes, “… it would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare” (Woolf, 1929, p. 33) and points out the lack of literature written by women during the medieval era and after. Woolf also brings her focus to the differences between genders and the roles they have to play in the society, mainly focusing on the lack 133

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of financial freedom presented to women. She points out that every time a woman was oppressed, an author or an artist has been lost. While Woolf also emphasises on the differences between genders using fiction, she also brings focus on the reasons for inequivalence of the gender roles and independent thought given to them. She talks about the difficulties women face because of the social conditions, created out of the limitations of the family and their isolation in the homes (Koç, 2015, p. 7). While Woolf mourns in A Room of One’s Own how intellectual genius has been lost due to gender disparity, she uses Orlando’s experiences as a 300-year-old gender-switching individual to bring light into the gender inequality and oppressive roles a woman was subjugated to. Orlando brings its focus on the young nobleman named Orlando in 16th century England who, one day mysteriously experiences a change in sex and lives for around 300 years and writes about his experiences. Orlando’s portrayal was very notable in Woolf’s works as it presents gender in a fluid manner, the character Orlando changes into a woman without any explanations. Orlando’s various affairs and actions depicted in the novel as they switch from one gender to other focuses on the stereotypical roles designated for each gender by forcing Orlando to perform like the gender they have been assigned to. Clothing becomes an important symbol of societal norms, as clothes define Orlando’s gender, as Woolf writesClothes are but a symbol of something hid deep beneath. It was a change in Orlando herself that dictated her choice of a woman’s dress and of a woman’s sex. And perhaps in this she was only expressing rather more openly than usual—openness indeed was the soul of her nature—something that happens to most people without being thus plainly expressed. (Woolf, 1928., p. 112) Orlando’s switch into a woman brings focus towards the roles a woman has to fulfil, starting from being an ‘obedient, chaste and scented’ woman and finds these new roles unnatural. This brings Orlando’s seeming unexplained switch into a woman perplexing as they struggle with the role they have to fulfil, finding it much more unnatural than their switch. Judith Butler’s book Gender Trouble states gender constructs are not natural, not even the sexual identities can surround it. Feminists have sometimes distinguished between sex as the anatomical difference between a man and a woman, and gender as the meanings attached to the bodily difference referred to in different cultures (Leitch, 2001, p. 2385).

Androgyny in Woolf’s Works Woolf was a firm believer of the continuity of the female literary traditions, and her goal ultimately focuses to transcend the ‘tyranny of sex’ in the tradition of literature 134

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(Jianjun, 2010). She focuses on this idea by defining the androgynous nature of the human mind, and the results they produce when they work in harmony. In A Room of One’s Own, she writes The normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two live in harmony together, spiritually co-operating… a great mind is androgynous. It is when this fusion takes place that the mind is fully fertilized and uses all its faculties….it is fatal for anyone who writes to think of their sex. It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple; one must be woman – manly or man – womanly. (Woolf, 1929, p. 73). She presents the idea of the androgynous self and the state of androgyny as the one state where the individual is at best of their creative minds. She describes it as a “moment of being” where the two sides of gender (masculinity and femininity) come together as a natural fusion and are balanced. She denies the purely one sexed mind as she states, “Perhaps the androgynous mind is less apt to make these distinctions than the single-sexed mind (Woolf, 1929, p. 73). Needless to say, androgyny becomes not an easy state to achieve, when in Woolf’s time, women were struggling to gain the basic rights to vote, to employment, and to education (Jianjun, 2010, p. 56). Despite this, androgyny had become a way of liberating women from the negative forces placed by patriarchy on their sex (Wright, 2008, p. 4). Meanwhile, Orlando journeys through the idea of gender switches and changing identities related to one’s gender. Woolf uses this narrative to show how Orlando has to adapt to the new roles of the gender they have changed into, how being a woman makes them act differently from being a man and finally states, being a woman is not something that can be done naturally. It presents a unique critique on the existence of a man and woman in the English society, and how the idea of androgyny operates in Orlando towards the separation of male and female into two separate gender norms and represents an uncertain nature of sexual identity. The narrator of Orlando narratesAnd as all Orlando’s loves had been women, now, through the culpable laggardry of the human frame to adapt itself to convention, though she herself was a woman, it was still a woman she loved; and if the consciousness of being of the same sex had any effect at all, it was to quicken and deepen those feelings which she had had as a man. (Woolf, 1928., p. 96). While critics state that Woolf’s depiction of Orlando is that of one with a stable personality while their gender undergoes changes, it cannot be concluded fully that this is a result of an androgynous mindset. Woolf noticeably denies the existence of a male and female gender core in Orlando’s personality, the identity Orlando now has 135

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to project differs vastly from the identity they have before. In Orlando, it has been stated, “whether, then, Orlando was most man or woman, it is difficult to say and cannot now be decided” (Woolf, 1928., p. 113), as it becomes difficult for Orlando to perform as the other gender completely. They are never woman and man at the same time, and similarly there is not a perfect mix between the two presented, rather Orlando as a woman exploits her knowledge of both sexes and performs masculinity and femininity by the rules, but never at the same time (Rognstad, 2012, pp. 37-38). There is a difference in how the concept of androgyny used by Woolf in both here works to define the roles of the gender: in A Room of One’s Own she claims of the state of androgyny as the ideal state of creativity, away from the gender binding rules of patriarchy and a seamless reconciliation; while in Orlando, she presents it in practice and implies that gender distinctions are maintained even as they intermix, highlighting the fundamental differences that change but cannot be transcended (Kaivola, 1999, p. 237). Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity brings Orlando’s nature into focus here, as his performance of both the gender identity begins to hint at Orlando’s ambiguous identity. In the essay by Sarah Hasting, she indicates on Woolf’s idea of androgyny that presents the lack of both of female and male core and indicating that probably those two cores are one. Butler’s theory also states that gender is not something one acquires by birth but rather by action (Bakhtiar & Serveh, 2019, p. 9). Orlando finds themselves facing the differences in a woman and man’s behaviour after they switch to which Orlando comments on how being a woman is not something naturally be done. Woolf’s focus on the female Orlando seems to be indicating the personification of the ideal status of androgyny (Rognstad, 2012, p. 31). Orlando had presented characteristics from both of a typical male and female before he has transformed; how Orlando was tender-hearted and rode well, took time to dress and could drink with the best. These unique traits of Orlando provoke questions towards the idea of a typical gender role, asking why can’t one chose how they want to act. Butler’s focus on gender provokes a similar question, bringing focus to how one gender traits are designated to that gender over time through social and political norms, and are being performed every day (Rognstad, 2012, p. 32).

CONCLUSION The definitions of gender evolve with time and the identities surrounding it. Judith Butler has described gender as an act, a norm that can never be fully internalized. Woolf’s implications on gender highlights the lack of the absolute gender identity behind the expression of gender, as similarly stated by Butler as, “there is no gender 136

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identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very expressions that are said to be its results” (Butler, 1999, p. 25). The preformation of gender into a certain identity has been developed under cultural and social constructs and the distinction between them varies. In Orlando, Orlando’s change in sex presents this opinion, as their change in gender only gets implied once they have been enforced under views of the society. Meanwhile in A Room of One’s Own, Woolf presents how the social constructs has affected the views of women, their independent thoughts and their intellectual output as their ideas has been majorly represented by patriarchal perspective. Woolf believes that the form of creativity generated by an androgynous mind away from the forces of the society, bringing focus onto Butler’s description of gender as a non-monolithic definition but as a dynamic and hybrid construction of gender roles. Woolf’s works seems to highlight on the need to break the stereotypical roles a woman has to partake while their voices and thoughts often shut down by the patriarchal views. She strives to move beyond such views and she finds that it is only possible by reaching the ideal state of androgyny, where the individual is at their peak of their creativity. This creates an ambiguity in their works; the characters can either represent one or the other gender easier than before while they can highlight their thought independently. Orlando puts this into practice, where Orlando’s ambiguous nature makes it easy for him to transform to the other gender. The story of Orlando might be a way for Woolf to escape the system of gender classification and conventions and the rigid norms one has to face within the society.

REFERENCES Bakhtiar, S., & Serveh, H. (2019). Gender, Performativity, and Agency in Virginia Woolf: A Butlerian Reading of Orlando. Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences. Benthin, A. (2008). Redefining gender roles: The Image of Women in Virginia Woolf’s ‘To the Lighthouse. Retrieved from GRIN: https://www.grin.com/document/127155 Butler, J. (1999). Gender trouble. Routledge. Dalvai, S. (2018). Women’s place in fiction. How Virginia Woolf prefigured theories of the second wave of feminist writers. Retrieved from Grin: https://www.grin.com/ document/456427 Hastings, S. (2008). Sex, Gender, and Androgyny in Virginia Woolf’s MockBiographies ‘Friendship Gallery’ and Orlando. Retrieved from ETD Archive: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/etdarchive/520 137

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Jianjun, M. (2010). Virginia Woolf’s Aesthetics of Feminism and Androgyny:A Re-reading of A Room of One’s Own. Comparative Literature: East & West, 48-59. doi:10.1080/25723618.2010.12015582 Kaivola, K. (1999). Revisiting Woolf’s Representations of Androgyny: Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Nation. Tulsa Studies in Womens Literature, 18(2), 235–261. doi:10.2307/464448 Knopp, S. (1988). If I Saw You Would You Kiss Me?: Sapphism and the Subversiveness of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. PMLA, 103(1), 24–34. doi:10.2307/462459 Koç, C. (2015). A Feminist Study Of A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. International Journal of Media Culture and Literature. Leitch, V. B. (2001). The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Norton. Rognstad, M. (2012). The Representation of Gender in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex. Retrieved from https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/ handle/10852/25325/Rognstad_master.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Woolf, V. (1928.). Orlando: A Biography. Hogarth Press. Woolf, V. (1929). A Room of One’s Own. Academic Press. Wright, E. (2008). Re-evaluating Woolf’s Androgynous Mind. Postgraduate English: A Journal and Forum for Postgraduates in English.

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Chapter 15

“It’s My Story”:

Revisioning of Myth in Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni by Poile Sengupta Anusha Ashok https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8245-4190 Stella Maris College, India

ABSTRACT The imposing corpus of Indian mythology has long stood uncontested and unquestioned as a repository of narratives that demarcate the heroes and the villains with the collective sympathy leaning towards the former. The depiction of the antagonists in epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were carefully constructed to cement their positions as figures that would incite hatred and disgust and as foils to their infallible hero counterparts. The purpose of this chapter is to reconsider the character of Shoorpanakha as a victim of circumstance and masculine domination as opposed to the malevolent individual that she is portrayed in the epics, through the lens of subalternity and feminism, as represented in Sengupta’s play Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni. The conscious decision of giving a voice to those who were vilified and shunned is an instance of revisioning. It defies conventional knowledge of the two crucial metanarratives and the dominating discursive practices. It does not lend itself to the restricting binary of good and evil and allows agency to own their narrative.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch015 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

“It’s My Story”

INTRODUCTION The epic as a genre has been extensively defined in academia and has a set of distinguishing characteristics that demarcate it from other genres. It is accepted that a long narrative work that delineates the heroic deeds and adventures of an individual(s) can be classified under this terminology. Romila Thapar furthers this definition by critically looking at the genre in her essay The Historian and the Epic (1979) and comments, “(...) the epic is essentially a literary crystallisation of the heroic ideal. By its very nature, therefore, it is not to be taken as factual evidence but as the representation of an ideal.” (p.199) Epics, therefore, act as an agent of consolidation for the ideals that a particular society upholds and strives to attain. The Ramayana is subjected to the same treatment as characters are portrayed as the epitome of perfection by the juxtaposition to an ‘evil’ and ‘deformed’ counterpart. Ram and Ravan have been moulded to create an intensive polarity that cements their positions in the hero/villain binary. This is doubly suppressive to the female characters as patriarchal ideology dictates that they have to be subservient and demure in order to add credibility to their femininity. The concept of the Ideal Feminine is a common theme among the literatures of the world, both ancient and modern. An appropriate example that can attest to this is the verse-novel The Angel in the House written by Coventry Patmore (1866) that spread the Victorian idea of the perfect woman which was later heavily criticised by feminists; Virginia Woolf going so far as writing, “Killing the Angel in the House was part of the occupation of a woman writer.” (The Death of the Moth, and Other Essays, 2012). This behavior would not be acceptable to the largely conservative audience that metanarratives like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, whose core values were seen as an essential way of Hindu life. This paper aims to scrutinize the way revisioning aids in providing a voice to the marginalised female character of Shoorpanakha. She is a mythological figure that went down in the annals of history as a despicable character who incited the war between Ram and Ravan and responsible for thousands of casualties on both sides. It will also inspect the harmful projection of the ideal onto the same and how Sengupta untangles the prejudice and judgment that is woven around the mythical figure, through her play.

The Subaltern Speaks: Revisioning as a Tool of Agency Kiran Budkuley in Mahabharata Myths in Contemporary Writing: Challenging Ideology says, “Myths continue to inspire/provoke the contemporary writer’s creative impulse and pose for him/her the challenge of analysing, questioning, countering or subverting their apparent and or/concealed ideology by re-working or re-visioning 140

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the myths in question” (Budkuley, 2010, p.16). In Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni (2010) which appears in the anthology titled Women Centre Stage: The Dramatist and the Play, Sengupta (2014) transports two minor ‘villains’ from the epics and places them in a contemporary setting. Mahesh Dattani, renowned playwright and director, opined in an interview about the appeal of directing such a controversial play and observes, At the heart of it, (the play) is about the subaltern, people whose stories we haven’t heard and the myths as we know them, the stories that we hear(...) it is very important that we as a society in the 21st century revisit whom we think is a good person and whom we think is a bad person and more so now because the myths that we have grown up to hear must be countered with another story: it is not accepting one and rejecting another, I think it’s just embracing the fact that there are more stories than one. (Sridhar, 2020) Sengupta, in true post-modernist fashion, shifts the existing centre to the margins and foregrounds the periphery. Gramsci adopted the term ‘subaltern’ to refer to those people who are subjected to the hegemony of dominant institutions. The history that these oppressive powers provide becomes ‘that which is accepted as ‘official’ history’ (Ashcroft et al., 2007). Horatio Legras in a paper titled Subalternity and Negativity (1997) remarks, “(...) the subaltern is never our contemporary. We reach him/her in the form of an aftermath.”(p.84). In the play, Sengupta focuses on the character of Shoorpanakha as a marginalised woman, bearing the brunt of masculine ridicule and derision. She is seen as doubly undesirable for being an asura as well as a woman who freely expresses her sexuality and, therefore, is othered and experiences an ‘absence of autonomy’ (Legras, 1997, pp. 84). The conscious decision of giving a voice to a woman who was overlooked and shunned is an example of revisioning that defies conventional knowledge of the crucial metanarrative and dominating discursive practices. Adrienne Rich (1972) in her essay When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision notes, Re-vision-the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction-is for us more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival. Until we can understand the assumptions in which we are drenched we cannot know ourselves. (p.18) In the play, two characters, named simply as Man and Woman are seated in an airport waiting lounge. They are shown as people belonging to the modern era in every sense of the word, from their clothes to their speech but the play shifts intermittently back to the events of the epic past to which they belong, effectively 141

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beginning the revisioning process by this theatrical tool. As the play progresses, they devolve into lamenting about their unjust portrayal, their vilification and the loss of agency to tell their own stories. The Man and Woman immerse themselves into the characters of Shakuni and Shoorpanakha using skilful makeup and props at the appropriate intervals. Shoorpanakha in Valmiki’s version of the Ramayana, is the sister of Ravan, and is furious after the rejection of her amorous advances by both Rama and Lakshman. This incites her to attack Sita which in turn results in her nose and breasts being cut off by Lakshman. In the play, Shoorpanakha elaborates further on the humiliation that she faced at the hands of the brothers, so long thought to be righteous and good. She narrates her story and says, (...) the two brothers ... they laughed. Laughed at me. They teased me. Mocked me.... The older one said, ask my brother, he might want you...The younger one said, I can’t marry without my brothers consent...They tossed me this way and that, as if ... as if I did not deserve any more respect...As if I was a . . . a broken plaything. (Sengupta, 2010, pp. 261) The ridicule and contempt with which they treated her, stripping her of her femininity and dignity, as she says, ‘whatever stood out from me, whatever stuck out’ (p.262) becomes evident. Masculine anxiety concerning such explicit sensuality that the female has full power and control over, causes the internal agitation of the mind to manifest into external violence on the body. She admits that revenge was not at the forefront of her mind, only the love that was denied to her. She justifies her stance by asking if it is a sin to tell a man about her love and admiration and that it transcended lust. Her complaint to Ravan is believed to have instigated the abduction of Sita and the subsequent war but it quickly became apparent that her brother had his own objectives that he hoped to accomplish and only used her woes as a smokescreen. . The airport, which is a liminal setting, serves as a ‘third space’ in which both of the characters can articulate their woes and experience catharsis. Revisioning provides a space for the ‘undesirable’ voices to pierce through the overarching narrative that aim to color them as undeserving of being acknowledged. Their voice, if any is given at all, was only to further the perfect and infallible hero’s narrative and enhance and exemplify his ‘desirable’ qualities.

The Ideal Feminine Versus the Monstrous Feminine The notion of womanhood is a heavily contested concept in feminist theory and criticism, and not without reason. For the longest time, the image of the ideal woman 142

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was guided by the values that male counterparts put forward as essential and therefore is a constructed and performative entity. The dominating representation of the ideal feminine had lasting impressions on female writers like Woolf, who in a speech delivered before a branch of the National Society for Women’s Service remarked, “(...). Be sympathetic; be tender; flatter; deceive; use all the arts and wiles of our sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all, be pure.” (1931/2020). She also states that, ‘telling the truth about my own experiences as a body’ is a process she could never reconcile and achieve. Commenting on the same, Elaine Showalter posits that the ‘exemplary female had always been a male ideal and not a living woman.’(Showalter, 1992, pp. 208) Critics like Beauvoir and Friedan observed the trajectory of this ideal, in order to map, survey and subsequently, deconstruct. Betty Friedan (2013) in her seminal work, The Feminine Mystique notes the harmful lessons women were taught: ‘The root of women’s troubles in the past is that women envied men, women tried to be like men, instead of accepting their own nature, which can find fulfilment only in sexual passivity, male domination, and nurturing maternal love.’(2013, Ch.2) In the play, Shoorpanakha treats the idea of such an idealised femininity with contempt and rage. Conversely, the notion of a ‘terrifying feminine’, a polarised and shrewish version of the demure and domesticated ‘goddess’ becomes inadequate to express her true self. There is no appropriate and accepted middle ground that patriarchy affords women. Her impatience with such labels is captured in her exchange with the Man in the text: WOMAN: Who would want to be a wife? To be a pigeon. Grey and stupid and cooing ... cooing all the time. MAN: There are other kinds of wives. WOMAN: Oh yes, there are. Those are the crows. Caw! Caw! Why are you so late? What did you do with your salary? Caw! Why haven’t you paid the school fees? Caw ... Caw. Who is that bitch I saw you with? (pp.255-256) Her refusal to be restricted by these two categories that a phallocentric society imposes on womanhood is seen as unacceptable and dangerous. The only way to quell this image of a woman who understands the world around her and dares to take agency of her own body and will is to paint her as a ‘monster’. Doing so would justify any and all cruelty that the men inflict upon her and it will even be heralded as a necessary and commendable feat. Shoorpanakha’s opinions in the play reimagines the definition of a woman and challenges the notion of forcing women to either be demure and doting or a vamp that always quarrel with their husbands. 143

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In the Valmiki Ramayana, Sita and Shoorpanakha are depicted as opposing forces of womanhood; the former being pious, gentle, pure and subordinate whilst the latter is evil, sensuous, and assertive. According to ancient beliefs, a man must be wedded exclusively to such a woman and ‘guard’ her. The Manusmriti dictates, “Men must make their women dependent day and night, and keep under their own control those who are attached to sensory objects. Her father guards her in childhood, her husband guards her in youth, and her sons guard her in old age. A woman is not fit for independence.”(1991Ch.9,pp.2-3) Sita is seen as a dutiful wife for following her husband in his exile to the forest and has ‘trusted’ male companionship in Lakshman but Shoorpanakha is seen as ‘morally loose’ because of her physical movement by her own volition. Rama utilizes Sita almost as a scapegoat to justify the mutilation of Shoorpanakha: the imperative punishment of the ‘bad’ woman to protect the ‘good’. The act of cutting off her breasts is equivalent to the confiscation of her honor. Her body has become an ‘intruded’ space upon which masculine judgement is executed for expressing her desires. It is an act intended to demonstrate the masculine power and ownership of, what is construed as, a lesser female body that effectively puts her back in place in a patriarchal hierarchy. In the play, the Woman overtly displays her raw sexuality and initially tries to turn on her ‘feminine charms’. She calls herself an ‘enchantress’ and believes that she can captivate every heterosexual man, especially if they are married. The Man seems immune to her charms and is blatantly rude to her. In one instance, she rejects the Ramayana as an epic that holds great meaning to the Indian audience and calls it a ‘Mills and Boon’, terming it as a ‘cute’ and ‘romantic’ story. WOMAN. Anyway, there they are in the forest living in a pretty little cottage when this absolutely stunning woman comes along. The two brothers, especially the older one, are bowled over. Totally bowled over. MAN. That’s not what I’ve heard. WOMAN. Were you there? MAN. Of course not. WOMAN. Then how do you know what happened? MAN. And you were there. (Pause) 144

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WOMAN. It’s my story. I was her. (pp.254-255) Here, she tries to take control of her narrative and opposes the portrayal of her mythical character as ‘ugly and pot-bellied’ rakshasi. In the chapter titled “The Mutilation of Surpanakha” featured in the anthology Many Ramayanas, Kathleen M. Erndl (1991) alludes to some versions having Rama say, ‘”You have such a charming body that you appear to be a rakshasi.”(p.70). In the versions prevalent in the South, like the Kamba Ramayana, Shoorpanakha is depicted as possessing a bewitching beauty. Her femininity is of an intimidating nature and she weaponises her outward attributes, unlike the ideal feminine who does not invite unwanted and amorous advances. Erndl goes on to comment, Although male characters also divide into good and bad, the split between women is far more pronounced and is always expressed in terms of sexuality. Similarly, when a woman such as Surpanakha performs a wrong deed, it is typically ascribed to her female nature, whereas Ravana’s evil deeds, for example, are never said to spring from his male nature (…)evil-doings of the male characters are recast as devotional acts leading to eventual salvation, Surpanakha’s salvation is not mentioned. (1991, pp. 83) The Man, a modern-day embodiment of Shakuni, in contrast to Rama bemoans the fact that his sister, Gandhari, while moulding herself as the ideal wife and blinding herself to stand in solidarity with her husband, loses her sense of self and freedom. Thus, Shoorpanakha, Sita, and Gandhari are caught in the vicious cycle of patriarchal expectations of what a woman ought to be and the repercussions if they fall short of the established definition.

CONCLUSION The vast majority of sacred books that have been considered as a codified text on how to live a righteous life with the correct code of conduct must be revisited and should not be accepted at face value. Though it might contain certain concepts that can be universal, it must also be studied at the time in which it was written and questioned. Readers must also recognise that the individuals at the centre and around whom the narrative revolves around, will understandably be portrayed in the best possible light. Scrutinizing the rigorous expectations of morality and the feminine ideal in ancient times may help modern readers understand contemporary women and their oppression. Real-life equivalents of ‘dangerous’ women like Shoorpanakha as opposed 145

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to the ‘good’ Sita are abundant in culture and media. Further research and enquiry can be made into other mythological texts and their varied treatment of women and the style in which modern writers may subvert these ideologies. As a scholar of literature, it is of paramount importance to scrutinize and peel back the layers of misogyny and marginalization in order to bring the stories of the periphery to the forefront. A re-examination of the heroes and heroines, who have long been lauded as the paragon of righteousness and morality, is necessary in order to understand the full picture. The purpose of this paper is not to completely reject metanarratives but to look at the multiplicity that it has the potential to possess. The play Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni by Poile Sengupta (2010) does not lend itself to the restricting binary of good and evil but rather provides a rationale for their actions and allows them agency to own their narrative rather than be ventriloquized by a cruel mythos.

REFERENCES Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H. (2007). Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies (2nd ed.). Routledge. Budkuley, K. (2010). Mahabharata Myths in Contemporary Writing: Challenging Ideology. In Satchidanandan (Ed.), Myth in Contemporary Indian Literature (pp. 16–30). Sahitya Akademi. Doniger, W., & Smith, B. K. (Eds.). (1991). The Laws of Manu. PDF Drive. Penguin Books. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://www.pdfdrive.com/the-laws-ofmanu-d189752067.html Erndl, K. M. (1991). The Mutilation of Shoorpanakha. In P. Richman (Ed.), Many Rāmāyanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. University Of California Press. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://publishing.cdlib.org/ ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft3j49n8h7&chunk.id=d0e4061&toc.depth=1&toc. id=d0e4061&brand=ucpress Friedan, B. (2013). The Feminine Mystique. W.W. Norton & Company. Legras, H. (1997). Subalternity and negativity. Dispositio, 22(49), 83–102. https:// www.jstor.org/stable/41491549 Patmore, C. (1866). The angel in the house. Macmillan.

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Rich, A. (1972). When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision. College English, 34(1), 18–30. doi:10.2307/375215 Sengupta, P. (2010). Thus Spake Shoorpanakha, So Said Shakuni. Women Centre Stage: The Dramatist and the Play, 242-82. Sengupta, P. (2014). Women centre stage: The dramatist and the play. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315815954 Showalter, E. (1992). Killing the Angel in the House: The Autonomy of Women Writers. The Antioch Review, 50(1/2), 207–220. doi:10.2307/4612511 Sridhar, V. (2020, Oct 17). Mahesh Dattani on Theatre and on Directing THUS SPAKE [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi04WA-Dlm4 Thapar, R. (1979). The historian and the epic. Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 60(1/4), 199–213. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41692304 Woolf, V. (2012, October). The Death of the Moth, and Other Essays. Project Gutenberg Australia. Retrieved April 28, 2022, from https://gutenberg.net.au/ ebooks12/1203811h.html Woolf, V. (2020). Professions for Women [Speech Transcript]. Literature Cambridge. https://www.literaturecambridge.co.uk/news/professions-women (Original work published 1931)

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Chapter 16

An Ode to Woman:

Role and Representation of Women in the World of Literature Arundhati Patra Vivekananda Mission Mahavidyalaya, India

ABSTRACT In this 21st century, the world, as well as societal norms, changes rapidly due to globalization. The feminist movement is one of the important outcomes of these societal changes. Nowadays the status or position of women becomes progressed as we find them in every pace of the world due to the waves of the feminist movement. This chapter examines how women got their rights to introduce themselves in this patriarchal society, the history of the world of women’s literature – how women introduce themselves as writers and the way they are depicted within the world of literature, and the present scenario of women in the society as portrayed in the world of literature through selected literary texts as contexts.

Men and women should own the world as a mutual possession. - Pearl S. Buck, Of Men and Women In the 21st century the terms ‘equality’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘emancipation’ are widely used words that can be heard in each layer of society. As OED (Oxford English Dictionary) explains these terms: ‘equality’ is ‘the fact of being equal in

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch016 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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rights, status, advantages’; ‘empowerment’ means ‘the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights’; and ‘emancipation’ is ‘the fact or process of being set free from legal, social, or political restrictions.’ All these terms are specifically related to Gender Studies. Now the question arises what is ‘gender’ basically? Gender is all about the two sexesmasculine and feminine-that denote a range of identities. Therefore, from this point another question arises that Is identity dependent on the basis of sexes? Certainly, or certainly not as identity is an abstract idea that is interpreted from various aspects. From masculinity, the term patriarchy comes which means a belief that women are inferior to men; an inborn belief what is basically called biological essentialism based on biological differences between the sexes. In literature, gender studies refer to the study of women and the question of masculinity. It is therefore, the successor to Feminist Criticism. Now a question arises if male and female are none but a biological difference, why ‘feminist criticism’ arises? Or why there is not any criticism called ‘masculine criticism? The answer lies in the meaning of patriarchy that is a belief that women are inferior to men. From this point of view feminism comes forth in society. Though the women characters are portrayed as angels, goddesses, obedient lovers, amenable wives, mother figures in literature written by male writers, women were not considered as human beings at all and were not only deprived of education and financial independence but also had to struggle against male ideologies. In the 20th century, women’s struggles for political as well as societal rights born feminism or Marxist feminist criticism. Therefore, feminism is a movement that raises a voice on women living on equal terms with that of men. According to Marxist feminist criticism, the private property from which economic inequality, dependency, political confusion and unhealthy relationship between men and women arise is the origin of women’s oppressed status in society. Feminist critics don’t deny the biological differences, what they deny is that of what is called ‘social constructionism’ refers to that woman is not born feminine and man is not born masculine rather this classification is introduced by the society that gives birth to psychoanalytic feminist criticism. According to Psychoanalytic feminist criticism that is based on Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, gender inequality is not a biological one rather it comes from that of early childhood experiences that lead man to believe themself to be masculine and woman to be feminine. This psychological difference considers women as inferior or marginal characters. It’s not only the problem of western civilization but also the problem of Eastern civilization. It bridges East and West in a single thread. In this paper, my focus is only on the status and role of women in Indian society, though the position of women is the same all over the world. In Eastern Civilization, women also were considered as helpless, dependent creatures who were born only to fulfilling male’s desires. They were always remained 149

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themselves behind the pardah (veil) or four walls of the house. As Sarojini Naidu, an Indian poet, perfectly describes the sorrow and suffering life of women in her poem, Pardah Nashin: From thieving light of eyes impure, From coveting sun or wind’s caress, Her days are guarded and secure Behind her carven lattices... (Naidu, 1905, lines 7-10) In the Vedic Age, we can see that there’s no difference between men and women. Women were equally treated in the society like men. They were allowed to educate themselves even to learn how to fight against enemy as an instance we find the female characters named Gargi, Apala, Mayitree or female writers Phalguhastini who wrote Trinayanjotabollipushpam, Lakhima who is the author of Sphutakabyanni or Khamaraba the writer of Satyagrahita. During the Vedic age, women can exercise all the powers, rights without any deprivation. But the scenario was changed gradually. In the post- Vedic Age, Manushastra is responsible for the derogatory status accorded to women. All the powers, rights, freedom were taken under the name of patriarchy. As described in The Manusmriti, one of the ancient Dharmasastras of Hinduism: “पिता रक्षति कौमारे भर्ता रक्षति यौवने । रक्षन्ति स्थविरे पुत्रा न स्त्री स्वातन्त्र्यमर्हति ॥ ३ ॥ pitā rakṣati kaumāre bhartā rakṣati yauvane | rakṣanti sthavire putrā na strī svātantryamarhati || 3 || Translation: The father guards her during virginity, the husband guards her in youth, the son guards her in old age; the woman is never fit for independence. Even according to Manu, women never be free, they didn’t allow to enjoy their freedom, as described in Chapter-5, Verse-146 बा ल् ये पि तु र् व शे ति ष् ठे त् पा णि ग् रा ह स् य पुत्राणां भर्तरि प्रेते न भजेत् स्त्री स्वतन्त्रताम् ॥ १४६ ॥

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।

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bālye piturvaśe tiṣṭhet pāṇigrāhasya putrāṇāṃ bhartari prete na bhajet strī svatantratām || 146 ||

yauvane

|

In childhood, she should remain under the control of her father, in youth under that of her husband, and on the husband’s death under that of her sons, the woman should never have recourse to independence. (Chapter-5, Verse-146) Even Rishi Manu strictly gave a piece of advice on the marital issue as he described in his The Manusmriti (Chapter-3, verse-13) शू द् रै व भा र् या शू द् र स् य सा च स् वा ते च स्वा चैव राज्ञश्च ताश्च स्वा चाग्रजन्मनः ॥ १३ ॥

च

śūdraiva bhār yā śūdrasya sā ca svā ca te ca svā caiva rājñaśca tāśca svā cāgrajanmanaḥ || 13 ||

वि शः viśaḥ

स् मृ ते

।

smṛte

|

Translation: For the Sudra, the Sudra girl. alone has been ordained to be the wife; for the Vaisya, she as also the girl of his own caste; for the Kṣatriya, those two as also the girl of his own caste; and for the Brahmaṇa those three as also the girl of his own caste (Chapter-3, Verse-13). The issues of casteism, pardha pratha and derogatory status were deliberately challenged by the famous classical Indian Sanskrit author Kalidasa. Kalidasa took out the women from jabanika that means in English Veil and presented them into the mainstream of society. He depicted women as women a part of human beings. Even he also broke the norms of the difference between the social casteism in the issue of marriage that is quite opposite that of Manu through the characters of Malavika, an exiled servant girl to whom King Agnimitra falls in love in the play Malavikagnimitram (Pertaining to Malavika and Agnimitra) and Sakuntala, adopted daughter of a sage to whom King Duṣyanta meets and marries during a hunting trip in a forest in the play Abhijnanasakuntalam (Of the recognition of Sakuntala). Women are depicted as mystic figures like that of the forests. In the history of English Literature, the role and representation of women are quite similar to that of our literature. Women are depicted as a subject of men’s desires. In the age of the Renaissance, poets express their loves of the beloved to whom they dedicated their writings to immortalize them like Edmund Spenser who dedicated his Amoretti to his beloved Elizabeth Boyle or Sir Phillip Sidney dedicated Astrophel and Stella to Lady Penelope Devereux. At that time women characters were performed by male performers on stage. Women were not allowed to come forward in front of society though we found Mary I and Elizabeth I as the queen who ruled the monarchy. In the early 1660s, it’s accepted that women could begin to appear on stage. On 8th December 1660, Margaret Hughes played the role 151

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of Desdemona in Shakespeare’s play Othello, in production by Thomas Killigrew’s new King’s Company at their Vere Street theatre. Therefore, in the history of English Theatre Margaret Hughes become the first woman to perform on stage, the primary step to introduce feminine identity in the patriarchal society. Even if you go through the history of English literature thoroughly, we can easily trace that women were not allowed to become writers that’s why they chose the path of disguising themselves during publication. The issue of disguise was more popular from that of the Renaissance Age as most of the Shakespearean heroine adopted the issue of disguise i.e. Rosalind who disguised herself as a male character named Ganymede in the Forest of Arden in the play As You Like It. Mary Ann Evans one of the famous Victorian female writers published her writings under the pseudonym George Eliot. It’s believed that women were safe by the male identity that’s why they introduced themselves as male personae. Women were only made for pretty as good luck of her husband as Jane Austen (1813, 2013) wrote in her famous novel Pride and Prejudice: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Austen, 1813, 2013). After the wave of the feminist movement, the social scenery is changed. Now women can raise their voices for their fundamental rights. Even in United Nations Charter Chapter 3 Article 8, it is said, The United Nations shall place no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs. (United Nations, n.d.) In Indian Literature, whether written in English or regional language, we find several texts which will prove the context sort of a woman as subaltern, woman as a writer, woman as part of society who has broken the societal norms deliberately. Rassundari Devi’s Amar Jiban or My Life (1999/1876), the first published autobiography written by a woman in Bengali literature, depicts Rassundari Devi’s entire life: from her childhood to her marriage life, and life after marriage minutely. This autobiography is nothing but a documentary of a struggling woman who refused to stay uneducated; who refused to be a subaltern; who fought for raising her voice against the Bengali orthodoxy. While during this present era, a girl is taken into account to be educated as our Indian Constitution gives the right that has been described in Article 45 entitled Provision for free and compulsory education for children that is adopted from Article 36, Draft Constitution of India 1950: Every citizen is entitled to free primary education and the State shall endeavour to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years. (Constitution of India, 1950).

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The 17th or 18th century Bengal society’s scenario was quite different. At that time, it was believed that education is not made for women rather it is a vice as well curse as an educated woman become a widow and this belief is rightly depicted through the character Binodini in Rabindranath Tagore’s Chokher Bali, a novel that focuses on the issues of women literacy, patriarchy and also of the fates of the widow. In Rassundari Devi’s Amar Jiban, we can hear a voice of plea for being educated through her pen: I would learn to read and I would read a religious manuscript. I was unlucky, in those days women were not educated. People would say: Ah, it seems the kali age is, indeed, upon us! Now women will take over men’s jobs…...Such talk terrified me…...I was so scared that someone may stumble upon them that even if I came across a piece of paper, I would not glance at it, in case people suspected that I was trying to read it. In my heart, however, I was forever praying: “My Lord! Teach me to read, I’ll read religious manuscripts…. Nonetheless, it is deplorable that I was not allowed to educate myself because I was a woman (Devi, 1999, 1876, pp-161-163). Therefore, Amar Jiban completely highlights a journey of an uneducated girl to an educated woman; a simple housewife to a writer and a first-ever Bengal feminist who raises her voice against the forcefully applied norms of the so-called patriarchal society. In the case of girl’s equality, women education, women freedom, not only the oppressed women or female writers raise their voice but also the male writers raise their voice. As Nelson Mandela rightly said on the issues of women’s freedom: “Freedom cannot be achieved unless the women have been emancipated from all forms of oppression”. Rabindranath Tagore, one amongst the leading figures of The Bengal Renaissance, depicted women characters very carefully, presents them educated furthermore modern in most of his novels and short stories, deliberately challenges also as breaks this social norm and presents a form of new society where both men and women are equal, liberal to choose their own way to lead life. Within The Exercise Book (2018). Rabindranath Tagore raises his voice against Hindu believes through the character Uma who loved to read and write like that of Rassundari Devi. But her passion for reading is challenged by her own educated husband, Pyarimohan, an epitome of patriarchy, who believed that education for girls is to be the forerunner of widowhood as he said: “If women began to read and write, novels and plays would soon make their way into the home and it would be hard to uphold the household virtues…..he said that, the power of the female and the power of the male together produced the sacred power of the conjugal relationship; but if the power of the female was vanquished through education and study, the power of the male alone would be paramount. Then male power would clash with 153

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male power to produce so terrible a destructive energy that the power of the conjugal bond would be completely destroyed, and so the woman would become a widow” (Tagore, 2018, p. 48). Whereas Rabindranath Tagore represents Pyarimohan as an incarnation of a male-dominated society, he also presents an opposite character of Pyarimohan named Shambhunath Sen in Aparichita (2005) who may be a spokesman of Rabindranath Tagore’s inner self even modern thought. Rabindranath Tagore deliberately challenges the social customs through the character of Shambhunath Sen, Kalyani’s father, who breaks his own daughter’s marriage only for protecting her respect: “I cannot give my daughter in marriage to a family that considers me capable of stealing her gold” (Tagore, 2005, p.224). Tagore’s heroines are openly challenging social evils as widow-remarriage, the rigid caste-system and patriarchy at large. In his writings Rabindranath Tagore presents the women characters as mystic figures as well as educated. Mahasweta Devi, another Bengali female writer of the 20th century, deals with the issue of subalternity in her most of writings. The term ‘subaltern’ basically implies a socially inferior class of people. Mahasweta Devi pens on the issue of the unspeakable truth of women who are basically considered as ‘subaltern’ or ‘marginalized’ or ‘peripheral’ ones whether they belonged to the economically superior class or economically inferior class. The scenario of women’s misery and the power of enduring and resistance is quite similar in this patriarchal society. To be considered women as subaltern, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak rightly said in her well-known essay Can the Subaltern Speak? Can the subaltern speak? What must the elite do to watch out for the continuing construction of the subaltern? The question of ‘woman’ seems most problematic in this context…...In seeking to learn to speak to (rather than listen to or speak for) the historically muted subject of the subaltern woman, the postcolonial intellectual systematically ‘unlearns’ female privilege. This systematic unlearning involves learning to critique postcolonial discourse with the best tools it can provide and not simply substituting the lost figure of the colonized. Thus, to question the unquestioned muting of the subaltern women within the anti-imperialist project of subaltern studies is not to…’produce difference by differing’ or to ‘appeal….to a sexual identity defined as essential and privilege experiences associated with that identity. (Spivak, 2015, pp. 90-91) The character of Draupadi in the famous short story, Draupadi, written by Mahasweta Devi and translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, is almost a perfect example of a subaltern woman who can’t pronounce her Sanskrit name Draupadi rather she is introduced as Dopdi, a tribalized form of her name:

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Name Dopdi Mejhen, age twenty-seven, husband Dulna Majhi (deceased), domicile Cherakhan, Bankrajharh, information whether dead or alive and/or assistance in arrest, one hundred rupees. . . … What’s this, a tribal called Dopdi? The list of names I brought has nothing like it! How can anyone have an unlisted name? (Spivak, 1981, p. 392). Being a tribal woman, Dopdi is not considered as part of mainstream society. Through the character of Dopdi, Devi deliberately challenges the societal rules for subaltern and also for women as she depicted her heroine Dopdi. Though Dopdi is an illiterate, peasant tribal woman, she leads an armed struggle for the rights and freedom of tribal. Devi represents Dopdi not as a victim rather as a woman equal to men as she fights for the rights firmly like her husband Dulan. Dopdi Mejhen replies to Spivak’s question that can the subaltern speak? rightly that a subaltern has a voice therefore he/she can speak. Mahasweta Devi gives a voice to Dopdi who acquires a self- definition and at the same time refuses to be a subject of male dominated society and introduces her feminine identity. Through the history of literature, the main mottos of the feminist criticism are- I) literature can be gender free and II) to recover and re-read the writings of women writers and we can say that feminist criticism is not a product of modernism rather the seed of the feminism lies on the ancient age both Western and Eastern society. What is new is that the feminist movement appears in 1790s through the writing of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women (2008, 1792) and presents its self into three distinct waves- First Wave Feminism that declares to secure the basic civil rights described in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (2010, 1949) where she claimed: “one is not born, one becomes a woman”; Second Wave Feminism focuses on the equality as described in Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (2010, 1963); and Third Wave Feminism centers on racial justice, LGBT rights and women of colour consciousness as described in Rebecca Walker’s Becoming the Third Wave (2001). Even we may include 2016’s Me too Movement into the feminism that arouse against the sexual violence, especially the colors of females. The waves of the Western feminism movement not only affect the European countries but also the Eastern countries like India due to the globalization. To conclude, I want to interpret the title “An Ode to Woman” of my paper briefly. In literature, Ode is considered as a literary genre that indicates to praise a person or subject lyrically. Therefore, the title, “An ode to woman” simply shows to praise a woman in general, to praise their struggle for establishing their selves as a human being like that of man, to praise their fight against the rotten societal norms and introduce their identity in front of the world as a human, as a girl, as a mother, as a writer or as an important character without whom the society as well as the world is incomplete. Now “the caged bird” is not a “caged bird [who] sings of freedom” 155

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(Angelou, 1983, lines 21-22) rather it is “a free bird [who] leaps/on the back of the wind/and floats downstream/till the current ends/and dips [its] wing/in the orange sun rays/and dares to claim the sky” (Angelou, 1983, lines 1-7).

REFERENCES Angelou, M. (1983). Caged bird. In Shaker, why don’t you sing. Random House. Austen, J. (2003). Pride and Prejudice. Penguin Classics. (Original publication 1813) Constitution of India. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.constitutionofindia.net/ constitution_of_india/directive_principles_of_state_policy/articles/Article%2045 De Beauvoir, S. (2010). The second sex. Knopf. Devi, R. (1999). Amar Jiban. Writers Workshop. (Original publication 1876) Friedan, B. (2010). The feminine mystique. WW Norton & Company. Naidu, S. (1905). Pardah Nashin. In (The Golden Threshold (p. 87). Good Press. Sarkar, T. (1999). Words to Win: The Making of Amar Jiban: A Modern Autobiography. Academic Press. Spivak, G. C. (1981, Winter). Writing and Sexual Difference.: “Draupadi” by Mahasweta Devi. Critical Inquiry, 8(2). doi:10.1086/448160 Spivak, G. C. (1981). “Draupadi” by Mahasveta Devi. Critical Inquiry, 8(2), 381–402. Spivak, G. C. (2015). Can the Subaltern Speak? In Colonial discourse and postcolonial theory (pp. 66-111). Routledge. Tagore, R. (2005). Aparichita (W. Radice, Trans.). In Selected Short Stories. Penguin Classics. Tagore, R. (2018). The Exercise Book. Shree Book Centre. United Nations. (n.d.). Charter of the United Nations. United Nations. Chapter 3 Article 8. Retrieved from https://legal.un.org/repertory/art8.shtml Walker, R. (2001). Becoming the third wave. Identity Politics in the Women’s Movement, 3(13), 78-80. Wollstonecraft, M. (2008). A Vindication of the Rights of Women & A Vindication of the Rights of Men. Cosimo, Inc.

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Chapter 17

Women in Partition Literature: A Comparative Study of Women’s Representations in India’s Partition Literature Trisha Bhattacharya Independent Researcher, India

ABSTRACT This chapter is a comparative analysis between partition literature from Bengal and Punjab showing how even though there is a minor divergence in literature from these two sides owing to the political realities, for the most part literature from these two sides shows overwhelming convergence. In order to draw a comparative analysis, the author uses eight pieces of partition literature—four each from Bengal and Punjab. The chapter is divided into three sections: The first section discusses the relevance of Partition literature for studying Partition and how partition was experienced different by Punjab and Bengal in the political sense. The second section presents the analysis of the one most significant divergence between literature from the two sides, and the final section presents a discussion of the overwhelming convergence between women’s experience of Partition on both sides and how it is not a surprising fact.

INTRODUCTION The Partition of India in 1947 was an event of great significance for the South Asian region. However while the political significance of the Partition of India has been often talked about, what partition meant for the people of the subcontinent has received scant attention. It was this lack of attention to the social history of DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch017 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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Partition in general and to women’s history of Partition in particular which prompted a feminist investigation into the history of Partition. This feminist investigation was begun by scholars such as Urvashi Butalia, Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin. A feminist investigation of Partition’s history allowed an analysis of how women were one of the worst sufferers of Partition’s violence. There was mass sexual violence during Partition with approximately 75,000-100,000 women having been abducted and raped (Tiwari, 2013). Yet silence surrounded their experience, prompted by the ideal of ‘Honour’ - both their family’s and the nation’s. This silence around women’s experiences was investigated through a feminist analysis of Partition’s history. The introduction of gender into the discussion of Partition and its politics led to the emergence of a very different history (Didur, 2006) – and in this history the violence inscribed on women’s bodies is clearly visible. It is because women have been presumed to be outside history since they are outside the public and political where history is being made (Menon, 2004) – that an investigation into women’s history of Partition became necessary. So while researchers investigating women’s experience of Partition in general used oral testimonies as source of knowledge – Rituparna Roy (2010) acknowledges that there is an agreement among historians that literature has been able to present a better picture of women’s experience of Partition. While the question of which source of information on women’s experience is better would require a different kind of research, in this paper I discuss how Partition literature has come to be recognised as a genre and how it can be used as a source for the study of Partition itself and a study of women’s experience of Partition in particular. The first section of this paper therefore discusses what exactly Partition literature is, followed by a brief discussion of the difference in Bengal and Punjab’s political experience of Partition. The second section deals with the difference in the literature from Punjab and Bengal. The third section follows all the points of similarity between literature from Bengal and Punjab. In conclusion I discuss why the existence of overwhelming similarities in the representation of women’s experience between literature from Bengal and Punjab is not a surprise at all. Before beginning the first section, I briefly discuss the methodology used in this paper and give a brief overview of the texts analysed.

METHODOLOGY This paper is based on a qualitative study conducted on eight literary texts and is based on research for the author’s Master’s thesis titled “Women, History, and Fiction: A study of women’s representation in India’s Partition literature”. The methodology for both this paper and and the abovementioned thesis is to carry out textual analysis on the eight chosen literary texts – four of which are literary pieces 158

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from Punjab’s partition literature and the other four are literary pieces from Bengal’s Partition literature. Textual analysis as a methodology first received recognition in literature and according to Alan Mckee (2001) performing textual analysis means making an educated guess about the most likely interpretations a text can have. The interpretations that a person arrives at by using the methodology of textual analysis will depend on the kind of sensitivity the concerned person has and the context within which research is being performed. John Scott (1990) points out that in textual analysis there is a mediation between the context in which the author produced the text and the context in which the researcher reads or analyses it. It must be understood that a text cannot be interpreted by separating it from its context of production (Scott, 1990). However it must also be remembered that there is no single correct interpretation of a text - there can be a large number of interpretations of a text but only some of these interpretations will be relevant to the context and purpose of a research (McKee, 2001). Beginning with Punjab’s Partition literature, the first story under it is Roots by Ismat Chughtai. The story has been translated from Urdu by Vishwamitter Adil and Alok Bhalla, and the book has been accessed from the third volume of Stories about the Partition of India, edited by Alok Bhalla. At the centre of the story’s narrative is Amma, who despite the threat of violence and the decision of her family refuses to leave her ancestral home. We witness both her anxiety for her children’s lives and her stubborn reluctance to leave her roots. The second story from Punjab’s Partition literature is A Leaf in the Storm by Lalithambika Antharjanam. The story has been translated from Malayalam by Narayan Chandran, and has been accessed from the first volume of Stories about the Partition of India, edited by Alok Bhalla. The protagonist of this story is Jyoti, who is rescued and brought to a refugee camp and we witness her journey in dealing with her unwanted pregnancy and eventual childbirth. The third story under Punjab’s Partition Literature is Pinjar by Amrita Pritam. The story has been translated from Punjabi by Khushwant Singh, and has been accessed from Pinjar: The skeleton and other stories which has been translated and adapted by Khushwant Singh. The protagonist of this story is Pooro whose name in the course of the story is changed to Hamida and so in this paper she is always addressed as Pooro/Hamida. This novella tells the story of Pooro/Hamida’s life after her abduction till the time of the Partition of the country. The fourth and final story from Punjab’s Partition Literature is Lajwanti by Rajinder Singh Bedi. The story has been translated from Urdu by Alok Bhalla, and has been accessed from the first volume of Stories about the Partition of India, edited by Alok Bhalla. The protagonist of this story is Lajwanti, and the story is about her abduction and rehabilitation and her husband Sunderlal’s role in the process. Now coming to Bengal’s Partition literature in which the first story is Jaha Jae or Loss by Gour Kishore Ghosh. The story has been translated from Bengali by Sarika 159

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Chaudhuri, and has been accessed from Bengal Partition Stories: An unclosed chapter edited by Bashabi Fraser. The protagonist of this story is Ranu and the story is about the anxiety Ranu experiences when she is locked in a shop with a strange Muslim man as she tries to protect herself from the riots on Kolkata’s streets. The second story from Bengal’s Partition literature is Karun Kanya or The Stricken Daughter by Ramapada Chaudhury. The story has been translated from Bengali by Sheila Sengupta, and has been accessed from Bengal Partition Stories: An unclosed chapter edited by Bashabi Fraser. The protagonist of this story is Arundhuti, and the story follows her rescue and return home with her child till the time she decides to return to her abductor. The third story from Bengal’s Partition literature is The Crossing by Jyotirmoyee Devi. The story has been translated from Bengali by Sarmistha Dutta Gupta, and has been accessed from Bengal Partition Stories: An unclosed chapter edited by Bashabi Fraser. The protagonist of the story is Durga, and the story follows her husband and her attempt at crossing the border and how eventually she is driven to commit suicide due to the threat of sexual violation. The fourth and final story from Bengal’s Partition literature is the novel The River Churning by Jyotirmoyee Devi. The novel has been translated from Bengali by Enakshi Chatterji. The protagonist of this novel is Sutara, a young girl who has lost her parents and sister in the Partition riots. The story follows the journey of Sutara’s life after she is brought back to Kolkata to live with her family. Textual analysis on these literary texts requires a close reading of the text, with the goal of reading being not just to finish the story but also to develop a deeper understanding of the story. The most crucial aspect in the selection of these literary texts was to address the Punjab Bias. Punjab bias refers to a tilt towards recognizing both Punjab’s political experience and the partition literature emerging from Punjab as the normative for the whole country’s experience of Partition. Punjab bias has led to an overshadowing of not just Bengal’s experience of Partition but also of the literature that has emerged from Bengal. In order to address the Punjab bias I perform a comparative analysis of these eight selected texts to analyse whether the perception of difference meets reality. However before moving on to the comparative analysis, we look at what Partition literature signifies and what exactly were the political differences in Punjab and Bengal’s Partition experiences.

Partition Literature and the Punjab-Bengal Binary Frances Harrison (1991) defines Partition literature as any kind of literary writing that poses or attempts to answer any question directly or indirectly related to the Partition. According to Debjani Sengupta (2016) the function of Partition literature is to force a society that has faced unendurable violence and in which victims and perpetrators have become intermixed to acknowledge what exactly it is that the society 160

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has gone through. According to Mushirul Hasan (2008) literature has emerged as an alternate archive of the times of Partition. What Partition literature has been able to do is that it has articulated the ‘little’ narratives of partition against the grand and the unofficial histories against the official ones. So as all of these scholars put forward, Partition literature allows us to go beyond the high politics of Partition, it allows us to look at the people’s history of Partition – how is it that people experienced and lived through Partition. In the case of this paper, Partition literature allows us to look at women’s experience of Partition – how society’s obsession with honour led to a suppression of women’s experience and how Punjab and Bengal’s literature portrays that experience. The study of Partition literature therefore allows us to go beyond what is officially taught as the history of Partition and specifically allows a look at women’s history of Partition. However, a focus on the Partition literature of India did not emerge until the fiftieth anniversary of India’s independence and as the incidents of communal/sectarian violence seemed to be increasing in the country (Didur, 2006). This increased attention on Partition Literature prompted History to turn towards it as a source of knowledge, something that was valuable in the exploration of Partition and its realities - Partition literature was now to be read as an alternative ‘record’ of the period (Didur, 2006). Partition Literature therefore allowed focus on the different aspects of the experience people had during Partition. Official history records had looked at the official narrative. However the everyday effects of Partition were far greater than anything official records could even begin to cover. It is important to remember that the communal violence that is referred to in official historical records were in actuality witnessed and experienced by the people of the country and their experience goes far beyond what is memorialised in official written records. In the words of Debjani Sengupta (2016), “…literature remains an extraordinarily sensitive index of the historical and cultural changes in society.” (p. 29). The division of Partition literature into Punjab’s and Bengal’s Partition is necessary because even though Debjani Sengupta (2016) notes that Partition literature from both Punjab and Bengal is used to negotiate the social amnesia around Partition – it has been widely recognized that the Partition experience for Bengal and Punjab was different politically. Jasodhara Bagchi and Subharanjan Dasgupta (2006) list out four key reasons for why, despite some political and existential overlaps, the Partition of Bengal and Punjab differed from each other. The Partition of Punjab was a one-time event with the mayhem and forced migration being restricted to primarily three years (1947-1950) while Partition of Bengal was more of a continuous process; the scale of violence in the West was not something that was repeated in the East; history and politics have remained constant for Partition of Punjab but for the Partition of Bengal they have refracted through a number of conflicting prisms since Partition; and finally, the border at the East has remained porous and flexible unlike the border 161

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on the West (Bagchi & Dasgupta, 2006). Since the political realities of Partition were different, it bears the question whether the social realities were different too especially when it came to women. However, what Bagchi and Dasgupta (2006) have also noted is that despite the difference in the overall political realities of Partition for Bengal and Punjab, women’s experience of Partition in these two parts of the country have shown remarkable similarity. The existence of similarity in women’s experience of Partition in these two parts of the country is something that finds ample representation in Partition literature as well. However, the next section will be a discussion of the difference between literary works from the two parts – after which I will move onto the discussion of similarities.

Violence in Punjab versus Bengal: A Major Point of Difference The ‘truth’ of the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 lay, at least for its victims, in the violence done to them. (Pandey, 1997, p. 2037) Violence was quite synonymous with Partition. In historical narratives of Partition we find evidence of extreme forms and levels of violence, especially on the bodies of women. Beyond abductions and rapes, women had their breasts cut off, marks of the other religion were tattooed on their bodies, they were paraded on the street in their naked form, they were forced to have sex with men from the other religion resulting in impregnations - women were taken from their own homes and also were picked up from moving caravans and refugee camps as they moved with their families in search of safety (Butalia, 2017). It was almost as if there was no end to the violence suffered by women. So as in history, in literature too violence is a major theme – used by both Punjab and Bengal’s Partition literature to quite some extent. The difference however lies in the way violence is used within the narratives that are built around women in the literary works chosen for this research. In Punjab’s partition literature violence as a theme has a very central existence in the narratives that are built up around women. There are two ways in which violence as a theme is used by the four literary works from Punjab’s Partition literature. In the first way incidents of violence are continuously woven into women’s storylines and violence maybe happening specifically to them or it may be happening around them. In the second way, violence is a continuous presence in the background – there is an awareness of the constant presence of violence unfolding in the background while the story unfolds. In Pinjar (Pritam, 2015) and A Leaf in the Storm (Antharjanam, 2012), there is either a violent incident happening or there is a wishfulness for violence. As Pooro/ Hamida’s and Jyoti’s lives are represented respectively in these two stories, we find that certain acts of violence actually get committed such as Rashida’s abduction of Pooro/Hamida, Jyoti’s violation by the Muslim mob, the mad woman’s violation despite of her obvious mental instability, and the murder of a newborn baby by 162

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(presumably) its mother in the refugee camp Jyoti was living in. While these are straightforward acts of violence which are committed with full impunity, there are also certain acts of violence that only exist in the minds of Pooro/Hamida and Jyoti. Both of these women are intensely disgusted by their unborn children. Pooro/Hamida feels the need to “Pluck it off as if it were a maggot or leech…!” (Pritam, 2015, p.1). Jyoti asks the camp doctor to get rid of the life inside of her, describing it as “the life bred of damnation - conceived in consequence of inhuman rape and ignorance” (Antharjanam, 2012, p. 139). Both these women feel an intense need to remove their unborn children, with Jyoti even contemplating killing her child once it’s born. In Roots (Chughtai, 2012) and Lajwanti (Bedi, 2012) violence is more of a background presence. In the case of Amma in Roots (2012), she has an awareness of how violence is unfolding in the world outside hers. She knows that outside the four walls of her beloved home, the world is changing. The children of the family can no longer go outside and play and a chasm is developing between her family and that of her Hindu neighbour Roopchandji’s. As Amma’s family prepares to migrate and starts moving towards Pakistan, Amma refuses to abandon her home even though she is aware of the violence that she could be subjected to since she will be left without protection now. As her family begins travelling towards Pakistan and Amma is left alone she “imagined, as in a nightmare, that her young and beautiful daughters were being paraded naked in the streets, that their bodies were being cut into pieces, that her sons and grandsons were being skinned alive.” (Chughtai 19). In the case of Lajwanti, her story is told through Sunderlal because Lajwanti has been abducted. As Sunderlal narrates Lajwanti’s story, the reader is made aware that wherever Lajwanti might be it is a possibility that she is experiencing violence at the hands of her abductor. As Sunderlal works for the rehabilitation and acceptance for women who had been abducted and then have been rescued – their families wish that these women had died because death would be better than the dishonour that the return of these women brings to the family. So families wish violence on their own daughters/wives/sisters even though they have already suffered an untold amount of violence. Therefore in Punjab partition literature violence manifests in two different ways but there is still a continuous presence of violence. According to the way women are represented in Punjab’s Partition literature violence was all pervasive in the lives of women during the period of Partition. Violence might be happening to them or around them but there is definitely a constant presence of violence. What is significant about Punjab’s partition literature is that it shows how women themselves were also capable of violence – in wanting to get rid of the existence of their unborn children, Punjab’s partition literature shows us that women too were capable of violence and therefore questions the patriarchal expectation from women to be only victims and not perpetrators of violence. 163

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The use of violence as a theme in Bengal’s Partition literature is however very limited and violence in women’s lives is certainly not represented in the same way as Punjab’s partition literature. Women’s narratives involve violence only to the extent that it either gives context or is used as a memory. The focus of the narratives that are built around women is on how they rebuild life after a catastrophic event - how women face the world after experiencing Partition’s violence. In The River Churning (Devi, 1995) and Karun Kanya (Chaudhury, 2008) violence only exists in memory. In The River Churning (Devi, 1995) there is no denial or confirmation of whether or not Sutara was violated by the Muslim mob that had descended on her family. The story does not linger on what might have happened to Sutara during the riot but is concerned with presenting how Sutara copes and rebuilds her life in the aftermath of Partition and the death of her parents when she was brought to live in Kolkata with her hostile relatives. Similarly in Karun Kanya (Chaudhury, 2008) Arundhuti very briefly recollects how she had been abducted but her narrative does not linger on this experience. The concentration is on presenting to the reader how Arundhuti rebuilds her life and copes with the experiences she has on her return to her family with her abductor’s child. In Jaha Jae (Ghosh, 2008) and The Crossing (Devi, 2008) violence is in the background, it provides context. In Ranu’s and Durga’s narratives respectively, violence is never experienced – there isn’t even an indication of violence happening to these women. What we see instead in these stories is an intense anxiety about violation and violence. Ranu is trapped inside a shop with a stranger who also happens to be a Muslim man. As riots continue outside the shop, inside Ranu remains anxious about being violated by this strange Muslim man. Durga on the other hand has been in the safekeeping of a Muslim family but experiences a threat of violation from the border guards. The anxiety she experiences from the demands made by the border guards to hand Durga over so that they can use her to earn money is what drives Durga to commit suicide in order to protect her honor. Yet Durga does not really experience any violation or violence but the expectation and indications of violence are what drive her to kill herself in order to protect her honor. Debjani Sengupta (2016) points out that Bengali partition literature has a different way of dealing with the past and memory – I agree with her. The trope of violence and madness is only used so far as to build context for the characters, beyond that violence as a central prominent theme does not manifest. Contrarily for Punjab partition literature, violence is an almost constant theme that is used throughout the narrative that surrounds women. Women’s narrative in Punjab literature remains interspersed with violence, it is an almost constant presence which might be silent sometimes but nevertheless is not absent. Even when not written about explicitly, the shaping of narratives tells us that the narrative of the woman is unfolding with violence as a companion. In Bengal’s partition literature, violence is not a central 164

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thematic point in the narratives of women. What is important in women’s narratives is what happens in the aftermath of violence - their narratives aren’t unfolding with explicit or silent violence but are unfolding in the aftermath of violence. Violence is therefore a memory, it is the past. A reason for this might be that Bengal Partition literature came about over a long number of years after Partition (Sengupta, 2016), thus making it easier for the literary reactions to treat violence as a memory. After all “tragedies of partition, played out in Bengal, were less violent and took place over a longer period of time than in Punjab” (Sengupta, 2016, p. 200).

Bengal and Punjab’s Partition Literature: The Overwhelming Similarity When it comes to the representation of women in Partition literature, it would not be unfair to say that there is an abundance of similarity between literary works emerging from Punjab and Bengal. From how changing communal relationships affected women beyond violence to the stigmatisation that women were subjected to – Partition literature from Bengal and Punjab show remarkable similarities in how they choose to build up narratives around women in the context of Partition. Therefore this section explores in depth the ways in which women’s experience as represented in Partition literature from Punjab and Bengal overlap with each other. The first thread of similarity is the anxiety women experience in literature from both Punjab and Bengal. In Roots (Chughtai, 2012) and Jaha Jae (Ghosh, 2008) from Punjab and Bengal literature respectively - Amma and Ranu experience anxiety – and this anxiety is about the violation of their bodies by men of the opposite religion. Amma’s anxiousness stems from the reality of being all alone in her home as her family abandons her in order to migrate to Pakistan. “We heard that even old women were being dragged by their hair through the streets till their skin had been ripped off and their white bones revealed.” (Chughtai, 2012, p. 19) Amma therefore knows that her age will not protect her from what she calls “demonic men” (Chughtai, 2012, p. 19). Her anxiety is also rooted in her apprehension about her family being harmed - what if her daughter-in-laws are violated, what if her sons are killed, what if her younger daughter-in-law goes into labour? All these thoughts are a constant source of anxiety in the mind of Amma. For Ranu however, the anxiety is more personal and imaginative - she refrains from even hailing a cab because she experiences anxiety about being violated. Her husband Achintya gives a psychological explanation for her fear of violation - “‘This means, your subconscious mind likes to believe that your physical assets are worthy of being ravished.’” (Ghosh, 2008, p. 157). So as Ranu seeks refuge in the shop of a Muslim man in order to protect herself from the riot outside, her anxiety about being violated leads her to imagine that the man

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is about to attack her even though he poses no threat and is actually attempting to help her out. A second point of similarity is the familial bond and protective action that exists between members of these two communities which remains unscathed even in the face of the communality of Partition. Here again both Bengal and Punjab partition literature draw similar narratives. In stories from both these sides women are protected by members of the opposite community and the familial bonds continue to be maintained. In The River Churning (Devi, 1995), Roots (Chughtai, 2012) and The Crossing (Devi, 2008) which chronicle the narratives of Sutara, Amma, and Durga respectively we witness a continuation of familial and protective relations between Hindus and Muslim in spite of the differences that emerge between the two communities. Amma had “refused to speak since the day the tricolour had been unfurled over Doctor Sahib’s house and the League’s flag over ours.” (Chughtai, 2012, p. 14). Yet despite the tensions that grow between Amma and Roopchandji’s families - their children get into quarrels at school, Roopchandji is no longer consulted on familial decisions - it is ultimately Roopchandji who relieves Amma of her anxieties when he brings her children home. Similarly in The River Churning (Devi, 1995) Sutara is protected by her Muslim friend Sakina’s family. Sakina’s mother even rebukes her husband for not speaking up against the Muslim terror that had cost Sutara her family, however he simply says – “It’s not that we haven’t said anything, in fact many of us did. Do you know what they told us? We know you have kept a Hindu girl in your house - why? To do the Hindus a good turn? Then they laughed and said things that I can’t repeat. One of them said, “Let’s set fire to their house, they must realise what it means to be nice to Hindus.”” (Devi, 1995, p. 14) Tamijuddin Saheb or Tamij Saheb, that is, Sakina’s father therefore takes a lot of risks in order to give shelter to Sutara. In spite of their family being under threat from their own community they did not leave Sutara defenceless and made sure to deliver her safely to her brothers in Kolkata themselves. In the case of Durga, her husband leaves her with a Muslim family despite the fact that as Hindus there is a strict rule against sharing food with Muslims. The station master is sceptical about letting Sudam leave Durga with them and go, telling Sudam, “There are all kinds of ruffians in this place. Will I be able to keep them at bay?” (Devi, 2008, p. 250). However, despite his concerns about it, he and his wife do their best in trying to keep Durga safe from harm. The third point of similarity is the narrative around social stigmatisation as experienced by women. Literatures from both Punjab and Bengal give us a glimpse of what being an abducted and rescued woman meant in post-partition society. Women were treated extremely cruelly - both Sutara in The River Churning (Devi, 1995) and Pooro/Hamida in Pinjar (Pritam, 2015) are examples of it. As Sutara is looked after by her Muslim friend Sakina’s family and her father Tamij Saheb corresponds with 166

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Sutara’s brothers for her safe return - he reports to his family that, “The letter was full of apprehension, but showed not a trace of concern for Sutara.” (Devi, 1995, p. 17). The understanding Tamij Saheb draws from this one letter foreshadows Sutara’s treatment by her relatives in Kolkata. Non-acceptance by family is a major point of convergence between literature from Bengal and Punjab - Sutara is treated as a polluting agent to the extent of not being allowed to touch the water in the house. In the case of Pooro/Hamida, when she escapes from Rashida’s home and is successful in reaching her parents - she is told by her mother, “Daughter, it would have been better if you had died at birth! If the Shaikhs find you here they will kill your father and your brothers. They will kill all of us” (Pritam, 1987, p. 23). In Karun Kanya (Chaudhury, 2008) while Arundhuti’s mother experiences shame at the questions the neighbours throw at her about Arundhuti’s return with her child, Madhuri’s family on the other hand declares that Madhuri’s fate was her own and her fate would not be allowed to ruin the life of the other daughters in the family. The social stigma experienced by women, forces all of these women to ultimately turn away from their families because the stigma and loss is simply too great. The fourth thread of similarity lies in the way societal reactions to women’s fates have been narrated in Partition literature of Punjab and Bengal. Women in both these literatures are shown to be subjected to intense societal scrutiny, to the extent that their violations are attributed to their own self - they are held as responsible for their own violation in what we today understand as a case of victim-blaming. Jyoti in A Leaf in the Storm (Antharjanam, 2012), has been rescued and brought to a refugee camp and there it is realised that she is pregnant as well. In the discussion around her at the camp it is pointed out that, “Even after coming of age, Jyoti had gone about refusing to veil her face; that she had spurned the proposal for marriage from a zamindar, true to her self-assertive nature, and so on. The women in her village were rather amazed at this girl’s independent ways. Maybe now she was paying too high a price for such indulgence” (Antharjanam, 2012, pp. 139-140). Jyoti’s violation and subsequent fate is therefore seen as a result of her free-spirited nature and her denial to veil her face. Even though she was one of the many victims of a barbaric communal frenzy, her nature as a young girl is used as an explanation for what has happened to her. In a similar vein Arundhuti’s neighbours in Karun Kanya (Chaudhury, 2008) believe that a violated woman who has come back with the proof of her violation must keep quiet and simply accept what society throws her way. When hearing the neighbours’ sarcastic remarks about how at least her mother has gotten Arundhuti back and witnessing her mother’s humiliation, Arundhuti walks out with her child to tell the neighbours that she hasn’t returned alone after all. This does not sit well with the people around her, because “For someone who had returned after five years, having lost her chastity and honor, and with a child in her lap, wasn’t she supposed to hide herself in shame and stay away from others’ 167

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sight? Instead here she was, talking back!” (Chaudhuri, 2008, p. 325) Women were to silently bear their troubles and humiliations, and being violated meant that they lost their right to speak according to society. Women were perceived as being objects of pity, without any agency of their own. The fifth thread of similarity is the loss of agency and silencing of women’s voice. Parvinder Mehta (2016) is of the opinion that, “By imposing silence on Lajwanti, Bedi shows the irony of her recovery. Although the story shows his sympathies, her suffering is never heard and she is marginalised through enforced muteness.” (Mehta, 2016, p. 42) Parvinder Mehta (2016) writes in the context of Lajwanti, but it is my contention that this phenomenon of silencing women’s voice and actually penalising her when she does not comply is not confined to Lajwanti (Bedi, 2012) alone. In both Karun Kanya (Chaudhuri, 2008) and The River Churning (Devi, 1995) women are silenced - their trauma being left unheard and shrouded in mystery. Sunderlal constructed abducted women into Devis, and in doing so obliterated their traumatic pasts. When women are constructed into goddesses and put up on pedestals, they lose their ability to articulate their pain because a goddess is considered above human sufferings and trauma. The construction of women into goddesses robs them of their agencies, locking away their grief and pain within themselves and leaves them with no avenues of help. Sunderlal’s silencing of Lajwanti also takes away her sexuality - she is no longer an ordinary woman with ordinary needs, Sunderlal has placed her on a pedestal and locked her off. However even for women who are not constructed into goddesses there is no one to listen to their pain. They are left with no outlet of expression. Arundhuti is unable to share her trauma and grief with both her mother and Subimal. Her mother does not ask her to share what has happened, Arundhuti’s return is enough of a shame. In the case of Subimal, Arundhuti chooses not to share anything with him given his treatment of his own sister who has been penalised by both her husband and her family for speaking out about her trauma. Subimal’s sister Madhuri attempts to retain her agency by revealing to her husband her traumatic past. Her punishment for revealing her own truth is that she is abandoned by her husband and cannot turn to her family because marrying her off was their way of getting rid of her presence - so Madhuri resorts to prostitution. For women on both sides therefore, agency does not exist. They are to keep quiet and accept what society doles out to them. There exists a double-victimisation of women - firstly they are victims of Partition and its frenzied violence, and if they have the fortune or misfortune of being rescued they are victims of societal judgement that holds them responsible for the very things that they are victims of. Women‘s voices are therefore shut off and they are left to deal with their trauma on their own. The final point of similarity in the narratives of women seen to be developing in Punjab and Bengal’s partition literature, is the figure of the abductor as protector. Both Pinjar and Karun Kanya help study this trope because in both the figure of 168

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the abductor is transformed from being a monstrous figure who has committed a crime to becoming a figure who provides protection to the very same woman he has wronged. There is an attempt to humanise this man through the narrative of the woman. So in Pinjar, Hamida wanted to forget that Rashida had abducted and wronged her. “She longed fervently to make love to him. After all, he was her husband and the father of her son. This alone was true; this alone mattered. The rest was mere prattle and a lie.” (Pritam, 2015, p. 49) The narrative in Pinjar tells us that Rashida’s conscience had weighed down on him when he had abducted Pooro/Hamida, which is an attempt at telling the reader that he did not really want to do it. Bringing in Rashida’s conscience into the fact that he did abduct Pooro/Hamida is a move towards humanising Rashida beyond the fact that he did commit a crime. The story conveys that even though he did abduct Pooro/Hamida she was in a sense lucky to have him because he had looked out for her and had a conscience. Pooro/Hamida tells Lajo that Rashida certainly committed a crime by abducting her but since then he has been good to her so his earlier transgression is to an extent forgivable, after all he is the father of her child and she loves him as well. However for Arundhuti in Karun Kanya, her feelings towards her abductor are not quite the same as Pooro/Hamida’s in the sense that she doesn’t forgive him or fall in love with him. Still in choosing to go back to him she uses the union with him as a protection from the cruelty of the society she finds herself living in. Her unnamed abductor sends her letters first requesting that she give their child to him and then requesting to be allowed to at least hold him once. He also professes to want Arundhuti herself back. This is an attempt again, much like Rashida’s case, to humanise him - to show that these men have feelings and should be understood beyond the barbarity of the act they have committed. The narrative also develops in a way so as to justify or give reason for Pooro/Hamida and Arundhuti to move over what they have done to them because at the moment they are being good to them. Women in these narratives are therefore developed in a way so as to forgive and forget and seek protection from the very men who had violated them. For Pooro/Hamida the consolation is that Rashida has been good to her ever since he abducted her. For Arundhuti, her abductor is the only man that wants her and can protect her from the cruelty of the society. Therefore there are multiple points of similarity between Bengal and Punjab’s Partition literature. From the way changing communal relations are represented with relation to women to the ways in which women’s societal experiences are portrayed – literary works from both Punjab and Bengal show remarkable similarity. However the existence of similarity between women’s representation in literary works from both sides despite political differences is not a surprising fact. The reason that such a similarity is expected is discussed in the next and final section.

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CONCLUSION Why the Similarity is an Expected Outcome The similarity between representations of women in Partition literature from Punjab and Bengal is an expected outcome because of two factors. The first factor is Patriarchy. Despite the regional and political difference in how Partition played out, women were living in a patriarchal society. The rules of this patriarchal society are same for women everywhere – no matter if its Punjab or Bengal. The experiences of social stigmatization, the primacy of honor – are all reactions expected of a patriarchal society no matter in which region. The reduction of women’s worth to their bodies is a key tenet of any patriarchal society and in analyzing Partition literature from Punjab and Bengal we witness how this has equal effects on the lives of women in both Punjab and Bengal. So it really is no surprise that the patriarchal controls on women’s lives manifested in the same way. The second factor is that the overlying event through which women in both parts were living was the same. Women in Bengal and Punjab were experiencing Partition. Even though there were differences in the political nuances, the broad event being experienced was the same. So in combination with the patriarchal mindset of the society women were living in, Partition produced the same reactions in Punjab and Bengal. Therefore to conclude this paper I would like to say that, the scope for using Partition literature as a source for studying the effects and realities of Partition is very wide. While commendable work has been done in the field by scholars such as Debjani Sengupta, Debali Mookerjea-Leonard, Jill Didur and more, there is so much more that can be explored. The study performed in this paper also has scope for elaboration and extension. There are so many nuances of people’s experience, especially women’s experience that can be found through a study of Partition literature and there is a lot of space for exploring different avenues relating to women experience or the experience of Partition in general by using Partition literature as a source of Knowledge.

REFERENCES Antharjanam, L., & Chandran, N. (2012). A Leaf in the Storm. In Stories about the partition of India (Vol. 1, pp. 137–146). Manohar Publishers and Distributors. Bagchi, J., & Dasgupta, S. (2006). Introduction. In J. Bagchi & S. Dasgupta (Eds.), The trauma and the triumph: Gender and partition in Eastern India (pp. 1–14). STREE.

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Bedi, R. S., & Bhalla, A. (2012). Lajwanti. In A. Bhalla (Ed.), Stories about the partition of India (Vol. 1, pp. 55–66). Manohar Publishers and Distributors. Butalia, U. (2017). The other side of silence: Voices from the Partition of India. Penguin Books. Chaudhuri, R., & Sengupta, S. (2008). Karun Kanya. In B. Fraser (Ed.), Bengal partition stories: An unclosed chapter (pp. 323–338). Anthem Press. Chughtai, I., Adil, V., & Bhalla, A. (2012). Roots. In A. Bhalla (Ed.), Stories about the partition of India (Vol. 3, pp. 9–20). Manohar Publishers and Distributors. Devi, J. (1995). The River Churning: A Partition novel (E. Chatterjee, Trans.). Kali for Women. Devi, J., & Gupts, S. D. (2008). The Crossing. In B. Fraser (Ed.), Bengal partition stories: An unclosed chapter (pp. 247–253). Anthem Press. Didur, J. (2006). Introduction: Unsettling partition. In Unsettling Partition: Literature, gender, memory (pp. 3–20). University of Toronto Press. Ghosh, G. K., & Chaudhuri, S. (2008). Jaha Jae. In B. Fraser (Ed.), Bengal partition stories: An unclosed chapter (pp. 157–164). Anthem Press. Harrison, F. (1991). Literary representation: Partition in Indian and Pakistani novels in English. Indian Literature, 34(5), 94–110. Hasan, M. (2008). Foreword. In B. Fraser (Ed.), Bengal partition stories: An unclosed chapter (pp. xiii-xvii). Anthem Press. Mckee, A. (2001). A beginners guide to textual analysis. Metro Magazine, 138–149. Mehta, P. (2016). A will to say or unsay: Female silences and Discursive interventions in partition narratives. In A. Singh, N. Iyer, & R. K. Gairola (Eds.), Revisiting India’s partition: New essays on memory, culture, and politics (pp. 35–52). Orient Blackswan. Menon, R. (2004). No Woman’s Land. In R. Menon (Ed.), No woman’s land: Women for Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh write on the Partition of India (pp. 1–11). Women Unlimited. Pandey, G. (1997). Community and violence: Recalling partition. Economic and Political Weekly, 32, 2037–2039-2041–2045. Pritam, A., & Singh, K. (2015). Pinjar (The Skeleton). In Pinjar: The skeleton and other stories. India Research Press.

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Scott, J. (1990). Assessing documentary sources. In A matter of record: Documentary sources in social research (pp. 19–35). Polity Press. Sengupta, D., & Sengupta, D. (2016). The partition’s afterlife. In The Partition of Bengal: Fragile borders and new identities (pp. 188–219). Cambridge University Press. Tiwari, S. (2013). Memories of partition: Revisiting Saadat Hasan Manto. Economic and Political Weekly, 48(25), 50–58.

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Chapter 18

A Feminist Reading of Panthoipi Khongkul Rosy Yumnam The English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong, India

ABSTRACT The voices of women are often marginalised and silenced. In modern feminism, Kate Millett’s Sexual Politics (1970) used the term “patriarchy” (rule of the father) to describe the cause of women’s oppression. Panthoipi Khongkul is a myth narrative of Manipur, a state in Northeast India, detailing the rebellion of a legendary woman, Panthoipi, against the patriarchal society of the early Manipuri. The text details how Panthoipi bravely defied the social customs and chose to be united forever in bliss with her paramour. The myth narrative deals with the desire of a woman represented by Panthoipi to ascertain her dignity and identity in a patriarchal society. This chapter seeks to examine the feminist perspective of how “woman” has been represented in Panthoipi Khongkul in the context of the early patriarchal Manipuri society. It further explores on how the feminist reading of Panthoipi Khongkul will assist in striving to achieve equality of sexes.

INTRODUCTION Feminism is a common goal to describe a political, social, cultural or economic equality of sexes. Feminism is defined by Brunell and Burkett in Britannica as the belief of equality of sexes in terms of economic, social and political affairs. Though originated in the West, feminism is evidently present in every corner of the world. As a literary movement, feminism seeks to rebel against the patriarchal society where the term ‘masculine’ is associated with superiority, domination, action and DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch018 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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strength, conversely, ‘feminine’ or the ‘other’ is associated with inferiority, passivity, weakness and obedience (Bhat, 2017). Feminist writers highlight the predicament of women in a patriarchal society and look at how a sense of self-identity, rebellion and self-assertion will liberate women from the deeply rooted patriarchal societal constraints. Various institutions and organisations represent feminism to cater to activities pertaining to women’s rights and interests. Furthermore, Nahal (1991) defined feminism as a form of existence where the woman gets rid of the dependence syndrome. A dependence syndrome exists whether in the form of the father, the husband, the community, the religious group or the ethnic group (Nahal, 1991). Nahal (1991) emphasizes that his idea of feminism materialises when women are completely free of the dependence syndrome and starts leading a normal life. Conversely, Beauvoir (1997) posits: “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman” (p. 301). She further asserts that psychological, biological or economic fate does not establish the presence of human female in society, however, civilization produces this human female which is somewhere, in the transitional phase between male and eunuch, described as feminine (Beauvoir, 1997). From the preceding discussions, it is apparent that feminism is a common goal to describe a political, social, cultural or economic equality of sexes. Feminism as a movement is greatly influenced by philosophers, thinkers and authors like Mary Wollstonecraft, Elaine Showalter, Simone de Beauvoir, Kate Millett, Judith Butler, Helene Cixous, Julia Kristeva and others. The movement strongly advocate protesting against male domination. Its main aim is to understand women’s oppression pertaining to gender, class, race and sexual orientations and devise ways to uplift this oppression. Panthoipi Khongkul is a myth narrative of Manipur, in northeast India detailing the rebel of a legendary woman Panthoipi against the patriarchal society of the early Manipuri society. The paper seeks to explore the feminist perspective of the use of the term ‘patriarchy’ in the myth narratives of Panthoipi Khongkul.

FEMINISM AND THE TERM “PATRIARCHY” In the year 1917 and early 1918s, American Feminist Critics, Annette Kolodny, Kate Millet, Carolyn Heilbrun and Judith Fetterley stressed on investigating literary text rather than philosophising abstractly about language. Many researches were done to re-examine the works of the male writers by investigating the portrayals of women characters thus exposing the inherent patriarchal dominance which has been observed in the literary traditions since time immemorial. An important phase in modern feminism could be seen when Kate Millett used the term ‘patriarchy’ (rule of the father) in Sexual Politics (1970) to describe the cause of women’s oppression. Earlier, modern feminist writers like Kate Millett, Germaine Greer and 174

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Mary Ellmann had written about expressing women’s political awareness about their oppressions by men. Patriarchy is a cardinal concept of the radical secondwave feminists, who defines it as “a system of social structures, and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women” (Walby qtd. in Wilson, 2000, p. 1493). Wilson (2000) observes that the development of many of the important feminist ideas and programs in the global platform is a result of the use of this concept of patriarchy. The politics of the sexual dominance as Millet (2000) posits is that an objective assessment of a sexual relationship system should adhere to the situation between the sexes at present and all through history as a case of Max Weber phenomenon which is defined as herrschaft, a dominance and subordinance relationship. The social order which believes in the birthright idea that males rule females often goes unexamined (Millet, 2000). This idea is prominent as a form of “interior colonisation” (Millet, 2000, p. 24-25) and endures rigidly more than any form of class stratification. Though it may be muted, sexual dominance is prevalent in any form of culture and forms the basis of the concept of power (Millet, 2000). The sexual dominance Millet (2000) believes is because “our society, like all other historical civilisations, is a patriarchy” (p. 25). The reasoning being given is that the industry, military, universities, technology, political office, science, finance, police force and every aspect of power within the realms of society is entirely in the hands of males (Millet, 2000). Therefore, it is evident from the above discussions that, patriarchy is taken as a reason for female oppression. In this regard, Wilson explains the feminists’ use of patriarchy as “a struggle concept” by quoting Maria Mies, “because the movement needed a term by which the totality of oppressive and exploitative relations which affect women could be expressed as well as their systemic character” (Mies qtd. in Wilson, 2000, p. 1494).

Objective The paper examines the feminist perspective of how ‘woman’ has been represented in Panthoipi Khongkul in the context of the early patriarchal Manipuri society. It further explores on how the feminist reading of Panthoipi Khongkul will assist in the goal of achieving equality of sexes.

Methodology The study is analytical in method. It tries to look at the feminist perspective of Panthoipi Khongkul and its significance in achieving equality of sexes. The study is based on primary, secondary sources, research journals and online sources.

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Findings and Observations Panthoipi Khongkul: From the Perspective of Feminism Panthoipi Khongkul is a literary text of the early 17th century written anonymously in an ancient script, Meitei Mayek, transcribed and rendered into modern Manipuri and translated to English. It details the intense love story of the legendary woman, Panthoipi, the daughter of a Meitei (the Meitei is an indigenous ethnic group of Manipur) king and Nongpok Ningthou, Lord of the Langmai Hills. The literal translation of Panthoipi Khongkul is ‘In quest of Panthoipi’. The text abounds in myths. The narrative, myth is a story concerning the historical events often supernatural, legends, folktales, fables, allegory and parables. According to Abrams (2000), a myth is defined as a story where a scheme of traditional stories considered true by a cultural group of people through the medium of supernatural beings are used to describe why and how things happen and to ascertain a kind of rationale thinking for the observations of the existing social and cultural customs by people in a society. Panthoipi Khongkul is a traditional myth narrative chronicling the early culture and religious traditions of Manipur. Panthoipi and Nongpok Ningthou are worshipped as deities in many Manipuri households. As Laisram (2009) observes, Panthoipi and Nongpok Ningthou are worshipped together as Nongpok-Panthoipi and further, Panthoipi believed to be the fire god’s daughter is described as a compassionate goddess who blesses her devotees with abundance wealth and health. The text begins by describing the beautiful and the enthralling virtues of Panthoipi. She is not only attributed with physical beauty but is also represented as a woman who is brave and stands by her own mind and will. Panthoipi is thus described as: ....you are the very embodiment of beauty but still indulge in constant baths at every fount and embellish your tender body, use all the fruits of the Langmai Hills as unguents, always neatly comb your tresses of hair, skitter lightly with your drapery loosely hung on your full blossomed body; your teeth are like pearls, your lips are as the wild fruit tayail in the bamboo grove, your fingers are soft as those of a neonate; your name is Panthoipi as no parents or brothers can exercise control over you; you appropriated the name by yourself ere anyone confers it on you; you have an unfettered soul, nowhere can you keep yourself confined. (Trans.; Singh, 2004, pp. 59-60) Many suitors came for Panthoipi but she was never impressed by any of them. But her father and brothers convinced her and so she was married to Taram Khoinucha, son of Khaba Sokchrongba, king of the Khaba dynasty and the queen Manu Teknga. 176

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Here, one can see the patriarchal power in convincing Panthoipi to marry a person. It also portrays the helplessness of a woman in a patriarchal society. However, the marriage was a complete failure as she was incompatible with her husband and she was not able to adjust with her husband’s family and the new environment. The patriarchal society institutionalised in early Manipur required her to abide by the rules and regulations laid down for the newly married woman. The society demands her to be chained in her husband’s house though she was not happy with her marriage. Though she was discontented, initially, Panthoipi due to social obligations respected and obeyed the instructions of her husband and parents-in-law. She became muted owing to the societal demands. Panthoipi did not let herself subjugated for long; she asserted her freedom and chose to free herself from the deeply rooted patriarchal societal demands. As she was a feisty woman, she soon came out of her inhibitions and she started wandering in the meadows and went on taking bath in the rivers oblivion to the societal restrictions. One fine day, on one such escapade, she met Nongpok Ningthou, Lord of the Langmai Hills and they fell in love instantly. The gallant, Nongpok Ningthou proposes the besotted Panthoipi to elope with him. However, she refuses due to family obligations as she was still unhappily married to Taram Khoinucha. These attributes of Panthoipi show her as a woman who is compassionate and who cannot be controlled by anyone not even her lover, Nongpok Ningthou. The early Manipuri patriarchal society described by Arunkumar and Arun (1997) is strict and rigid. It is unimaginable for a girl to come out of the rigorous patriarchal society. In the early patriarchal Manipuri society, the daughters do not have a choice to find their own mate. Woman existed in relation to her father, husband or her son. Woman does not have an identity of her own. Even if she is a divorcee or a widow, she cannot remarry. Hence, in the words of (Arunkumar and Arun 1997), “Any assertive woman would be a rarity, when quite naturally frowned even by her own kith and kin, and of course by one and all” (p. 7). Therefore, under such strict societal norms, the voice of the ‘woman’ as ‘daughter’, ‘wife’, ‘mother’ and ‘daughter-in-law’ becomes silenced and marginalised. However, these restrictions did not daunt Panthoipi to meet her paramour. She was courageous and she has her own mind and determination. The smitten lovers have been meeting regularly thereby causing suspicions from her husband and her in-laws. So, her husband and her parents-in-law started ill-treating and taunting her for her illicit love affair with Nongpok Ningthou. The norms laid down by the patriarchal society made Panthoipi suffer for being free spirited and having her own mind. As a human being, she has the right to love or not to love somebody. But this right has been taken away by the patriarchal societal restrictions. The strict patriarchal society did not allow her to divorce her husband. Instead, she has to endure the unhappy marriage. Her fatherin-law even pretended to be dead to win her sympathy. The quick witted Panthoipi instead took this opportunity of being tricked and tortured. Thus, challenging and 177

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resisting the age-old barrier of social custom, she finally eloped with her paramour. The Khabas led by her father-in-law went pursuing for her but to no avail. The lines given below describe the frantic search of the divine, Panthoipi, who has eloped with her lover, Nongpok leaving behind her husband. O’ Owl, Khaba Sokchrongba is in search for his daughter-in-law, Panthoipi, the daughter of the Meitei king. King Khaba started his search from the Naga River and on reaching the land of Kangla, asked the owl, “O’ mighty owl, enchanting bird, your mother, the Goddess Panthoipi left Koubru hills through the Naga River. Have you seen her going through this route?” O’ King Khaba replied the owl, “I have not seen the divine Goddess Panthoipi. But I saw a mother owl being captured and taken away in captivity by a man.” (My trans.; Singh, 2012, pp. 91-92) Unable to find the trial of her daughter-in-law along the Naga River, King Khaba Sokchrongba, asked the whereabouts of Panthoipi to the mighty Owl who happened to be on the route which he assumed Panthoipi and her lover might have taken. The Owl replied in the negative and told him that he did not see Goddess Panthoipi but he saw a mother owl being taken into captivity by a man. Here one can see the chained, subjugated and the muted representation of females when the owl referred to the mother owl as being forcefully captured by a man. On the other side, the whole of Langmai Hills along with the gods and goddesses and even the Khabas erupted in jubilant celebrations for the joyful union of the divine Panthoipi and Nongpok Ningthou. The merriment of the celebrations of the union of Panthoipi and Nongpok Ningthou can be seen even today in the Lai Haraoba (a social and a religious festival of Manipur) performance. Even the Khabas joined in the celebrations with dance and music and offered their humble respects to the divine couple. The graceful Panthoipi danced and sang in her celebration of the union with her profound lover and is joined by the gods and the goddesses. The songs, ‘Ougri’ and ‘Khencho’ which are sung on this auspicious occasion are performed in Lai Haraoba festivals even today. The intricate and the graceful dance movements of Panthoipi also allude to the dance performances in the Lai Haraoba festivals. Many of the Lai Haraoba performances which are associated with the love story of the divine couple, Panthoipi and Nongpok Ningthou can be seen in the songs such as Ougri, Khencho, Anoirol and Lairemma Paosa. These expressions of utter happiness and joyous jubilation of Panthoipi can be described as liberation from her chained and bounded societal demands which she endured for so long. She freed

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herself from the patriarchal societal demands and expressed her boundless freedom and happiness through dancing and singing. The legendary, Panthoipi, the ‘woman’ is represented as a fearless, courageous, witty, intelligent, charming, compassionate and a beautiful woman. She challenged the patriarchal societal constraints which restrict her to be submissive to the male members in the society and denial of her independent choice. Millet’s contention that ‘sexual dominance is due to ‘patriarchy’ prevails in the early history of Manipur and traces of it can be found even today. The imbalance social order of males and females has been contested by Panthoipi in a form of rebellion against the existing social construct of inequality between the two sexes. Sexual dominance was clearly visible in the myth narrative. Due to the societal patriarchal constraints, Panthoipi’s doting father and brothers convinced her into marrying someone without actually giving her chance to know the prince. Here, one can find the muted Panthoipi, helpless and giving into the patriarchal demands of the society. People in the society are oriented towards a patriarchal mental set up where sexual dominance prevails consciously or unconsciously. This strict patriarchal rule did not deter Panthoipi to shed her inhibitions and fly to her freedom. The fiery, Panthoipi though muted in the first part, transforms and thus gets liberated. She defied the patriarchal restrictions imposed on her because of her marital status. She left behind the conservative societal duties and listened to what her heart desires. The patriarchal oriented society of early Manipur seldom considers woman as an independent self, she is always determined with reference to a man as being her husband, father or son. This societal norms might have induced the divine and legendary, Panthoipi to rebel against the age old traditions and customs which was laid down for a woman. The oppression of the ‘woman’ in the form of restrictions and customs which is induced by the patriarchal oriented society of the time is challenged by the brave, Panthoipi. She chose to go against all odds to stand for her rights and beliefs. She asserted to be herself, to listen to her heart and not to anyone else. She rebelled against the social traditions for what she felt was right for a woman. Panthoipi becomes the powerful entity who successfully achieved the feminist goal of achieving equality of the two sexes by a way of revolting against the social norms instituted by the patriarchal world. She finally became a divine goddess.

CONCLUSION The myth narrative thus brings forth the bravery of a young woman who liberates herself from the customs and traditions of a patriarchal society. The plight of Panthoipi is tested in the narrative and she gracefully finds a way to assert her self-identity. Finally she succeeds to liberate herself from the deep rooted societal traditions 179

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conditioned by ‘patriarchy’. The legendary, Panthoipi embodies the fiery ‘woman’ who challenges the societal norms to stand for what is right and to cleanse the evil of inequality in the society. Panthoipi, thus, represents every woman and their voice in the society. A ‘Panthoipi’ in every woman is required to end oppression due to patriarchy in a society. Panthoipi thus essays the feminist goal of achieving equality of sexes by challenging the traditional conditioning of patriarchy.

REFERENCES Abrams, M. H. (2000). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Macmillan India Ltd. Arunkumar, M. C., & Arun, I. (1997). The Rebel Panthoibi. In The Transcendental Role of Women in Manipur History, 1999-2009. www.books.e-pao.net Beauvoir, S. D. (1997). The Second Sex. Vintage Books. Becker, M. (1999). Patriarchy and Inequality: Towards a Substantive Feminism. chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1999/iss1/3 Bhat, H. (2017). A Doll’s House as a Feminist Play. www.languageinindia.com/ dec2017/ishfaqdollshouse.pdf Brahma, R. (2016). Patriarchy, Myths and Subaltern: A Feminist Critique of Githa Hariharan’s Select Works in. Spectrum. Brunell, L., & Burkett, E. (2020). Feminism. www.britannica.com/topic/feminism Hughes, C. (2002). Key Concepts in Feminist Theory and Research. Sage Publications. doi:10.4135/9780857024459 Laiphrakpam, A. (2016). Ariba Manipuri Sahityagi (Seirol) Paring. GM Publications. Laisram, R. (2009). Early Meitei History: Religion, Society and the Manipur Puyas. Akansha Publishing House. Lerner, G. (1986). The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford University Press. Mahapatra, B. (2014). Feminist Literary Criticism and Wuthering Height. European Academic Research, 12019–12026. www.euacademic.org McAfee, N. (2008). Feminist Philosophy. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2018/entries/feministphilosophy Millet, K. (2000). Sexual Politics. University of Illinois Press. 180

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Nahal, C. (1991). Feminism in English Fiction: Forms and Variations. Feminism and Recent Fiction in English. Prestige Books. Showalter, E. (2012). A Literature of their Own. Virago Press. Singh, Ch. M. (2004). A History of Manipuri Literature. Sahitya Akademi. Singh, C. M. (2012). Panthoipi Khongkul. Manipuri Sahitya Parishad. Thounaojam, C., Soyam, C., & Sanasam, R. (2012). Study of Myths in Manipuri Literature and Socio-Religious Rituals. www.thecho.in/files/Study-of-Myths-inManipuri-Literature-and-Socio-Religious-Rituals.pdf Wilson, A. (2000). Patriarchy: A Feminist Theory. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Women: Global Women’s issues and Knowledge. Routledge.

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Recognizing Contemporary Tribal Women’s Writings: A Study on Select Literary Narrators of North East India Raam Kumar T. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0694-8671 Bharathiar University, India Padmanabhan B. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7395-126X Bharathiar University, India

ABSTRACT Northeast India is known for its diverse ethnic traits, natural landscapes, and regional and political conflicts. These factors were brought to light through diverse literary narratives. Women’s contribution to English writing plays a prominent role in protecting the complex multi-ethnic and multi-cultural issues of their regions and captures the multicoloured historical and collective spaces. Their writing primarily focuses on the issues of nature, landscape, culture, oppression, conflict, turmoil, insurgency, and identity. Women’s writings from these regions have attained visibility and acclaim across the nation. They are deeply concerned about the brutal violence happening in their society, which acts as a barrier to achieving progress. This chapter attempts to analyse the select contemporary tribal women’s writings and their unique contribution to the betterment of their native land. This study also explores the struggle of indigenous identity and psychosocial experiences undergone by tribal communities of Northeast India through select tribal writers in English.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch019 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Recognizing Contemporary Tribal Women’s Writings

INTRODUCTION Humankind is defined by language; but civilization is defined by writing – Peter T. Daniels The North-Eastern region of India is always found isolated from the rest of the country. This is mainly because of the factors like marginalization, economic crisis, political instability and poor infrastructure. Apart from this, their voices were not taken into consideration at times. The geographical location of this region covers eight states that include Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. All these states maintain diverse linguistic and social cultures. According to Thonkholal Haokip (2011), the northeast region is “diverse in almost every aspect; it is inhabited by a mosaic of societies characterized by diversity in ethnicity, language, culture, religion, social organization, economic pursuits, productive relations and participation in political process” (pp.109-10). The hidden factors of their livelihood, their ethical traits, and the cultural landscape were brought to light through writings in various forms of literary narrations. In each state, the writers incorporate their historical identity, cultural practice, and lifestyle through various forms of literary narrations and their traits were transmitted to the next generations. As it is widely known that literature reflects society, the social values and cultural traits of these extinct communities are being documented through writers and anthropologists. It also helps to offer beneficial schemes to resolve the flaws that are happening in their society. The common thematic factors represented in these regions include ethnic culture, violence, insurgency, isolation, oppression, nature, myths, etc. The writings in English seek global attention, and dignity along with native identity was attained. Literary writing is used as a weapon to defend the cultural imposition of colonial suppression. Similarly, this article attempts to bring out the proficiency of emerging English women tribal writers Temsula Ao, Mamang Dai and Easterine Kire, who tries to bring out the livelihood of inhabitants of Northeast India.

Indian Writing in English Indian English writers focussed on almost all genres starting from poetry and prose and focusing on fiction and short stories. Indian writing in English has gained prominence both within and outside the nation. In the present-day scenario, Indian writers have heard their voices through artistic ways of expressing ideas. Themes like nationalism, spiritualism, aesthetic experience, idealism, humanism and even romanticism are dominant during various points in time. Moreover, modern 183

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Indian English writing is under dilemma in making a choice between maintaining cultural tradition and innovative modes of expression. Writers focus on the growth of regionalism, violence, women’s liberation, class struggle, and cultural values. After the Indian independence, a few non-tribal writers like Mahasweta Devi, Heralal Shukla, R. K. Singh, and few more have come up with narratives that voice for the concerns of tribal communities in India. This laid a stepping stone for the flourishing of Tribal Literature. Apart from this many publishing houses and literary magazines like Sanskriti Akhad, Adivasi Satta, Yuddhrat Aam Admi and a few more have emerged to promote the active participation of creative documentation of the adivasi cultures and customs across the nation. The tribal communities who are categorized as Scheduled Tribes by the constitution of India are struggling to establish their regional identity. Different societies with different languages and modes of expression attempt to manifest the unique qualities of their communities to contest the ‘other’ identity. Among many influential voices, Temsula Ao, Mamang Dai, and Easterine Kire write in English to express their cultural experiences to a broader audience. Most of their works were written to bring out the essential aspects of their culture, regional conflicts and power struggle. The emergence of tribal literature has paved way for the marginalised communities to bring out the despairs as they are fused with their consciousness. The writings by the tribal writers are considered as first-hand documentation that contains more authenticity and credibility.

Tribal Women Writings from Northeast India Male writers are thought of as ‘writers’ first and then ‘men’. As for female writers, they are first ‘female’ and only then ‘writers’ – Elif Shafak (2011) In India, Tribal Literature in other words, is known as ‘Adivasi Literature.’ In contrast, in western countries like America, it is called as Native American Literature, African American Literature and Coloured Literature. In Africa, it is known as Black Literature whereas in Australia and New Zealand it is called as Aboriginal Literature. Tribal Literature is enriched with folklore, myths, legends, and songs primarily oral Literature. As there was no written script for most of their tribal languages, they were least documented though they have all elements of literariness. The tribes in India are considered indigenous people who occupy 8.6% of the country’s total population and are widespread in every territory of India. Though they are people with greater traditions and cultural values, they are not equally treated in society. Most of them served as labourers in mines and industries. In addition to this, their farming lands were also occupied by various industrial projects in the name of national development. Writers like Mahashweta Devi, Ramnika Gupta, Mauha Maji, 184

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and many others focused on the tribals’ pathetic life, which had strengthened the voice of tribal Literature. The new generation writers from the tribal community also took writing as their weapon to voice for their fundamental rights. The prominent theme of these tribal writers was the quest for identity, struggle for existence, cultural values and even the landscapes of their region. They were the lovers of nature and they used to celebrate nature as divine in their writing. Janardan Gond (2017) in his article “The Identity of Adivasi Literature,” rightly points out that, “Their literature not only reflects their love for nature but also expresses the pangs of separation from nature. Their anger over the loot of natural wealth is evident in their movements and songs” (para. 22). This paper focuses only on three among the litterateurs of various tribal communities in India. They include Temsula Ao representing Ao Naga tribes, whereas Easterine Kire focuses on Angami Naga from Nagaland and Mamang Dai representing Adi tribes of Arunachal Pradesh. Though regions separate them, they are united by thoughts. Their ultimate aim is to capture the image of their culture, natural landscape and mostly the sufferings due to migration and displacement of their communities. Preeti Gill (2011) in her article “Frontispiece – Writing the Northeast,” highlights her observation as, “Writers across Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura are deeply concerned about the brutalization of their societies and have been confronting these issues upfront” (para. 3) which they attempt to bring their sufferings to the public scrutiny. On the other hand, the impacts of gender discrimination are found in their writings. It is found that women face gender discrimination in this contemporary world in the form of inequality and constantly fight to attain their identity. In nature, both women and men share the same space, but ironically women always are negotiated with lower status than men. Apart from these physical obstructions, the women from the North East region of India have overcome the phenomenal growth in the field of writing. Eleanor Roosevelt rightly states that “A women is like tea-bag you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water” (as cited in Vrinda Agarwal and Manisha Raj, 2020, p. 5138). The women writers of Northeast India always plot social and historical space that is variegated. Earlier, Tribal Literature was not recognized as the mainstream, and it was oral in nature. Later, the Indian government and a few social activists stepped forward to preserve and educate people about tribal literature’s necessity. Their writings cross-examine the established texts, discriminatory practices and heterosexist assumptions of a culture. These woman writers have habitually faced many issues such as domination, suppression, invisibility, silence, and were forced to be in limitations. Even though women were suppressed countless, their inner strength pushed them forward, and they discovered new dimensions in writing. Their knowledge is comprehensive, and the selection of texts of the northeast woman was diverse in nature. Many of the women writers from this region are first-generation writers in English and cover the livelihood of 185

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their people. The Literature from this region is highly stuffed with the voices of women writers like Temsula Ao, Easterine Kire, Mamang Dai, Indira Goswami, Rita Chowdhury and many more. The literary contributions of the select women writers are discussed below with select literary narratives.

Temsula Ao Temsula Ao is the leading women English writer from the North-Eastern region of India. She has written poems, short stories, and ethnographies about the Naga community named Ao Naga, one of the major tribal groups in Nagaland. She also has a strong academic background as a retired professor from the North-Eastern Hill University. Apart from this, she proved to be a successful administrator by bringing out the richness of Northeast cultures when she served as the Director of the North East Zone Cultural Centre. She received Padma Shri and Sahitya Academi awards for her contribution to Literature. Her literary contribution includes five collections of poems, two short stories and ethnographic documentation of the Ao Naga community. Her ethnographic work, Ao – Naga Oral Traditions, is the result of her twelve years of hard work, and it is the most authentic document about her community. Her short story collections, These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone and Laburnum for her Head (2014), deal with the themes of insurgency and violence commonly found in Nagaland. She also gives a picture of the people of Nagaland who undergo traumatic experiences in their daily life. She illustrates that the violence emerged due to the lack of concern shown by society towards them. Some of her stories like “The Jungle Major,” and “An Old Man Remember” depict how men were attracted to the underground groups to fight against the Government forces. Another story titled “The Last Song” brings out the armed groups’ brutal actions, which lead to the death of two women. In an incident, a teen girl was cruelly abused and put to death, which the narrator illustrates as “the young captain was raping Apenyo while a few other soldiers were watching the act and seemed to be waiting for their turn” (p. 28). When her mother forwarded to protect her, she was dragged and raped by another soldier. This incident narrates the cruel nature of being a woman in this region. In the preface of her book, Temsula Ao states that, I hear the land cry, Over and over again ‘Let all the dead Awaken And teach the living 186

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How not to die’ (p. 5) Even her poetic works widely speak about the loss of peace and harmony in her region. In one of her poems, “My Hills,” she refers to how violence overrules Nagaland. The poetic verses are, But to-day I no longer know my hills, The birdsong is gone, Replaced by the staccato Of sophisticated weaponry. (pp. 19-23) Temsula Ao (2011) being a revolutionary writer, truthfully records the misery and struggles of the Naga people and raises her voice for peace through her writing. According to her, Literature is considered a part of societal reflection. This is depicted through one of her interviews with Debarun Borthakur and Gitanjali Das (2011), which states, “if literature does not talk about life it is not relevant. Today Northeast is full of conflicts. Literature should mirror these conflicts and everything else that is true of life here” (p. 1). The communal dysfunction of Ao Naga community is illustrated through her effective narratives.

Mamang Dai Mamang Dai is another well-recognized poet, novelist, and journalist from Arunachal Pradesh. She belongs to the Adi tribal community. Before starting her writing profession, she served as a civil servant. She was the first woman from her community to become an IAS officer in 1979. However, she gave up her influential service and pursued her career as a journalist. Dai was a correspondent with the newspapers like Hindustan Times, the Sentinel and the telegraph. She also worked with the World Wide Fund (WWF) for nature in the ‘Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspots Programme’. She also served as a long-time member of the North East Writer’s Forum. She was the recipient of ‘Padma Shri’ award from the Government of India in 2011. The government of Arunachal Pradesh honoured her with ‘Annual Verrier Elwin Prize’ in 2013 for her debut work Arunachal Pradesh: The Hidden Land. Later in 2017, she received Sahitya Akademi Award for her fiction The Black Hill. Her other notable works include The Legends of Pensam, Stupid Cupid and 187

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River Poems. She is very much conscious of promoting the fading cultural traditions of her community. She urges her people to retain and transmit their rich traditional values to the next generations through her literary works. According to Dai, the literary heritage of Arunachal Pradesh is primarily Oral tradition, and she has implemented the narrative techniques and art of storytelling in her fiction The Legends of Pensam. In her book, she comments that “myth and memory would be reborn in the songs of the ponung dancers” (p. 50). Here the writer brings out the collective memory of her culture that the shaman and the rhapsodist led. She believes that the oral tradition is a way of their life nurtured through centuries. Furthermore, most of her works were the record of life in the hills covering the landscape and people of Arunachal Pradesh. In an interview with Jaydeep Sarangi (2017), she says, “I feel attached to the land – its features, rivers, the stories and villages. I am also looking at our epic narratives and myths” (p. 4). She is preoccupied with preserving the ethnic identity and indigenous culture of Adi tribes.

Easterine Kire Kire is a prominent writer who had occupied an important place among academic readers. She is proud to be Nagaland’s first English writer belonging to the Angami Naga community. Her literary contributions include poems, novels, short stories, children’s books and novels. At the age of sixteen, she started writing as the academic profession as a translator and published her first poetry collection in 1982. Most of her literary narrations were based on the livelihood of the Naga community. She used writing as a tool where she incorporated her own childhood experiences and oral narrations in it. According to her, the Northeast region is not just a place of violence alone; instead, many undiscovered ordinary things occur in daily lives. In an interview with Swati Daftuar (2015), she deliberates the partial actions of the national media by bringing out the landscape of Nagaland as, We are saying there is more: there is great beauty, not just the breathtaking landscapes of mountains and rivers and clouds – covered villages, but the beauty of the people who live there and the stories they have to share. The spiritual world is a big part of the Naga world – view and it comes naturally to me to write about it. (para. 2) Her debut novel, A Naga Village Remembered, published in 2003, discussed the heroic deeds of a Naga warrior against British forces. Other notable works include A terrible Matriarchy, Mari, Bitter Wormwood and When the River Sleeps, which was awarded ‘The Hindu Literary Prize’ and deal with the beautiful narrative style of the cultural traits and natural landscape of Naga regions. The symbolic representation of 188

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a human’s journey from ignorance level to practical experience is portrayed in this work. Son of the Thundercloud was awarded Bal Sahitya Puraskar. Apart from this, her works were translated into many regional and foreign languages that illustrate the livelihood of the indigenous communities of her region.

CONCLUSION The women writers from the Northeast region of India are the first-generation writers who come from better economic backgrounds and with strong education from their childhood. The above incidents bring the historical lives of people into their society. Most of their works reflect the self-awareness and self-expression in observing the current situation of being women in their region and the livelihood of the inhabitants of Northeast India. Their literary narrations provide moral support for women readers and make the male readers understand from the feminine perspective. Michele Barrett, (2016), in his article “Virginia Woolf, Women and Writing,” rightly points out that “one should try to sum up the character of women’s fiction at the present moment, one would say that it is courageous; it is sincere, it keeps closely to what women feel … It does not insist upon its femininity but at the same time, a woman’s book is not written as a man would write it” (p. 1). In this regard, women writers from the northeast have gained mainstream recognition. Through writing, they articulate womanhood’s self-experience and become an essential voice against the patriarchal society. Their literary contribution plays an immense role and creates an affirmative image of the Northeast region. The role of contemporary tribal women’s writings and the struggle of women in the marginalized region is discussed through the select women writers.

REFERENCES Agarwal, V., & Raj, M. (2020). Empowerment of Women in Northeast India. International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts, 8(7), 5138–5144. Ao, T. (2011). NELit review: Temsula Ao Recommends (D. Borthakur & G. Das, Interviewers) [Interview]. NELit Review. https://nelitreview.blogspot.com/2011/11/ temsula-ao-recommends.html Ao, T. (2013). “My Hills.” Book of Songs: Collected Poems 1988-2007. Heritage Publishing House. Ao, T. (2014). These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone. Zubaan. 189

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Barrett, M. (2016, October 7). Virginia Woolf, Women and Writing. https:// partumpoetics.wordpress.com/2016/10/07/virginia-woolf-women-and-writing/ Dai, M. (2006). The Legends of Pensam. Penguin Books. Gill, P. (2011). NELit review: Frontispiece - Writing the Northeast: Preeti Gill. NELit Review. http://nelitreview.blogspot.com/2011/11/writing-northeast-preeti-gill.html Gond, J. (2017, November 11). The Identity of Adivasi Literature. Forward Press. https://www.forwardpress.in/2017/11/the-identity-of-adivasi-literature/ Haokip, T. (2011). Conceptualizing Northeast India: A Discursive Analysis on Diversity. Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology, 8(2), 109–120. https://papers.ssrn. com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1623524 Kire, E. (2015, November 21). No division between spiritual and physical (S. Daftuar, Interviewer) [Interview]. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/features/ lit-for-life/swati-daftuar-speaks-to-easterine-kire-about-when-the-river-sleeps/ article7903799.ece Sarangi, J. (2017). In Conversation With Mamang Dai. Writers in Conversation, 4(2), 1–7. doi:10.22356/wic.v4i2.23 Shafak, E. (2011). Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within. Viking.

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Nupi-Lal and Women Empowerment:

A Study of the Meetei Women of Manipuri Society Yumnam Yaiphabi Chanu Manipur University, India

ABSTRACT Manipur, one of the North-Eastern states of India, has been in an active phase of turmoil since the British colonial period and its subsequent annexation to the Indian Union. Insurgency and the resulting implementation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958), issues of drug trafficking, unemployment, and gender-related issues have continually plagued the people of Manipur and women in particular. Manipuri women living in a conflict-zone region have always involved themselves in every socio-economic and political situation of the state since historical times, and Nupi-Lal, which is the first ever women oriented movement, shows the glorious and painstaking journey of women empowerment. Even in today’s modern society, these empowered women are still trapped in the dark veil of political conflict and social dystopia. The chapter is an attempt to study the social constructs of Manipuri society and to recapture the causes, reasons, and results of the First and Second Nupi-Lal of Manipur and their accumulative impact on the women of present day Manipuri society.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch020 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

Nupi-Lal and Women Empowerment

INTRODUCTION Studies on women have gained a strong foothold and an unbeatable interest among the present generation. It all started from the second wave of feminism dating from 1960 to the present day. Since then, the topic of women in every field of study continued to grow and expand to broader areas of study courses and programmes. Women studies is different from gender studies from the perspective that women’s studies focusses only on women’s issues, their lives, experiences, attitudes, expectations, problems and prospects as well. While gender studies is more of an inclusive term and is a social construct that includes both men and women, LGBTQ’s and other queer theories. As time progresses, ‘women’ as a concept or ‘women’ as a study have gained new insights of learning featuring race, class, sexuality, movements, activities, region, media, religion, ethnicity, political and ideological convictions as well. However the study of women is very much related with society and women itself is regarded as the mirror and model of the society. By observing certain fundamental ways of a society, we can decipher the place and position of women in that particular society. Society at large depends on the progress of women and the type of position that women enjoy in the society also brings out the fundamental social spirit of the age and the region to which women are subject to. However it is not enough to just assess the position of women in the current times and it is important to have a prior idea and understanding of the women’s situation from the historical perspective. Over the years, each and every country of the world has their own fair share of incredible men and women but it’s been always the tales of extraordinary women that creates interesting pages of history. Stories of brave and daring women transcend all barriers to prove their might, influence and capabilities regardless of time and space.

MEETEI WOMEN AND THEIR ROLE IN THE SOCIETY Manipur, one of the eight states of North-East India was once a strong and independent Asiatic kingdom. The state has two distinct physical regions: hills, which compose of 90% of the entire land and a narrow valley that occupies the rest 10% of the total land area. The hills are inhabited by different tribal communities and the Imphal valley, which is the capital of the state, is mainly inhabited by the Meeteis along with a mixture of the other communities as well viz. Meetei Pangals (Muslims), Naga and Kuki tribes. In the history of Manipur, much have been seen and heard of the great and endless contributions made by women in the social, political, economic and cultural developments of the state. Living in a patri-oriented society, women of

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Manipur has made their presence felt in every social sphere since ancient times and therefore their social position in the society is quite high and remarkable. There are certain instances of many brave women who put their lives at stake for a larger social and political interest of the land. There is the living history of Petanga, the wife of Prince Naothingkhong who saved her husband from her murderous clansmen by her wit and resourcefulness. Mentioned may be made of Leima Linthoingambi, wife of King Ningthoukhomba who in the absence of her husband suppressed the revolting hill tribes by disguising herself and dressing up as the King. And during the colonial period, another woman Rani Gaidinliu belonging to the Zeliarong tribe of Manipur took a firm stance against the oppressive forces of the British government thereby asserting the indigenous right of freedom and self-government. The case of Irom Sharmila is another example of woman power. She went on a long sixteen years of hunger strike from 2000 to 2016 demanding for the complete removal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (1958). Many such courageous acts of women have been recorded in history from time to time. But two events that still echoes in the hearts of the Manipuri people are the First Nupi Lal (1904) and the Second Nupi Lal (1939). Here ‘nupi’ means woman and ‘lal’ meaning war is translated and described as The Women’s War/Movement which was a mass protest initiated and organized by the Meetei women against the excessive and unjust policies of the then British government. The idea of Manipuri womanhood connotes a different meaning different from the Indian version of womanhood. Since ancient times i.e. the pre-Hindu period, Meetei women have always played a special role in shaping the history of Manipur. They are never considered as an inferior being inside the family or in the society at large. In the making of present day Manipur, it is the unlettered women of the past who relentlessly participated and took charge of the social, political and economic domain so much so that they left behind a rich legacy of women power and women leaders. Moreover they are also socially and economically empowered and much of the trading activities of the state are held by them. In earlier times, when men were constantly engaged in warfare and a labour system known as the lallup, a type of military service rendered to the King in times of need, were a compulsory duty for a male of every Manipuri household; the women can no longer play the gentle and weak gender and have to act independently by taking charge of the duties in the household, engaging in agricultural activities, in trade and other forms of social and cultural duties. In fact, the Britishers had a high opinion of the Meetei women and are evident from their acute observations. Ethel St. C. Grimwood remarked on the Meetei women as “The Manipuris do not shut up their women, as is the custom in most parts of India, and they are much more enlightened and intelligent in consequence” (Grimwood, 2008). Another Britisher E. W. Dun also wrote, “They are very 193

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industrious. The most of the work of the country, except the heaviest, is performed by them. It would be difficult to find a more industrious woman in India than the Manipuri”. (Dun, 1996). Again T. C. Hodson is of the opinion, “The women hold a high and free position in Manipur, all internal trade and exchange of the produce of the country being managed by them” (Hodson, 2003). According to Belinda Morse, “The women of Manipur were famous for being hard-working and good at weaving. Besides labouring in the fields they ran the bazar entirely on their own, allowing no man to sell there” (Morse, 2014). Saroj N Arambam Paratt and John Paratt also describe on the Meetei women as: Despite the dominance of Hinduism in the plains of Manipur, Meitei women suffered none of the humiliating oppression of their sisters elsewhere on the sub-continent. Above all the women controlled the food supplies and the markets, and were therefore a dominant economic force. From the beginning of British period they had showed themselves capable and organized enough to take mass action when occasion demanded (Paratt, 2017).

NUPI-LAL AND THE BEGINNING OF WOMEN’S MOVEMENT Manipur came under the British rule on 13th April 1891 with the former’s defeat in the Battle of Khongjom. After that the reins of Manipur administration were more or less taken up by the British and then began an era of growing social discontent and widespread resentment that the traditional Manipuri society slowly started to disintegrate. The policies of the Britishers were never in tandem with the traditional customs of the land and in the words of Leitanthem Umakanta Meitei: They began exercising powers not in harmony with the established social system. Antagonism between the British colonial apparatus and local populace developed on the line of colonizers and colonized. This brought social frictions, deepened by the Bengalis who were brought to Manipur by the British to support their administrative set-up (Meitei, 2016). Under the British occupation, the administration of the state was already in chaos and protest suddenly erupted on the fateful year of 1904. In the month of July of the same year, the women market sheds of the Khwairamband market was burned down. Next the residences of British officers Mr. Dunlop and I. R. Nathal were also set on fire. Responding to such an event, Major Maxwell, the then Political Agent and the Superintendent of the State issued an order on 30th September ordering all the males of every Meetei household to forced labour (lallup) and to rebuild the 194

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bungalows with teak wood collected from the Kabow valley (current Myanmar). This order again ignited the fire of hatred and discontentment in the hearts of the local populace and in the words of Arunkumar and Arun, “It was an extra burden on the already harassed and overworked populace” (Arun, 2009). One Chingsubam Natek Singh wrote to the Superintendent pleading to reconsider the order but it was denied. On the contrary, the Political Agent even issued an order threatening that if the burned bungalows were not rebuilt, then the people inhabiting around the Imphal valley will be subject to pay taxes. Next an order prohibiting people to assemble came out and in retaliation of the order, more than 5000 people gathered at Uripok and held a public meeting decrying all the orders of the British government. The police arrested six people and after a trial conducted by Mr. Maxwell, they were exiled from Manipur. At this critical moment, the Meetei women came out to the front and protested against the Superintendent’s order to revive the abolished lallup system, which is a form of forced labour where the males from 17 to 60 years of age are required to work for the state for a period of time without paying any wages. Compelling the males to forced labour was regarded by many as improper and an act of dishonouring the Meetei society. In retaliation, the women stopped the males from coming out to build the bungalows. Next they banned all activities of the Khwairamband market and demonstrated for a week demanding the order to be revoked which disturbed the normal functioning of the state. For the first time in the history of Manipur, the women’s collective movement against the colonial policies of the British came to be popularly known as Nupi Lal or Women’s War. Ultimately it was the simple, unlettered and home tending women folk who made the colonial masters vow to their demands. The women’s movement of 1904 heralded a new age of political and national consciousness in the minds of the Manipuri people. But more importantly, it was the first movement that sowed the seeds of women empowerment and to fearlessly voice out their concerns. In connection with the movement of 1904, Arunkumar and Arun observed: From a society chained to patriarchy, the 1904 agitation was a defining movement for the Manipuri women. While it shocked the British colonialists, it also caused a small tremor at the patriarchal foundation of Manipuri society. The intrinsic power and volatile nature of Manipuri women in collective action was noted by both the colonial masters and the upholders of patriarchy in society (Arun, 2009). After three decades of British colonialism, Nupi Lal broke out for the second time in 1939 which is again a movement of historical importance showcasing the power of women when they are robbed of their basic rights of existence and livelihood. The Nupi Lal movement of 1939 became very much inevitable and almost predictable 195

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because of the certain tide of events that are associated with it. The movement was a spontaneous one and broke out in unison against the artificial scarcity of rice created by the unjust export policy of the British and the King coupled with the monopoly of trade employed by the Marwari traders. Manipur depends on agrarian economy and the particular year of 1939 witnessed poor yield of crops due to excessive rain during the monsoon season of July - August and again suffered heavy rainfall at the time of harvesting the crops in September – November. Since the British occupation of Manipur, the export of rice increased year by year with the opening of ImphalKohima road and “The question of rice export from Manipur to British India is closely linked with the growth of Marwari capital in Manipur” (Yambem, 1976). Based on the Administrative Report of the State of Manipur, Sanamani Yambem provided a statistical report of the export of rice carried on by the Britishers since 1891 as reported below. It was reported as early as 1892-93 that rice was being freely exported to Kohima; and it is recorded that in 1894-95 some 8000 maunds of rice were exported to Kohima … Even so, rice exports for that year (1898 - 99) was recorded as 36,430 maunds… Rice export from Manipur reached an all-time record of 3,72,174 maunds in 1938, the year before the outbreak of the Nupi Lan. A situation has thus arisen where any failure of the harvest in the following year would result in severe shortages (Yambem, 1976). The rice export took a new turn with the introduction of motor vehicles and the appearance of immigrant Marwari traders. The price on rice kept on increasing on one side and on the other the people were socially and culturally exploited by the excessive rules of the King and the Brahma Sabha in the name of Hinduism. As a result, the socio-economic situation in Manipur has been deteriorating for a period of time and public resentment spiraled up against the King, the Britishers and the Marwari traders. By December 1939, no rice can be found in the Khwairamband market and from this moment, Meetei women started to take charge of the movement. They demanded to stop the export of rice and to close down all the rice mills. They also urged the local people to stop selling rice to the Indian traders. When the situation did not improve much, some women took the initiative to stop bullock carts stealthily carrying paddy to the Marwari traders. Words spread out and as the movement gained momentum, it was on 12th December 1939 that the Second Nupi Lal broke out when thousands of women gathered to make an appeal to the Political Agent, Mr. Gimson who was out on a tour. So they went to Mr. T. A. Sharpe, the President of the Durbar demanding to immediately stop the export of rice. Mr. Sharpe pointed out that the King was in Nabadwip and he could not do anything without the consent of the King. 196

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The crowd then immediately demanded to send telegram to the King and Mr. T. A. Sharpe along with the women protestors went to the Telegraph office. By noon the number of women agitators swelled up to 4000 and laid siege of the Telegraph Office with Mr. T. A. Sharpe and two other British officers inside the office while waiting for a reply from Nabadwip. By afternoon, the number of women protestors rose to 10,000 and at about 2:30 p.m., Captain Stone led a platoon of Assam Rifles to check on the prevailing situation and it is from this very moment that the second Nupi Lal broke out as Saroj N Arambam Paratt and John Paratt reproduces the observation made by Miles: …it was the appearance of the Assam Rifles which caused the crowd to erupt. Some of the soldiers were Kukis and Nepalis, and the sight of hill men and foreigners with fixed bayonets pushing Meitei women aside to make a path for the British officers to escape incensed the by standers (Paratt, 2017). A major scuffle broke out between the women and the Assam Rifles and several women were injured. The sepoys managed to disperse the women and it was only after midnight the British officers were rescued from the Telegraph Office. Next morning, the order to stop the export of rice came out. But the relentless women did not stop with just an order. They targeted the rice mills and took written assurances from the mill owners that they would not run their mills. The movement did not end but instead was taken up by the male counterparts with Hijam Irabot Singh as the main leader and later on took the political dimension of freedom movement. But it can be said that this time again the women won in their fight for social justice and “against the economic policies specially imposed to best serve the colonial and feudal interests (Arun, 2009). The market women of Khwairamband did play an important role in saving the people from the near famine condition because as mediums of social change and upholders of justice, they refused to remain silent spectators as Lieutenant General Sir Geoffrey Evans and Antony Brett-James put it in their words: “Besides selling in the bazaar, the Manipuri women were politically influential, tough in support of their claims and grievances, and more ready than the men to exert pressure and take a lead…” (Brett-James, 2016). The two women movements were very much related with the then Manipuri society. Meetei women taking the role of a mother and that of a social guardian have to step out from time to time and expose themselves to all the violent forces in the course of giving the right direction to the Manipuri people. It is the central role of women in Manipuri society that has ensured peace, stability and progress since historical times till now. In the emergence of a new Manipur, it is the Meetei women who led and paved the path for a collective national and political consciousness. The spirit of the Nupi Lal movement continued to live on and it is manifested from 197

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time to time whenever the situation demanded. The fight against social injustices does not end here and even after the British left Manipur, the state continued to be in turmoil as the state was merged into the Indian Union in 1949 amidst much controversy and mixed opinions. The state was deeply divided into two opposing groups; those who welcomed the Indian union and another who directly opposed to be under Indian rule. By 1960’s the ideological differences between the two groups culminated to a point in which the opposing group resorted to armed violence in its demand to restore the state’s erstwhile independent political set up. And to curb the actions of the armed youths, the Indian government imposed the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958 all over Manipur in 1980 and Manipur was declared a disturbed state.

WOMEN AND MILITARISATION The Armed Forces Special Powers Act is an act of the Indian Parliament that gives “special” and unchecked powers to the Indian army to arrest, search, shoot, conduct operations and even the right to kill a person that is deemed suspicious without any trial. This has led to widespread violations of human rights and deprivation of basic human liberties that are quite contrary to a democratic country like India. Under AFSPA, Manipur entered a long, gruesome and dismal period of human rights violations, extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, custodial deaths and disappearances of all sorts, all in the name of providing peace and security to the state. In the name of dealing the armed youths, it is the innocent civilians and women in particular who the real victims of AFSPA are. This causes constant fear and insecurity which has an adverse effect on the women of Manipur and in the words of Leitanthem Umakanta Meitei, Women of Manipur have also experienced multiple forms of gender-based atrocities including molestation and sexual assault, sexual abuse, and rape by Indian armed forces. Such actions deepened the sense of victimization and helplessness of the women of Manipur, and brought both physical and psychological insecurity (Meitei, 2016). Under the new democratic government, the society of Manipur degraded much faster than anticipated. Although education brought about new vistas of learning, livelihood and opportunities, the work culture of the Meetei males seem to have lost and the 1970’s show increasing issues of domestic violence resulting from alcoholism and drug abuse. In 1975, Meetei women started the Nishabandi movement by keeping vigil at night and confronting drunkards, destroying vendors and even punishing the culprits by shaming called khong-goinaba. Because of their efforts, 198

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Manipur became a dry state in 1991 with the exception of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe areas. Later this Nishabandi organization gradually evolved into Meira Paibi or women torch bearers in 1980. The Meira Paibi movement is also a women’s organization which was formed spontaneously to counter the attacks and the human rights violation activities perpetrated by the Indian army in the name of counter insurgency. Certain terror cases of the Tangkhul Rose rape incident (1974), the Heiranggoithong massacre (1984), the Tera Bazar massacre (1993), the Regional Medical College massacre (1995), the Langjing incident (1996), the Tonsen Lamkhai massacre (1999), the Malom massacre (2000), and the inhuman rape and murder of Thangjam Manorama (2004) further ignited the fire of the Meira Paibi movement. The Thangjam Manorama incident left the emas (a local name for mother) of Manipur with no choice but to lay bare their bodies in naked protest against the “sexual predator in uniform” (Rehman, 2017). On 15th July 2004, twelve elderly women “promising to tell the world about the situation in Manipur” (Rehman, 2017) strip themselves in front of the sacred Kangla Fort, the seat of Manipuri kingdom, holding banners and shouted “Indian Army Rape Us”, “Take Our Flesh”. “The purpose of the protest is not to titillate, but to provoke action that upholds the dignity of Manipuri women” (Rehman, 2017). Although the nude protest cannot repeal AFSPA, it did make an impact and the 17th Assam Rifles which was stationed in the Kangla Fort at the time was removed and AFSPA was withdrawn from seven assembly constituencies within the Imphal Municipal area. The Khwairamband incident of 2009 which brought about the death of a young man and a pregnant woman resulted in much public outcry and the women’s uproar from all sides put an end to all the atrocities of fake encounters and killing people at will carried on by the state forces. And during the ILPS (Inner Line Permit System) agitation, it is again the women who relentlessly gave support and participated in the movement till its successful implementation in 2020. The Meetei women have never fought against their male counterparts for their rights. Instead they fight for a larger cause concerning their collective identity, dignity and morality and can be a “powerful political force” (Meitei, 2016). And Manipur being a conflict region has its endless share of issues and problems. In every major social events and outbreaks, it is the women who always came forward to lead the way in their motherly instinct of protecting her home, family and the society at large. Tracing the women’s activism in recent times and linking it with the past, the journey of Meetei women has not been easy and simple. But however empowered or strong the Meetei women may be, in the face of rampant political corruption and unequal gender participation in electoral politics, the rights of women have never been realized. In fact the political decision domain is not regarded as a place for women and women’s involvement in the political sphere is still very low. When these social inhibitions are removed, women can freely exercise her strengths 199

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and resources for the general productivity of the state. Also they should be made more aware of the legal rights and privileges which will automatically empower them in the process. Inclusion of educated and learned women activists should also be encouraged to promote sound judgement. Nevertheless the responsibilities and contributions the Meetei women have made in every socio-economic and political affairs of the state are innumerable and worthy of respect and recognition.

REFERENCES Arun, M. C. (2009). The Transcendental Role of Women in Manipur History in New Insights Into The Glorious Haritage of Manipur (H. D. Sharma, Ed.). Akansha Publishing House. Brett-James, S. G. (2016). Imphal: A Flower on Lofty Heights, 1962. New Delhi: Sunmarg Publishers & Distributors. Dun, E. W. (1996). The Gazetteer of Manipur, 1886. New Delhi: Manas Publications. Grimwood, E. S. (2008). My Three Years in Manipur, 1891. New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House. Hodson, T. (2003). The Meitheis. New Delhi: Low Price Publications. Meitei, L. U. (2016). Voyages of Women in Manipur. Peace Research Institute. Morse, B. (2014). Calamity and Courage, A Heroine of the Raj: The Story of Ethel Grimwood & Manipur, 2008. Manipur: Imasi Publications. Paratt, S. N. (2017). Collected Papers on the History and Culture of Manipur. Manipur: Patriotic Writers Forum (PAWF). Rehman, T. (2017). The Mothers of Manipur: Twelve Women Who Made History. Zubaan Publishers Pvt. Ltd. Yambem, S. (1976). Nupi Lan: Manipur Women’s Agitation. Economic and Political Weekly, 11(8), 325-327-329-331. Retrieved 9 Feb Tue, 2021, from https://www. jstor.org/stable/4364388

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ENDNOTES 1.



2.



3.

The Meeteis are the dominant ethnic community of Manipur. Both the words “Meetei” and “Meitei” are used synonymously but according to the Manipur Gazette of 1980, the word “Meetei” has been officially recognized. AFSPA was first imposed in the hills in 1960 which extended later to the valley. ILPS or the Inner Line Permit System is a travel document that allows an Indian citizen to visit or stay in a state that is protected under this system for a period of time. The main purpose of this system is to protect and safeguard the indigenous population from outsiders or people belonging to other Indian states.

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Chapter 21

The Role of Haptics in the Sexual Harassment of Women in Corporate Sector Shraddha Dhal https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6022-3220 KIIT University (Deemed), India

ABSTRACT The quintessence of a woman’s modesty is her sex. The one, intending to outrage a woman’s modesty, be it in her personal life or at her workplace, shall be punished. Fortunately enough, women have a powerful sense of differentiating between the touch that gives solace and the touch that is misleading and is used for sexual stimulation. Haptics plays a vital role in this regard. As the world is being globalized, it is onerous to avoid the chance of crossing the line of acceptability. Even so, it is quite important to learn the proper use of haptics to remain aware of the inappropriate act of touching as well as to avoid awkward and embarrassing occurrences. The chapter attempts to emphasize how the proper use of haptics in the corporate sector can add more productivity to both men and women while at the same time it can also enhance the efficiency of the organization.

INTRODUCTION Touching, the indispensable Universal behaviour is perhaps the earliest developing and longest lasting of all our senses. The need to touch and to be touched is preponderant in creating a humane bonding. Touch provides a direct contact with the other person. It is the most ‘genuine’ way to sense the world around us. It is phenomenally effective as DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch021 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

The Role of Haptics in the Sexual Harassment of Women in Corporate Sector

a form of communication, as the messages are distinctly received without perplexity, resulting in the propensity to convey substantial indications without vocal appendage. Haptics (a Greek word meaning “I touch”) or Haptic communication is a form of touching that outlines our interpersonal relationships and is paramount in conveying physical intimacy. In other words, Haptics is described as the subsystem of nonverbal communication that studies the use of touching behaviours in communication. Science proves that the need for physical contact exists right from birth and is a significant component of our species heritage. British clinician John Bowlby puts forward the evolutionary need for human beings to frame indestructible affectional bonds with other beings. He cites the example of infants who manifest themselves in instinctive actions, promoting physical propinquity, thus escalating the quality of survival (Holmes, 2014). Therefore, there is not a more direct and intimate way to intermingle with our world other than touch. The messages of haptics convey many more things than being merely limited to information about emotion, facial expression, and describing other visual or auditory information like art or music. Thus, Haptics is a kind of tactic by which human beings communicate via touching that provides information about surfaces and textures. Heslin and Alper classify Haptics communications into five different categories: Functional/Professional, Social/Polite, Acquaintance/Warmth, Love/Intimacy and Sexual (Heslin and Alper, 1983). Haptics can effectively be used, or effectively be misused, depending upon the knowledge of toucher and receiver in a culturally diverse workplace. With the transforming demographics and changing global perspectives, diversity in the gender, race and culture can be noticed in various workplaces. Burwell believes that each culture has its own idiosyncratic way of touching behaviours, which results in the increased sense of miscommunication and sometimes be decoded as assault, because touching is interpreted differently by different people belonging to different cultures. Thus, touching activities which are mutually incompatible or goes beyond the culturally acknowledged boundary result in either an apathetic or an active hostility. Such feelings can often lead to any undesirable impression of a sexual nature that is tied to security and advancement.

OBJECTIVES The present paper succinctly brings out the role of Haptics among sexually harassed employees in corporate sectors. It also evaluates prominent issues related to the problems of touch, with a predominant emphasis on women in diverse workplaces and provides some ultimate solutions to overcome the problems related to haptics.

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METHODOLOGY The information placed and cited in the present article have been collected from various sources including governing bodies, government policies/announcements, official documents, guidelines. A number of media reports, texts, and few research articles have also been considered to extract information.

“TOUCH” AS A SIGNIFICANT FORM OF COMMUNICATION The human significance of the skin is compelling. Skin is the oldest and most sensitive organ that responds to emotions expeditiously. It is, being the biggest organ, wraps itself over, under, and all around in living beings. Our sense of touch begins in the womb, where warmth can often be sensed. Ashley Montagu brings together an extensive and intensive range of research throwing light on the functions of both skin and bodily touch in individual awareness in his seminal work, Touching. He says, “As we have seen, in our very brief survey, different cultures vary in both the manner in which they express the need for tactile stimulation and the manner in which they satisfy it. But the need is universal and is everywhere the same, though the form of its satisfaction may vary according to time and place” (Montagu, 1986). Thus, the desire to touch and to be touched has always been of a universal need. Touch is often intimate and can be seen from the perspectives of issues of power, status and supremacy. Thus, it can be used as an act of ascendancy or friendship, depending on the ambience and who is touching who, how and when. Therefore, it may stimulate positive or negative feelings in the communicants. DePauw University psychologist Matthew J Hertenstein along with his colleagues demonstrated that we have an innate ability to decipher emotions through touch (Hertenstein et al, 2006). Growing up in a society where one learns by observing others and imitating them and is exposed informally to gain knowledge of how to use gestures, glances, intonation, and other auxiliary communication appliances to interpret the language and behaviour of others. Besides, religions often teach that some kinds of touch are inapt or sinful. And as human being, especially a woman has the intense power of differentiating between the touch that gives comfort, reduces stress and the touch that is inappropriate, misleading and is used for sexual stimulation. In the later, touch is used to induce a sensual feeing, where certain sensitive parts of the body are caressed and stimulated. This type of touch is acceptable between partners along with their consent. But it can be startling and may often rouse disquiet, where the receiver may not like to be touched. Thus, identifying reciprocated sexual intentions is of fundamental importance. However, it depends on the person- an extrovert and sociable individual is more open to initiate touch whereas an introvert individual 204

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having a reserved personality may feel awkward and unnerving. Usually, one can notice within a few minutes of talking to them whether or not it’s propitious. In such cases, when the recipient gets an undesirable touch against their will, the action is always unwelcomed of a venereal nature. Thus, sexual pestering is a major problem for countless employees in general and women in particular. It is boorish, undignified, and humiliating. It mostly displays the misuse of power and authority. It adversely affects the victim’s psychological wellbeing, socio-economic status as well as the occupational relationships.

CULTURAL ASPECTS OF ‘HAPTICS’ In a globalized world, the opportunity for crossing the line of acceptability can hardly be evaded. To scrutinize the cultural aspect of different countries, the French custom of traditional greeting and kissing on the cheek (faire la bise) is perceived as unpleasant in other cultures. The Turkish people look upon a firm handshake as discourteous and belligerent. The thumbs-up gesture is uncouth in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran. Using the thumb and index finger to form a circle as the ‘Okay’ symbol has a negative connotation and may also suggestive of ‘hate’ emotion in some parts of America. It may also mean ‘money’ in countries like Japan where as in some others, it’s an awfully insulting indication to a sexual organ. Pointing with the finger is accustomed in the U.S., while it is regarded very foul in Japan, China, Indonesia and Latin America. Some cultures respect certain extent of personal space while communicating, whereas some people particularly the Middle Easterners prefer a close proximity chat. The Hispanic Americans usually tend to touch the hands and arms of the person communicating with, they seem to enjoy a more touchy-feely conversation in form of warm hugs, kissing the cheek while greeting, while in the U.S., these types of physical contact is identified as provocative. However, there are some convention bound cultures that do not at all entertain the concept of touch outside a close relationship as in Judaism, whereas in some Islamic societies, non-essential touch, glaring and even conversation is completely prohibited. Touch, has, therefore, a stratum of meanings, according to the customs and mores of one’s civilization. In order to understand the various meanings that a single touch can lead to, one has to observe and absorb many highly culture bound techniques. Women working in multinational corporations or any multicultural environment come across scores of cultural discrepancies, which they may discover interesting and invigorating or infuriatingly strange. Although there’s a reflection in cultural difference as far as touch is concerned and that is why crossing of relational and cultural lines are definitely unintentional, however more often they find it deliberate, 205

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which is above any cultural diversity, leading to the sense of illicit or unsanctioned sexuality. Leading U.S. Psychologists Louise Fitzgerald and Lilia M. Cortina have widely researched on sexual harassment mostly in the corporate sectors in the U.S by means of Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ). Their findings suggest that the SEQ “measures harassment in what Fitzgerald has defined as the behavioural categories of gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention and sexual coercion expressed through crude words, acts and gestures conveying hostile, misogynist attitudes. Unwanted sexual attention is analogous to the legal concept of ‘hostile work environment harassment’ and sexual coercion is analogous to the legal concept of ‘quid pro quo sexual harassment’.” (Fitzgerald and Cortina, 2018)

SEXUAL HARASSMENT AS A BARRIER TO CORPORATE COMMUNICATION Sexual harassment has been found to be one of the most destructive barriers to occupation among women. As reported by Mental Health America, employees often face countless professional snags which are detrimental to their mental health and social well-being. Sexual harassment, being the most prominent one, triggers acute mental and physical distress and disquiet for its victims (Sexual Assault and Mental Health, n.d.). According to the 1994 Merit Systems Protection Board of Sexual Harassment, women are “more than three times” expected to be harassed than men in male-dominated occupations such as military, construction, policing, insurance, hotel industries, modelling, film and media industries etc. As per the report, nearly 19% of men reported sexual assault cases in workplace while the case of women hikes up to 44% (Merit Systems Protection, 1994). Even the International Labour Organization study of various countries shows that sexual harassment has become contagious for women all over the world. Thus, women around the world are extra sentient towards the kind of behaviours they receive through haptics. Being aware of the outer world through an undesirable experience, women have started exposing the pervasiveness of sexual harassment in their societies. Many such examples are even overtly documented. Direct sexual propositions, where higher-ranked employees demand or invite for sexual favours on the assurance of certain fulfilments like promotion, an increment in the regular wages, sometimes intimidating women employees to endanger their employment position, offensive and demeaning behaviours etc are some of the instances. Acquaintance rape is the extreme example of dominance related to haptics. As a result of that many women find it impossible to control these unwelcoming situations in the workplace and leave their jobs, which lead to serious economic consequences. Some others suffer silently as they keep fighting the war of economic survival. Moreover, their 206

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culturally learned behaviour prevents them from confronting. Some women even hesitate to retaliate with the fear that a reprisal may lead to more pestering and persistent harassments. As a result of that, they face myriad of problems that come their way. The most common problems are difficulties with communication, loss of confidence, a break from being social, distrust, a sense of insecurity, failure to have control over interpersonal situations, emotional imbalance, mental trauma, difficulty in concentrating at anything, defamation of character and reputation, and the fear of being objectified and humiliated by scrutiny and gossip, which ultimately drive the person into a state of shock and distress, terror and trepidation. Over-protectiveness of the victim may also be an issue. Besides, other psychological and emotional impacts can be diagnosed: psychosomatic symptoms like anxiety, depression, insomnia, frustration, headaches, fatigue, isolation, suicidal thoughts or attempts. It also disturbs the spiritual facets of women. Most importantly the vivacious accomplishment obstructs the natural flow of the victims. It wounds the heart and soul. Sometimes life becomes intensely strenuous and can be found dreadful, which stands more contrasting to live. Very often a single occurrence takes a lifetime to restore the previous state of mind. However, there are some lesser issues related to haptics, which indeed play an important role in the day-to-day psychological well-being of women. Diverse forms of greeting conventions, from shaking hands to cheek-kissing to full-body hugs can exhibit delicate symbolism. Even though shaking hands is a social ritual which is widely accepted in various cultures, it may inhibit a substantial degree of power and control. While the ‘power grip’ grabs people’s hand confidently and dynamically, the ‘vice grip’ indicates an exceedingly aggressive stance, which may even occasionally cause pain. The ‘top handed shake’ that holds the hand in an upright way and shakes horizontally gives a feeling of authority and superiority. Domination can also be reflected through the length of the shake. To illustrate, clasping the other person for a fraction of a second longer than usual can convey symbols of affection and command. The power hug is another way to reflect the power of the hugger and to raise the risk of discomfort. It may well be quickly initiate in the form of a stronger squeeze, giving the ‘victim’ less time to escape. Full body touch, laying hand at the person’s back, tight clasp, a hard hand-squeeze, a short knee touch flirting, smelling others, kissing someone without their consent, grabbing or squeezing the buttocks of women while hugging them, and even provocative postures and inviting gestures, engaging in sexually manipulative acts indicate unwanted act of domination and strong sexual overtones. It is not that women do not face trouble in any other places, but workplaces are the most common location where harassment occurs. The most regular complaints are inappropriate jokes, looks, or gestures, inapt invitations, leering, sabotaging women’s work, comments about women’s bodies, taking women’s

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pictures without their approval, sexual sneak attacks, and ‘accidentally’ brushing sexual parts of the body, sexually indicative touching, grabbing, or pinching etc. Sexual contact has also been described to manifest in varied ways like initiating a rough intimacy by forceful kissing, nibbling ear of the other person, whistling, sucking, rewards in exchange of sexual favours, leaning down, marching into someone’s private space, touching in erogenous zones etc. Touch will naturally seem more intimate if it is accompanied by other signals, such as postural echo, prolonged gaze, smiling more than required, increased eye-contact (Oculesics may also be considered as a part of this) and moving closer without maintaining proxemics. Since men sexualize touch, they are more likely to consider every woman they meet as a potential date. As a result, males limit themselves to the kind of relationships they form with the opposite gender. Researchers speculate that this is suggestive of male authority and allows more convenient male touching of the female as females are mostly at the receiving end. According to the Commission of the European Union, “Sexual harassment pollutes the working environment and can have a devastating effect upon the health, confidence, morale and performance of those affected by it. The anxiety and stress produced by sexual harassment commonly leads to those subjected to it taking time off work due to sickness, being less efficient at work, or leaving their job to seek work elsewhere. Employees often suffer the adverse consequences of the harassment itself and short-term and long-term damage to their employment prospects if they are forced to change jobs. Sexual harassment may also have a damaging impact on employees who themselves are not the direct victims of unwanted behaviours but who are witnesses to it or have knowledge of the unwanted behaviour” (Protection of the Dignity, 1991). As Sexual harassment and Gender discrimination are frequent within the business world, it is needless to say its elimination in the workforce is exceedingly essential for every employer for the sustenance of a work friendly and healthy environment. Some strong and adequate remedial actions have already been calculated to terminate sexual harassments of women at workplaces, which can protect an employer from liability for a hostile environment with respects to acts. Sex discrimination is already prohibited by law in the United States. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, amended in 1991 to include punitive damages, prohibits sex discrimination in the U.S. in all employment related affairs. The sex discrimination act of 1975 in the United Kingdom, the Canadian Human Rights Acts, the Sex discrimination act of 1984 and 1992 in Australia, the Hong Kong sex discrimination ordinance of 1996 are many such prohibitions that reinforce criminal and/or individual penalties for such issues. In India IPC section 354, IPC section 376 hold the records of the behaviours related to of sexual offence. Moreover, on 3 February 2012, the Supreme Court of India, taking note of the fact that the civil and penal laws in the country 208

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do not adequately provide for specific protection of women from sexual harassment particularly at workplaces, decided to give a special stature to it by the enactment of a new specific act of Sexual harassment at workplace. This was further put into force in the following year as the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 to impart a holistic working environment by stamping out acts of unwanted sexual advances of any kind from the workplace.

CONTROL AND PREVENTION A multicultural setting necessitates interacting with colleagues and organizational clients, personifying an assortment of cultures. Thus, the culture of that organization defines collective values and behavioural expectations, which ensures productivity and facilitates the organization to prosper. But ill-treating women and sexually pestering them can cost minimal productivity, poor self-esteem, frequent absenteeism and employee turnover. It can have an overawing and demoralizing effect on everyone within the gamut of it. It blocks the employees’ peace of mind and often impairs the fertility of the organization. Even sexual pestering can disrupt the work culture and environment of people not directly involved in the process. It can poison the work ambience and arrest the psyche of all workers, resulting in decreased work group productivity. The following steps can be taken up to prevent and abolish sexual harassments of women at workplaces. • • • •

• •

One must first be able to understand people from diverse cultural backgrounds and figure out if they are flexible to haptics. Extra caution must be taken to convey the purpose of communication through touch in such situations. Multicultural training would be beneficial in this regard, which would provide the members of the organization a room to partake in different learning activities. Communicating effectively requires maximum sensitivity to culture. As touching another person without permission or clarification may hold negative outcomes, it is recommended to avoid touching work colleagues. Employees should be permitted to bring up any issues related to sexual harassment at suitable forums like staffs’ meeting where these concerns can be affirmatively talked about and necessary actions should be taken against the accused. A proper grievance mechanism must be formed in every organization for redness of grievance submitted by the victims. A complaint committee or Help Desk or a special counselor should be appointed at every workplace, ensuring confidentiality. However, in case of 209

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• • • • •

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utter emergency the victim can file a First Information Report (FIR) at the nearest police station. The victims or the witnesses should not be discriminated while confronting and dealing with the issues of sexual harassment at their workplaces. Giving Anti-sexual harassment policies to every employee by including the policies in any orientation material as soon as they are introduced to a new workplace. Awareness campaign about the rights of women at workplace should be done in every corporation and that should be promoted through seminars or workshops to circulate company-wide knowledge. If there’s a third party or an outsider’s harassment occurs at the workplace, then the person in charge should take all necessary steps to help out the affected person. The acts of harassment should also be documented for future reference as evidence in case of complaint. Complaints may also be personally registered through proper avenues as per the company’s policies and guidelines for safety and accountability. Following apparent forethoughtful policies against issues related to sexual pestering in corporate is also an alternative way to prevent. The connection among inequity and favoritism, sexual pestering, and glass ceiling however questions several issues that frequently obstruct women to engage in executive posts also cultivate sexual harassment. In this respect, courses exclusively developed to amplify the representation of women employees at highly designated positions can shrink the occurrence of harassment. Every organization should develop its own core values like integrity, respect, responsibility, and commitment for its improved functioning. The same should also be projected through the company’s image. Knowledge about the importance of non-verbal cues in varied cross-cultural settings may help to acquaint with far-out gestures while at the same time may also provide a base for social transformation. Sometimes directly confronting the harasser may be useful. The victim should drop the fear of not being believed and name the behavior so that the accused can be held accountable for his actions. A strong, self-respecting body language can better undermine the message the maltreated woman wants to convey.

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CONCLUSION Touch is a language. It can communicate better than words. In fact, it can be more versatile than any other way of expression. However, there are two sides to every communication. So, one should instinctively know how to use it. As haptics is strongly connected with the exhibition of warmth and intimacy, it should appropriately communicate the intention of such message. Nor Intimacy and Sexual relations are frequent in workplaces; neither the touch related to those acts of violence is typically the part and parcel of corporate sectors. Thus, interpreting it and using it accordingly can be immensely helpful. To evade from negativity, to boost up communication, to build up and sustain a conducive working ecosystem, proficiency in cross-cultural communications is a sign qua non. A constructive-interpretive approach towards incorporating responsiveness and understanding of cultural disparity and value for those divergences into the corporate sector can further alleviate the issues. In this respect, treating others as you would want to be treated is the key. An employer, by understanding and creating an awareness of the complex cultural disparities in the workplace, can create a safe and healthy environment free from menace that supports the employees’ natural development in these areas to thrive as organisms and where all can be contended, accepted to manipulate their creative faculty for the advancement of the organization.

REFERENCES Fitzgerald, F. L., & Cortina, L. M. (2018). Sexual Harassment in Work Organizations: A View from the Twenty-First Century. In J.W. White & C. Travis (Eds.), Handbook on the Psychology of Women. American Psychological Association. Hertenstein, M. J., Keltner, D., App, B., Bulleit, B. A., & Jaskolka, A. R. (2006). Touch communicates distinct emotions. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 6(3), 528–533. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.6.3.528 PMID:16938094 Heslin, R., & Alper, T. (1983). Touch: A bonding gesture. In J. M. Wiemann & R. P. Harrison (Eds.), Nonverbal Communication (Vol. 11). Sage Annual Reviews of Communication Research. Holmes, J. (2014). John Bowlby and Attachment Theory (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis. Merit Systems Protection Board Sexual Harassment Survey. (n.d.). Solomon Law Firm, PLLC. https://www.fedemploylaw.com/blog/2018/august/merit-systemsprotection-board-sexual-harassment/

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Montagu, A. (1986). Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin. William Morrow Paperback. Protection of the Dignity of Women and Men at Work: The Commission adopts a Recommendation and Proposes a Code of Practice. (1991). Commission of European Union. Sexual Assault and Mental Health. (n.d.). Mental Health America. Retrieved 10 September 2021 from https://mhanational.org/sexual-assault-and-mental-health

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Chapter 22

Table, Chair, and the Persistent Patriarchy:

A Feminist Critique of Vaidehi’s “Going by Tables and Chairs” Kanika Bhalla University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

ABSTRACT The chapter deals with the short story “Going by Tables and Chairs,” which is in fact an excerpt from the long essay “Meju Kurchiya Moolaka,” translated into English by Prakash Belawadi. The essay written by Vaidehi, one of the most significant names in Kannada literature, is a mixture of the writing styles of a short story and an essay. It deals with the gender politics revolving around the most common of the objects in our lives today: a table and a chair. The chapter attempts to analyze the operation of patriarchal norms in most Indian households; it also provides an insight into the minds of elder women, who with time have learned to discipline the younger women and girls into obedience and submission to men.

INTRODUCTION In the short-story, ‘Going by Tables and Chairs”, Vaidehi (2010) talks about the masculinity that her society has imparted to the simplistic ‘chair’ and ‘table.’ A woman sitting in a chair is considered audacious and she is reprimanded for doing an activity that is meant for the males. She draws a parallel between the shaving sets and the table and chair and designates them as the “natural right of men” (pp. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch022 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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119). Even if some school-going girl feebly requests to get a chair for her because her teacher asks the students to maintain proper body posture while studying, the elderly women retorts, “Ask [your master] if his wife sits in a chair to cook!” (pp. 120). While this statement depicts the confinement of the female gender to the ‘inner sanctum’ of the house, specifically the kitchen, it also denotes the oppression that a woman inflicts upon another woman. The story offers a feminist critique of the most common of the activities and events that happen in the life of a woman living in the society that Vaidehi belonged to. In the house of the narrator, for instance, she satirically questions the relevance of a woman’s education by asking that even if she learns to write, who will a woman write to? If a woman acquires education, her eventual goal or ‘future mission’ is to get married and be ‘sent away’. If a woman is allowed to read, it is only for the sake of reading, nor for argument. It suggests the patriarchal control over the thoughts of women. The women of the house, by and by, come to see table and chair as something that symbolised ‘Male.’ Vaidehi writes, “They symbolised position, office, and the hauteur of authority” (pp. 121). Meant only for the males of the house, it is believed that the grace and the worth of table and chair would diminish “if it were sat upon by the women, contaminated by menstruation and all” [Emphasis added] (pp. 122). In many cultures, menstruating women are seen as contaminated and impure, and “the patriarchal control exerted to control women’s behaviour and mobility during menstruation undermines their agency and equality” (UN News, 2019). The narrator then describes the throne-like chair in which her grandfather, a lawyer, used to sit to handle his clients. She describes the table in front of the chair with almost a great relish. There are three chairs which are meant only for the “special Male clients only,” mostly for those who could converse in English (pp. 123). There is a bench too, for all other sorts of clients, but all men. It is significant to note that Vaidehi capitalises the letter ‘M’ of the male in her entire story, which perhaps, signifies her inner inferiority complex that has been imposed on her. She writes that there is no need for a human to teach the girls of the house even to behave, as the mere presence of the table and chair, even if unoccupied, did the business. It is no wonder to anyone that girls were supposed to dust the chairs and the table, illustrating the unacknowledged help and support of women that the men require to keep their lives in order. It is no new fact that tasks like these have been delegitimized as women’s work. According to Britannica, domesticity and motherhood were the traditional duties of women, which remain the chief pursuits even today.

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The Woman It is not uncommon for women to visit the grandfather to discuss the legal matters. ‘Desperate women’ of all sorts—destitute ones, widows, disinherited women, illiterate—used to come to Vaidehi’s grandfather to seek help. Vaidehi describes these women as beings that required help and support all the time. The women would keep standing, clinging to some pillar or the window as if they know already that the chairs and the bench are not supposed for them. They reply to the grandfather’s questions in a quavering tone and eventually start to cry. Vaidehi writes that in this regime where women were supposed to stand, the scenario suddenly changes when a ‘Woman’ arrives. Vaidehi capitalises the letter ‘W’ of this woman, denoting the superiority of this particular woman over the rest of women Vaidehi knows. Women in Vaidehi’s times were not supposed to go anywhere alone; therefore, she clearly mentions that this woman did arrive with a man. However, he seemed like a peon that she had brought along, with his lips stitched. Vaidehi describes her incoming in the following manner: She was posh and sumptuous, with a shining complexion. She wore lipstick. And— ‘what’s the problem with long hair?’—hers was trimmed to the neck. She had to frequently coax back the straying strands. [. . .] she breezed into the office in a sleeveless blouse, swinging her arms [. . .] Without taking off her dark glasses or slippers, or so much as a glance at the bench or veranda, she fearlessly headed straight for the chairs, like it was her own grandfather’s office. (Vaidehi, 2010, p. 125) From a small shutter, the women of the household rush to behold the brave woman who dared to behave like a man. They make out that she had been sitting with her legs crossed, leaning to one side, even shaking her leg “like a man” (pp. 127). The sleeveless blouse she had been wearing was smaller than the bra that the other women wore. Though the women utter, “thoo” in disgust, they smile incomprehensively. Vaidehi writes that it is impossible to say whether the smile signified derision or admiration. They wonder the reason this woman is entitled to sit while others are standing and why the grandfather did not slap her. The grandmother tries to explain the ‘phenomenon’ by saying that her husband is strict only with helpless women. She asks the other ladies of the house, “Is there a man on earth who is not enamoured of fair skin?” (p. 128) This obsession for fair-skinned ladies has also penetrated into the other sectors, as Nandita Das asserts that the Indians believe that only fair-skinned women can be educated and successful (The Guardian, 2013). At last, the women decide that this particular woman got precedence over others because she speaks in English. They try to remember the time when numerous untouchables and lower caste people were standing outside the grandfather’s office 215

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waiting for their turn, but the Tehsildar—a mere kid at that time—was directly shown the chair by the grandfather. The woman always cut short the man who accompanied her, and even the grandfather laughed at her statements. The women in the inner courtyard wished they could understand English too. Their murmurs lead the grandfather to chide them and shut the window. After attending the other people, the grandfather comes inside and the women of the house wait for the “violent act of the furious Man-Lion Narasimha avatar, the pillar will split open, the earth shall quake...he will roar and rip asunder!” [Emphasis Added] (Vaidehi, 2010, p. 129). In the Indian mythology, anger and ferocity is associated with the mythological character of Narasimha who killed a demon with his bare claws. The women of the house expect a similar display of anger; however, the grandfather is in a surprisingly mellow mood. He even initiates a conversation with the women and tells them that the woman is the daughter-in-law of the Mathias. The women inquire about the man who had accompanied her, and are told that he was some friend of hers. The grandfather understands the delirium of the women and explains that a table and chair is not a new thing for these “very forward” people, who even eat their food on table. Sensing the grandfather in a docile mood, the women complain about the audacity of the woman by saying that the chair in their courtyard is not any regular chair in the English-speaking woman’s house. The irritated grandfather bursts out in the praises of the lady: Do you know how capable that woman is? She has done her BA course. BA! While her husband works somewhere abroad and sends her a flow of cash, month on month, she manages the home and estate so efficiently. You people need help even to board a bus! And to get off a bus! [. . .] You saw for yourself... what a woman! She is a role model! Such a sharp brain, so precise in her speech! (p. 130) The women of the house—raised with the injunction that aggressiveness is unsuitable for women—are naturally taken aback at these statements of the grandfather, who had never allowed women in his own house to pursue any education beyond Class 8th. The women feel jealous for the English-speaking lady who gets to pursue BA, and therefore, receives money, praises and significantly, the chair to sit in. The story also provides an insight into the minds of elder women, who with time, have learnt to discipline the younger women and girls into obedience and submission to men. The story contains long paragraphs about the description of various kinds of chairs that the men folk usually buy for themselves. For instance, while describing a comfy chair, the woman says that to the onlooker, it seemed the man would never want to get out for his comfortable posture. The assembly of the easy chair is to be done by a woman, who is never allowed to sit in it. The accounts clearly establish the 216

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fact that the female narrator could only imagine how it would feel like to sit in the chair. The narrator also discusses about the journal Weekly which was meant to be read only by men, as it was written in English: “not a language that could be grasped even if cooked and served for thick creatures like women” (pp. 131). The young eager girls would turn the pages and try to read, letter by letter, the advertisements which would show the bare back of a model freshly out of bath. The vigilant boys of the house would order them to put the book away at once. Disobedience would result in the boys reporting the matter to the grandmother who showered on them the choicest of abuses.

The Easy Chair The narrative shifts to Mariyanna, a young boy who comes back home as a graduate after years of study. He claims his grades can incite envy in anyone and believes that getting a job is a cakewalk. For a few days after his arrival, he cycles down to the houses of his friends and relatives announcing that he would not be able to do it once he starts the job. His young cousin, Shaalmali wanted to learn cycling but her persistence is rewarded with two slaps, and a report to the grandmother. The narrator comments that women do not need any training in the art of putting down other women. She sarcastically says that it is the ranting of the women, after all, “that signifies human presence in a home” (p. 134). The narrator believes Shaalmali to be of a kind that people call ‘forward’. She questions everything that a woman is not allowed to do, for instance, to laugh loudly, talk, ride a bicycle, or sit in a chair. Mariyanna fails to get any job despite frequent attempts. The grandfather and father claim that their obligation was only to provide him education, getting a job is one’s own responsibility. Meanwhile, the ‘fanciful’ Shaalmali is seized with “an unquenchable thirst to sit in the easy chair” that seemingly belonged to Mariyanna. One day when the men of the house are away, she drags the chair, takes her Kannada book of Egyptian Tales and is immersed in reading, just like Mariyanna did. Her journey was abruptly cut off with Mariyanna’s sudden arrival, who demands her out of the chair. Upon refusal, the stressed Mariyanna lifts and dumps her on the ground and sits in the chair himself. The grandmother comes to the spot and Mariyanna shouts at her: [. . .] you have brought her up this way. The size of my little finger she is but look at her nerve! I’m her elder brother but she will not respect orders. Is she some aged woman that she can sit in that chair? Here she is, reading a story, dangling her feet, if you please! A story! Not even her lesson. Do you think she will conduct herself with decorum in her husband’s house in the future? (p. 137)

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This is an utterly common rebuke that most young girls face for creating ‘indiscipline’ in the house. From the childhood itself, the girls are conditioned to behave as per the social norms so that her independent attitude might not create any problem for her husband or his family. When even after six months, Mariyanna fails to get a job, he becomes miserable. His long beard made him look hideous and everyone avoided him. One day, he comes into the house, asks Shaalmali—who was doing her homework—for water and heads to his easy chair. He falls down as Shaalmali might have tempered with it. The congealed misery in him bursts forth in anger, as Vaidehi sarcastically comments: “When anguish melts in women, it comes out in tears. In men, it turns into anger, right?” (p. 138) He pursues her but Shaalmali runs away shouting, “Why? That chair bears your name, does it? Why shouldn’t I sit in it? You are fit only to be a tattletale. . .that’s the job you must pursue” (p. 138). The grandfather ends this drama by ordering Mariyanna to fold his chair and put it in the attic. The grandfather’s judgement of the whole scene depicts the patriarchal control over the lives of the women that thrives on depriving women of the knowledge of anything that might empower them. In this case, the chair becomes the source of empowerment for Shaalmali; the grandfather believes that putting the chair out of her reach will solve the matter once and for all.

Marital Expectations Another excerpt from the text deals with the expectations that a family keeps from its daughter-in-law and the way a girl’s family raises its daughter in a manner that would facilitate her entry into a happy domestic life. Vaidehi tells the story of a brideseeking family that comes to see Ramanand’s daughter. Ramanand is a wealthy and educated man; the respect he commands in the village is reflected in the fact that his whole family, including his wife and children, speaks in English. Ramanand’s house was the first in the village that had a separate ‘drawing room’ with a sofa set for guests at the time when men were shown a chair and a mat was rolled out for women to sit. Ramanand’s wife would direct her women visitors to the sofa, which the women themselves did not feel worthy of. They felt that the sofa was biting them and their backs would begin to hurt. Vaidehi comments, “It is not an easy matter to rise from the mat to the chair and leap directly on to the sofa” (p. 142). Due to some reason, a prospective marital match of Ramanand’s daughter could not become successful. The whole village gossips about its reason and concludes that it is due to the presence of the sofa at Ramanand’s place and the women of the house constantly using it. the actual reason is not disclosed in the story, but if it were really what the villagers believe, one might infer that the bride-seeking party, who had descended from America, could not upgrade their traditional beliefs that had become obsolete with time. 218

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The excerpt speaks of an eminent professor’s table, which will never become fully hers because it is perceived to be for public use, whereas her husband’s table is solely for him. Children, visitors, everyone use her table. If some idea occurs to her in a middle of a chore, she rushes out of the kitchen to make a note, but she must consider herself lucky if she finds that note on her table later as it easily finds its way into the dustbin. Her constant pleadings to leave her table the way it is falls on deaf ears. The female professor who, despite achieving a position in the world equal to that of her husband, still has to work in the kitchen suggests the patriarchy in order. The narrator wonders that a dressing table is still one table that has been sanctioned to women by general consensus. However, even in big homes, “a chair of one’s own and a table in a lit corner can only continue to carry that unfulfilled dream” (p. 145). The narrative ends with Vaidehi pointing out the photograph where the grandmother is sitting in a chair (just for the photograph) and the grandfather stands beside her, with one hand on the chair and one on his waist. The posture of the grandfather suggests his pride and power. The posture symbolises the control that he exercises over the womenfolk as well the resources (chair). Letting the woman sit in the chair just for the photograph can denote two things: the grandfather wants to show the world that he treats his womenfolk with equal dignity; or that, he possesses full control over the resources of the house.

CONCLUSION The short story aptly describes the patriarchal control over minor things in the surroundings so as to deprive women of their agency. In the entire story, the words ‘table’ and ‘chair’ can also be replaced by the word ‘education,’ and the meaning conveyed would be the same, as ‘Table’ and ‘Chair’ are employed as a metaphor to denote education and its implications for women, their family, and the society on the whole.

REFERENCES Break taboo Around menstruation, act to END ‘disempowering’ discrimination, say UN Experts. (2019, March 5). UN News. https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1034131 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (n.d.). Women in the workforce. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-work-organization-648000/ Women-in-the-workforce

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India’s unfair obsession with lighter skin. (2013, August 14). The Guardian. https:// www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/aug/14/indias-dark-obsession-fair-skin Vaidehi, & Belawadi, P. (2010). Going by Tables and Chairs (P. Belawadi, Trans.). In V. Shanbhag (Ed.), Sirigannada (pp. 118–147). Tranquebar.

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Chapter 23

Reading Ishmat Chughtai’s “Lihaaf” From the Perspective of Alternative Sexuality Ashmita Bora Indian Institute of Information Technology, Guwahati, India

ABSTRACT Gender binary is a concept that is deeply entrenched into the Indian way of thought throughout generations. Analyzing Indian life and relationships through history, we would arrive at an understanding that heterosexuality has come down to become the preferred sexual orientation, and heterosexual relations are seen as not only the traditional way of life, but at the same time is considered the only normative way. In the Indian context, the idea of sexuality has been framed over a period of eras, out of traditions and a belief structure of society that has come into contact with forces like modernization, colonization, and globalization. This chapter attempts to raise queries about the nature of sexuality in relation to portrayal of queer relationship and traces the individual’s search for alternative sexuality in Ishmat Chughtai’s Lihaaf, which is a pioneering work in representation of homosexuality. The chapter also deals with questions raised in relation to sexual orientation, gender crisis, and desired sex.

INTRODUCTION The discourses based on the assumption that gender is binary has been challenged by changing concepts of sex and gender with time that in turn has as its base the major theoretically established conception of sex as biological and gender as DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch023 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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socially constructed. In Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble, she calls performativity as ‘doing gender’ as it is the roles that are assigned by society that ultimately defines a gender. Beyond the binary gender order of male and female there has emerged further categories which have made way for sexual diversity studies or which is now commonly known as Queer studies or LGBTQIA studies which focuses on issues relating to the gender identity and sexual orientation of lesbians, gays, bisexual, transgender, queer, asexual, intersex people and cultures. Queer studies as a field of study emerged in the 1990s and set about to challenge fixed notions of gender and defined identity categories. Queer theory hopes to destroy the binaries and in turn disrupt inequality and further differences. “The institutions, structures of understanding, and practical orientations that make heterosexuality seem not only coherent—that is, organized as a sexuality—but also privileged” (Berlant and Warner, 1998, p. 548) Looking at opposite-sex relationship as the only normative way entails the fact the heterosexuality is a hegemonic practice which seeks to keep other sexual preferences under its shadow by exerting both power and control over them. It would not be wrong to say that the Queer (nonheterosexual and non-cisgender) is positioned on the periphery of Indian society as they fall outside the approved territory of heteronormative binary pattern which in itself speak volumes about the homophobia that grasps Indian society at large. The heteronormative Indian society time and again attempt to brush the queer under the carpet by calling homosexuality a sin or crime or labelling it as a mental disorder that needs to be cured. While heterosexuality is presumed, for the Indian minds, to accept the fact that there is more to sexual relationships than that between a man and a woman is virtually impossible as homosexuality and homoeroticism is deemed abnormal and against the will of nature. Further reasons could be that belief system of Indian culture looks at marriage and conjugal relationships as necessary for reproduction and continuation of the family line so the kind of sexual relationships that would not lead to reproduction are thought of as unnatural. The existence of queer individuals is brushed under the carpet and people who are engaged in such activities are openly denounced or termed mentally unfit and in need of medical help. The entire concept of queer identity is considered a subject of taboo, something that genteel society finds hard to discuss in the open. Sexuality in itself is a loaded term and concept. From a long time, there has been apprehensions about labelling sexuality as natural or biological but seldom socially constructed and whether it could be influenced by a person’s experiences or situations was debatable. Is sexuality something that is intrinsic of character or is subject to change in time and space and the circumstances that a person is in are certain questions that arise while having discussions on the topic. In the year 1942, the Urdu writer Ishmat Chughtai was charged by the Lahore High Court for the portrayal of lesbian desire in her short story Lihaaf. To explain using 222

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Judith Butler’s words, “We can understand this conclusion to be the necessary result of a heterosexualized and masculine observational point of view that takes lesbian sexuality to be a refusal of sexuality per se only because sexuality is presumed to be heterosexual...” (Butler, 1990, p. 67) This brings us to the question, why exactly is there an impossibility of queer desire? The answer lies in the assumptions that have infested Indian minds, as many view homosexuality as a Western import, as an assault on Indian culture, as flouting of our ‘Sanskari’ values and therefore unIndian. However, this cannot be any farther from the truth. The wide canvas of Indian literature from ancient to the modern times reveal a gamut of examples of homoeroticism and homosexuality. Indian mythology has a long association with queerness and instances of gender fluidity and cross dressing are such an indispensable part of it that it is impossible to isolate it completely as a disapproved or tabooed notion altogether. In the great Indian epic Ramayana, Hanuman, the devotee of Lord Rama confesses to have seen Rakshasa women kissing and embracing other women. In the Bengali Ramayana by Krittivasa we find the legend of the birth of King Bhagiratha from the blessed union of two women by Lord Shiva. In the epic Mahabharata we come across the story of Shikhandini she is a woman who later becomes a hermaphrodite through divine intervention. According to Bhagavata Purana, Lord Vishnu took the form of a woman called Mohini whose union with Shiva led to the birth of a child, Lord Ayyappa. Similarly, in Vatsyayana’s Kama Sutra, oral sexual acts (Auparistaka) and homosexuality is described in the case of what is described as ‘the third sex citizens’ who were also known to marry those similar to them. Also in the same text, various practices of lesbians are discussed in detail. Other texts like Sushruta Samhita, Narada Smirti, Kamatantra and Smirti Ratnavali (by Vascapati) too indulge in representation of the queer. With the advent of the late Islamicate culture in India in the late medieval period, more literature on same-sex love became available. This period wsa not only liberal but alson progressive. The love story of Mahmud of Ghazni and his Georgian slave Ayaz is nothing short of an Islamic legend. Scott Kugle’s translation of Zulali Khwansari’s Mathnawi-yi Zulali depict the passionate love between Mahumud and Ayaz. Sufi poets Mir Taqi Mir and Abru also dealt with themes of homoeroticism in their poems. “They openly discussed their ‘attraction to males, dwelt on what they found attractive in young males... and heartbreaks” (Vanita and Kidwai, 2002, p. 119). Another form of Urdu poetry called Rekhti ghazals introduced by poet Sa’adat Yar Khan Rangin was composed in the ‘begumati zaban’ or the ladies tongue and was addressed to the feminine lover. The depiction of same sex love and relationships in both Hindu and Islamic traditions of pre-Independent India is testimony to the fact that homosexual practices have always been a part of Indian culture.

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Over the years, Indian writers have given a space to queer representation in their works thus, building a bridge between ancient and contemporary India. In Ishmat Chughtai’s Lihaaf we shall see a relentless search for alternative sexual spaces besides the heteronormative ones as it is not able to sustain the narrative.

Lihaaf: An Analysis Regarded as one of the most popular Urdu writers of India, Ishmat Chughtai was a champion of women rights and empowerment. Born in a liberal Muslim household, Chughtai’s writings reflect her unapologetic and outspoken way of life. Lihaaf, according to the writer herself is taken from events of her own life and the characters in the story are based on real people who she has encountered in her childhood. The primary text by Ismat Chughtai was published in Urdu in 1941. For this study the most popular translated version by M. Asaduddin that appeared in Manushi has been chosen. The story has a young girl as it’s narrator who is sent off to stay with an adopted sister of her mother, Begum Jaan when she has to leave for a visit to Agra. The crux of the story is the ravishing middle-aged wife of Nawab Sahib, Begum Jaan and her maid Rabbu. At first the strange relationship between the Nawab and his wife is brought to the fore. Known for his moral uprightness, the Nawab married Begum Jaan who was almost half his age but soon forget her like the old articles around the house. Day in and out Begum Jaan awaited him, but his interests could not be shifted to her. The Nawab sponsored the education of young boys and spent most of his time in their company. “He kept an open house for students—young, fair and slender-waisted boys whose expenses were borne by him.” (Chughtai 1942, p. 36). Begum Jaan tried all the tips and tricks to catch his straying attention but to no use. However, often she would have a glimpse of the men in flimsy shirts and her innermost desires were ignited but to no avail. As the years rolled by she showed psychological signs of withdrawal and wasted away until she was rescued by Rabbu. Rabbu gave a new lease of life to Begum Jaan. She caressed and massaged her body all day. “Rabbu used to massage her back for hours together. It was as though getting the massage was one of the basic necessities of life. Rather—more important than life’s necessities.” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 37) She became a replacement of the male spouse, she and the Begum would eat together, sit together and even sleep together. So much so, that whenever the topic of Begum Jaan and Rabbu emerged among the maids they would burst into laughter. “Rabbu and Begum Jaan were the subject of their gossip during leisure hours. Someone would mention their name and the whole group would burst into loud guffaws. What juicy stories they made up about them!” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 38) The hypocrisies of the social system become apparent in the fact that when the Begum was wasting away alone there was no one 224

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to support her, love her or provide affection to her but when she finds a companion in Rabbu, the maids who are representative of society are quick to tell tales of her. The unsuspecting young narrator does not believe in the stories until certain nocturnal happenings steal her peace of mind. The happenings of the night are most shocking to the narrator when she sees something moving under the quilt, something as huge as an elephant. “I woke up at night and was scared. It was pitch dark and Begum Jaan’s quilt was shaking vigorously as though an elephant was struggling inside. “Begum Jaan...,” I could barely form the words out of fear. The elephant stopped shaking and the quilt came down.” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 38) There are moans, whispers and again on the next night she hears strange sounds like a cat licking milk. “Then came the slurping sound of a cat licking a plate... I was scared and got back to sleep.” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 38) A degree of ambiguity is presented by the young girl as the elephant under the quilt lays hidden. The lihaaf or quilt is aa carrier of the homosexual identity that lay hidden and repressed under it. The repressed physical desires of Begum culminate first in an itch and then she projects her desires onto an unsuspecting young girl who becomes the victim of her aggressive sexual hunger. The young girl finally faces an ordeal when Begum Jaan shifts her affection onto her body to count the ribs on her chest. “Come here and lie down beside me...” She made me lie down with my head on her arm “How skinny you are... your ribs are coming out”. She began counting my ribs. I tried to protest.”.” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 39) She somehow escapes from the Begum’s grip but Begum Jaan loses all restraint on that occasion much like on the next where the gold necklace breaks apart when Rabbu talks sharply to Begum Jaan about her growing attention towards the narrator. “Raw mangoes are sour to taste, Begum Jaan,” hissed Rabbu, burning with jealousy... Then Begum Jaan had a fit. The gold necklace she had offered me moments ago flew into pieces.”. (Chughtai, 1942, p. 40) On the other hand, the narrator’s earlier attraction and affection towards Begum Jaan changes to that of aversion following these incidents. The homoerotic angle given to the story is subtle but sharp. Shown through the consciousness of a young girl who barely understood what was going on, the writer has tried to leave a lot to the imagination of the readers. The Nawab is never shown to be non- heterosexual explicitly but there is every possible hint in the story that he is a homosexual or at least bi-sexual. Although his lack of any sexual interest in his wife does bluntly points to the former. Or “did it start when she gave up on amulets, talismans, black magic and other ways of retaining the love of her straying husband? She arranged for night long reading of the scripture but in vain. One cannot draw blood from a stone. The Nawab didn’t budge an inch”. (Chughtai 1942, pp. 36-37) On the other hand, the sexual orientation of Begum Jaan is under question as well. She suffers from sexual starvation from a long time but a glimpse of the ripe bodies of the scholar boys brings a sense of physical urgency to her. “Begum Jaan 225

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would have glimpses of them in their perfumed, flimsy shirts and feel as though she was being raked over burning embers!” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 37) Begum Jaan slowly develops an itch, a kind of metaphor for her sexual frustration which is only calmed with Rabbu’s entry into her life. The lack of sexual satisfaction from a male partner forces Begum Jaan to seek it from a lesbian union and this raises a number of questions about sexuality itself. Is Begum Jaan actually a lesbian or is Begum Jaan driven to an insane point of sexual perversion that she is ready to obtain sexual gratification from any source she could find and if so, then is sexuality as fluid as the writer makes it out to be? After all, Begum Jaan is also quick to shift her attention from Rabbu to the narrator which unearths paedophilic tendency in the women. The question of alternative sexuality comes to the fore in Begum Jaan’s relationship with Rabbu. Rabbu is placed as a stark opposite to Begum Jaan by the reader, an unlikely match. “Rabbu! She was as dark as Begum Jaan was fair, as purple as the other one was white.” (Chughtai, 1942, p. 37) So when this Rabbu is sought by the Begum as her object of sexual interest, eyebrows are raised. Rabbu becomes a replacement to the affections of a spouse, an alternative for the body of a husband and the final resort to fulfil Begum’s sexual needs and desires which are not met by her husband or any other male. Her inability to have a normal conjugal life and her numerous failed attempts at seducing the Nawab brings about a sexual transition and puts her at the mercy of Rabbu but whether the relationship or love they share is a wilful or conscious one or even one of natural selection or not is another question altogether. Added to this is Begum Jaan’s condition as a childless woman deprived of filial love and attachment which makes her position more vulnerable. Finding no outlet for her sexual frustration she also becomes affected mentally from timeto-time which manifests in the form of fits and unconsciousness.

CONCLUSION The story explores the psychological dimensions of gender crisis when attached to the sexual identity within social structures. The story questions the dubious nature of sexuality based on how situation and circumstances could mould it or manipulate it. What remains to be seen is how social systems attempt to put a ‘lihaaf’ on the sexual desires of women. Begum jaan herself is no less than a victim who is in dire need for consummation of her marriage, and her husband presents patriarchy that pays no heed to her wants or wishes. As for her relationship with Rabbu, while it is one of co-dependency and mutual satisfaction as both find fulfilment in each other’s company, if it could be termed as a love relationship between two lesbian women is unclear. Rabbu could simply be the object on which the Begum transfers her sexual energy in her search for alternative sexual spaces. Especially Begum Jaan’s 226

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attraction to the young narrator and her attempt at obtaining sexual gratification from her shows the Begum’s incessant search for sexual partners despite Rabbu’s presence which put Rabbu in a position of lesser significance in Begum Jaan’s life. Therefore, the homosexual and homoerotic relationship between the two women in Lihaaf is wrought with multiple complexities.

REFERENCES Berlant, L., & Warner, M. (1998). Sex in public. Critical Inquiry, 4(2), 547–566. doi:10.1086/448884 Butler, J. (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge. Chughtai, I. (1942) Lihaaf [The Quilt] (M. Asaduddin, Trans.). https://archive.org/ stream/LihaafTheQuiltIsmatChughtai/Lihaaf%20%5BThe%20Quilt%5D%20-%20 Ismat%20Chughtai_djvu.txt Kidwai, S., & Vanita, R. (Eds.). (2002). Same- Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History. Macmillan.

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Chapter 24

“Knowledge Is Power, Power Is Also Knowledge”: Revisiting Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s “Sultana’s Dream” Dolon Sarkar Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

ABSTRACT The chapter explores the complex intersection of gender, knowledge, and power as manifested in Rokeya Sakhwat Hossain’s feminist text Sultana’s Dream. In this story, she imagines a world of women beyond the patriarchy. She reverses the stereotypical process of gender roles and reclaims women’s space in socio-cultural and political domination. There is an idea that subverting the performative role of gender will lead women to autonomy and power. For her, scientific education and sustainable use of nature are the abundant sources of alternative power. The tactical use of women’s scientific knowledge displeases and controls the superior authoritative forces of patriarchy. This decisive role of science is an alternative mode of organizing society and the exceptional development of the particular category of alternative apparatus. The chapter delineates Kate Millett’s notion of the reversal of gender roles by mediating Michel Foucault’s concepts of power and knowledge.

INTRODUCTION Rokeya Sakhwat Hossain did not have a formal education, but she was a pioneering figure in Bengal’s woman’s education. She is a forgotten marginal author; being a DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6572-1.ch024 Copyright © 2022, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

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woman, she belonged to the “second sex,” which provided her secondary access to rights and privileges. Her identity has been convoluted by much intersectionality regarding religion, gender, and power. Her colonized Muslim woman identity had victimized her two layers of patriarchy: within the Muslim household and outside the colonial authority. Her pioneering story Sultana’s Dream (1905/2005) is a manifesto of women’s liberation; it unequivocally expresses that women can achieve emancipation by accessing scientific education. The text comprises multilayer themes of a feminist utopia, science fiction, and ecofeminism. The paper tries to understand the complex intersection of gender, knowledge, and power manifested in Hossain’s multilayered text, Sultana’s Dream. It also conceives Kate Millett’s (2009) claim of reversal of gender roles by mediating Michel Foucault’s notion of power and knowledge. In Sultana’s Dream, Hossain (2005) envisions a world of women through the illusory experience of freedom beyond the patriarchy. She propagates the accessibility of a space for women outside the four walls of Zenana. Hossain considers the patriarchal discourse of gender and religion and plays with the authoritative state power. Transversing the gender role allows women to produce and regulate the social system and counters the religious-social constructed gender identities. Hossain realizes that the barrier to women’s emancipation is their lack of physical vigor and their acceptance of “natural weakness” and incompetency. She reiterates the supremacy of knowledge over physical strength with the example of the fierce lion and elephant. She states that both these animals are physically powerful, but they yield against the power of human knowledge. She argues that “A lion is stronger than a man, but it does not enable him to dominate the human race. You have neglected the duty you owe to yourselves, and you have lost your natural rights by shutting your eyes to your own interests” (Hossain, 2005, p. 6). Hossain not only questions gender identity but also reverses the stereotypical process of the formation of gender roles. She vehemently criticizes women for losing self-respect and blames the Muslim patriarchal system for neglecting women’s equal opportunity. She blames the Muslim social system for secluding women in the confined zenana and depriving them of the right to education and physical and mental health. This seclusion for her is nothing but the imprisonment of women that causes degradation. Women, in her view, are “willing collaborators in their own oppression” that men’s dominance and women’s slavery were the two main factors in the degradation of Muslim women (Hasanat, 2013, p. 116). She expresses that “you have neglected the duty you owe to yourselves, and you have lost your natural rights by shutting your eyes to your interest” (Hossain, 2005, p. 6). She envisions a place where the virtue of humanity determines everything. She constructs an alternative space for women outside the four walls of the zenana. The reclamation of gender roles and courageous assertion regarding women’s 229

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subjugation are manifested in this satirical piece, which reclaims women’s space in socio-cultural and political domains and provides access to judicial and political power. This judicial and political power can be achieved, in her opinion, through the implementation of scientific knowledge. The affirmation of such control is noticeable in Queen’s of Ladyland speech, who explains the political-economic strategy of her country to Sultana. […] no trade was possible with countries where the women were kept in the zenanas and so unable to come and trade with us. Men, we find, are rather of lower morals and so we do not like dealing with them. We do not covet other people’s land, we do not fight for a piece of diamond though it may be a thousand-fold brighter than the Koh-i-Noor, nor do we grudge a ruler his Peacock Throne. We dive deep into the ocean of knowledge and try to find out the precious gems, which nature has kept in store for us. We enjoy nature’s gifts as much as we can. (p. 13) For her, scientific education and the sustainable use of nature are abundant sources of alternative power sources. It will pave a new world threshold where women and nature stand as unmistakable agents of invincible power for resisting any power oppression. There is an idea that is subverting the performative role of gender by the judicious use of scientific knowledge, which will lead them the autonomy and power. She realizes that the woman’s role as a marginal is massive, pervasive, and universal in the political and socio-cultural domains. She perceives that the powerful tactical force can challenge the hegemonic apparatus of authoritative power. She believes in implementing “juridical power” by the tactical use of knowledge i.e., scientific knowledge in an alternative way. In Foucault’s opinion, Ladyland’s small innovative scientific discovery, the condition of functioning, techniques of mechanism and principle compose “the microcosm of power” (de Certeau, 1984, p. 48). The tactical use of women’s scientific knowledge displeases and controls the superior authoritative forces. It proliferates an atmosphere of peaceful ideological conflict, which provides a symbolic balance of compatibility and negotiation of opposing forces. Through the tactical use of knowledge, the marginal women use the strong, which proceeds to the political dimension of authorship. This microphysics of power constructs an alternative form of discourse that challenges the authoritative domination of strong power. According to Foucault, society is composed of certain foregrounded practices organizing its normative institution and innumerable other practices that remain minor. He found the heterogeneity and ambivalent relationship between the repressive state apparatus and innumerable minor opposing forces. (Mills, 2005, p. 12) Hossain, like Foucault, locates the alternative determining mechanisms of society by acquiring the “microphysics of power”. This microphysics operates and privileges the repressive state apparatus of the discursive formation of 230

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localizable alternate power forces. Foucault’s notion of creating social institutions like jails and asylums is invincible in Hossain’s social imagination to determine the epistemological and social exclusion of criminals and deviants from normal social interaction to create the space that makes sense of possible rational order. She suggests that corrupt and evil men need to be safely confined behind bars for women’s sensible and peaceful access to the social space. ‘Yes, it is not safe so long as there are men about the streets, nor is it so when a wild animal enters a marketplace.’ ‘Of course not.’ ‘Suppose, some lunatics escape from the asylum and begin to do all sorts of mischief to men, horses and other creatures; in that case what will your countrymen do?’ ‘They will try to capture them and put them back into their asylum.’ (Hossain, 2005, p. 5) Rokeya constructs a utopian Ladyland that entirely depends not so much on women’s muscle power but on their ingenious scientific and technological discoveries. When women confront the challenge of defeating a powerful opponent, they completely invest in science instead of physically fighting against aggression with arms. They prove their powerful scientific innovation that strikes terror on the battlefield by showering the opponents a scorching heat generated by focusing all the concentrated sunlight on them. In the post-peace era, they used science for very judicious and reproductive purposes. Their knowledge of medical science prevents diseases and immature death; the launch of a special balloon for accumulating water from the atmosphere and the water is distributed through the huge pipes. They have succeeded in preventing thunderstorms and rainfall with this scientific management of the water system. Their scientific knowledge comes in the works of their personal spaces; it works as dirt and smoke-free cooking neatly and healthily. This tactical use of science revolutionized their style of living and empowered the so-called weaker sex to wield authority. This Ladyland celebrates not only the women’s liberty, power, and autonomy but also the dreamland sanctions the gendered reversed socio-economic and governance system. Women rule the Ladyland, enjoy freedom, benefit from modern scientific education, and women are not forced into child marriage. This radical gender role is legitimized by the reversed gender role. It claims that men must remain Mardanas so that women can perform outdoor works. She transverses the positions of Zanana with equally socially constructed exclusive men’s space Mardana. This transposition 231

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of women social space with men’s social space where men are confined and are thereby denied privileges of equality and freedom. Nevertheless, Hossain did not instinctively eliminate the gender role as Roushan Jahan comments that “to portray a society where women are in a position of power, Rokeya did not find it necessary to eliminate men or to purpose anything so drastically as Charlotte Perkin Gilman did a few years later in Herland.” (Roye, 2009, p. 144) It is obvious that Hossain does not eliminate men as Gilman imagined in her Herland. She is rather interested in “opaque power” what according to Foucault “that has no possessor, no privileged place, no superior or inferior no repressive activity no dogmatism that is almost autonomously effective, though its technological ability to distribute, classify analyze and spatially individualized.” (de Certeau, 1984, p. 46) Like other apparatus’ patriarchy seems to prevail over a lengthier period. It falls back to the stratified mass of procedure and is normalized by other socio-economical and religious apparatuses. She reverses the performative role of gender by imbibing “opaque power” and thereby achieves and exercises the judicial and political power with the aim of “the legitimating and exclusionary aim” in the male-dominated apparatuses (Butler, 2002, p. 3). In Foucault’s opinion, this opaque power maintains the dominated institution’s mode of function and produces a fundamental diversion within the institution of order and knowledge (Mills, 2005, p. 45). The operational technique which is initially deprived gives force to ordinary practices of power politics. Thus, Hossain’s Sultana’s Dream criticizes the discursive formation of gender roles in Indian society and the Muslim community in particular. The text unequivocally expresses the religious and social construction of gender identity in a Bengali Muslim family. She scrutinizes the women’s lives in the zenana, which is appropriated by the patriarchal power and socio-religious norms. Women are strategically secluded by the power procedure and regulation. The text manifests that women are the “willing collaborators of their oppressions” without resisting patriarchal domination. This procedure, in her opinion, repeats, amplifies and appropriates the discursive power that has taken the form of patriarchal apparatuses. She locates numerous other sources for tactical use against the dominative power force. Knowledge, according to her, is one of the determining mechanisms of society. For her, the ambivalent relationship of knowledge and apparatuses has a specific role to play in institutional order. This disciplinary control is nothing but the “silent procedure” of the repressive apparatuses and the discursive formation. These apparatuses prevail over generations and organize social dominating forces. Hossain relies on Foucauldian “judiciary knowledge” by acquiring the scientific knowledge and thereby, in her opinion, lays emancipation of women. This new scientific knowledge challenges the foregrounded practices of the repressive apparatuses and their normative role. This decisive role of science is an alternative mode of organization of society and the exceptional development of the particular category of alternative apparatus. The text, therefore, delineates 232

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Kate Millett’s claims that “if knowledge is power, power is also knowledge, and a large factor in their [women] subordinate position is the fairly systematic ignorance patriarchy imposes upon women.” (Millet, 2009, pg. 25)

REFERENCES Butler, J. (2002). Gender trouble. Routledge. de Certeau, M. (1984). Theory of Everyday Life (S. Rendall, Trans.). University of California Press. Hasanat, F. (2013). Sultana’s Utopian Awakening: An Ecocritical Reading of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s Sultana’s Dream. Asiatic, 7(2), 115–124. Hossain, S. R. (2005). Sultana’s Dream. Penguin. (Original work published 1905) Millett, K. (2009). Sexual Politics. Colombia University Press. Mills, S. (2005). Michel Foucault. Routledge. Roye, S. (2009). ‘Sultana’s Dream’vs. Rokeya’s Reality: A sudy of one of the ’Pioneering’feminist science fictions. Kunapipi, 31(2), 12.

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About the Contributors

Gyanabati Khuraijamn is an Assistant Professor i the Department of MHSS at NIT Agartala. She has been the editor-in-chief of Modern Research Studies – An International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences from 2014 to 2019. She has presented many research papers in national and international conferences and her research articles have also been published in many international journals of repute. She has also organized National and International conferences as organizing secretary. She has also published two edited books. *** Aaradhana a is a research scholar in English Literature; she is pursuing her PhD from Lovely Professional University, Punjab. Her doctoral thesis focuses on providing a comprehensible study of the mechanism of various power discourses in literary representations. Apart from political philosophy coercing power discourse, she is also interested in Gender studied, Trauma Studies, Queer Studies, Cultural Studies, Film Studies, Northeast Asian Literature and World Literature. Her publications include both SCOPUS and UGC Care listed Journals. Besides, she has also presented her papers in both national and international conferences. She is a certified TESOL instructor. She has also completed 9 online courses from different universities such as IIT, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Yonsei University South Korea, Wesleyan University Connecticut. Anusha Ashok was a student of Stella Maris College, an autonomous institution affiliated to the University of Madras in India, during the research of this chapter. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Madras Christian College and a Masters from Stella Maris College. Her areas of interest include subalternity, feminism and popular culture. ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0002-8245-4190. Padmanabhan B. is currently serving as Assistant professor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages, Bharathiar University from 2011, teaching post-

About the Contributors

graduate students and doing research in cognitive literary studies. His other research interests are Ethnic and Area studies, Memory studies, Post-colonial Literature and Digital Humanities. Kanika Bhalla has also served as a Fulbright scholar at UNC Chapel Hill. Previously, she taught several Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in English Literature at the Department of English, both at USOL (University School of Open Learning, Panjab University) and IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University). Her research interests include postcolonial studies, literature of conflict zones, identity politics, and Islamic theology. Ms. Bhalla has presented her work at several national and international conferences. Her academic papers focusing on areas such as Kashmir, gender studies, and postcolonial studies have been published in journals and books of international repute. Ashmita Bora has completed her Master’s in English Literature from EFLU. She hails from Jorhat district of Assam. Her interested areas of research include Gender studies, Women studies and Cultural studies. She hobbies include writing poetry and short stories and has won several prizes in various inter-university competitions. She has also interned with Campus Inc. India and has volunteered in community programmes like Indi-ed Conversation Cafe. Manodip Chakraborty has completed his M.A. in English Literature from Cooch Behar Panchanan Barma University. He is presently an assistant prof. of English Communication (Department of Applied Science and Humanities) in GL Bajaj Group of Institutions, Mathura and a research scholar at the Department of English, Raiganj University. He has been participating in various national and international seminars/ webinars, also is contributing to journals and in books. His research interests include Cultural Studies, films and advertising, Memory Studies, and Media Studies. Rushati Dasgupta is a research scholar in English Literature; she is pursuing her PhD from Jain Deemed-to-be University, Bengaluru. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the literary representations of select diasporic communities that are settled in India. Apart from Diaspora, she is also interested in Mythology, Gender studies, Conflict studies, Postcolonial literature, Partition literature, and Dalit literature. She has won numerous accolades for her academic excellence and extra-curricular activities. Her publications range from research articles to poetry and short stories, both in print and electronic media. Formerly, she was a Copy Editor at Thomson Reuters and has been a facilitator of an online certificate course on Creative Writing, conducted by Abhaskar School of Acting, Kerala. 250

About the Contributors

Shraddha Dhal Shraddha Dhal is an independent warm-hearted visionary who believes in combining the significance of learning with strong character building. She is an M.A, Ph. D. in English and has extensively worked on minority communities with a specific emphasis on the Parsi community, an ethno-religious minority in India. Her research interests focus on Corporate Studies, Postcolonial fiction, cultural studies, mental health, folklore studies, minority community, migration studies, and identity crisis. She has presented papers at various conferences including Oxford, IIM, IITs and NITs; published articles and papers in various journals; and translated a major portion of Fakir Mohan Senapati’s novel Lachhama, the classic piece of an iconic Odia literary figure. Presently, she is working as an Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities, KIIT Deemed to be University, an Institute of Eminence in Odisha, India. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Diksha Gupta is an Assistant Professor (English) at Bhaskar Degree College, Udhampur. She has published more than seven research papers in UGC Cared listed Journals, one in SCOPUS Indexed Journal and contributed to 5 book chapters. Besides this, she has presented her research papers in more than 20 National and International Conferences. Also, she has attended 14 National and International workshops. She has participated in more than 50 National and International Webinars. She has also completed 4 online courses from IITs, 1 from University of California and 1 from University of Toronto. Antara Naha is a senior undergraduate from K.R. Mangalam University at Sohna Road where she majored in Literature. Her research interests are based on her fascination for how literature shapes the society. Her area of interests includes the philosophy of literature and of realism, gender studies, and language studies and semantics. She likes to gather knowledge on various subjects like linguistics, anthropology, culture studies in order to connect them with literature and understand how these concepts impact literature and vice versa. She enjoys reading novels and painting in her free time. Guhan Priyadharshan P. is a doctoral research scholar in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India. He carries out research in a broad interdisciplinary area intertwining Continental Philosophy, Critical Theory and Postcolonial Studies. Gargee Rawat is an independent researcher. She is pursing M.A in English Literature from Doon University Dehradun. Her research interest lies in Gender studies, Feminism and Queer Studies. She has presented various papers in the field of gender studies. 251

About the Contributors

Sneha Roy is a postgraduate student from the Centre of English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She is the recipient of the Zubaan-Sasakawa Peace Foundation Grants, 2021 and has to her credit published poetry and writing in various literary magazines and anthologies. Her research interests are in the fields of gender studies, popular culture, women’s literature and South Asian culture and literature. Dolon Sarkar is a Ph.D. Scholar in Cultural Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. Sakshi Semwal is working as an Assistant Professor of English at School of Liberal Arts and Management (Humanities), DIT University, Dehradun. She had her Ph.D. in English Literature from Gurukul Kangri University on the topic “The Novels of Chinua Achebe: A Post Colonial Study. She is having more than 14 years of experience in teaching and research. She is guiding graduate, post graduate and Ph.d students in the field of English Literature. One of her research scholar has already awarded Ph.d degree Her research interest lies primarily in African Literature, Post-Colonial Literature and Modern Literary Theories. Moreover, her works have been published as book chapters and articles in nationally and internationally reputed journals listed in UGC Care and Scopus. Raam Kumar T. is a PhD Research Scholar in the Department of English and Foreign Languages, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. He worked as a Project Assistant for RUSA 2.0 – BEICH sponsored by MHRD. His doctoral research is on Indigenous Literature in Indian context focusing on the Eastern and Northeastern regions of India. Rosy Yumnam is an Assistant Professor at The English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong.

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Index

A adolescence 12, 15-16 agency 8, 18-19, 70, 76, 137, 139-140, 142-143, 146, 168, 214, 219 Alain Badiou 50-51, 61-62 Alternative Realities 25, 27-28, 37 Androgyny 10, 14-16, 131-132, 134-138 Anti-Semitism 21 Asian 38-39, 91, 157

B beauty 31, 64-70, 85-86, 89, 110, 145, 176, 188 Bildungsroman 121, 127, 129 binary algorithms 11, 13 Bonbibi 106

C Capitalism 114, 117, 120 casteism 18, 73-74, 151 Clarice Lispector 96-97, 104-105 colonialism 191, 195 conflict 22, 35, 48, 91-93, 95, 103, 110, 182, 191, 199, 230 corporate sector 202, 211 cultural difference 205

D Dalit female 72-73, 77 discrimination 11, 17-20, 22-23, 34, 36, 38, 44, 46, 76, 107, 113-117, 185, 208, 219

dissent 115 divinity 1-5, 7-8 domination 17, 19-21, 23, 60, 90-93, 139, 143, 173-174, 185, 207, 228, 230, 232

E Easterine Kire 183-186, 188 ecofeminism 106, 112, 229 electoral politics 191, 199 empowerment 91, 148-149, 189, 191, 195, 218, 224 epic 66, 139-141, 144, 147, 188, 223 epiphany 30, 96-104

F family 2, 4, 20-21, 26-27, 30, 40-42, 44-49, 80, 83-87, 96-97, 99-101, 103-104, 109, 115-116, 134, 154, 158-160, 163168, 177, 193, 199, 218-219, 222, 232 femininity 12, 15, 121, 126-129, 135-136, 140, 142-143, 145, 189 Feminism 24-25, 65, 67, 94-95, 97, 113114, 138-139, 149, 155, 173-174, 176, 180-181, 192, 227 field 12, 96, 98, 101-104, 120, 131, 170, 185, 192, 222 Foucault 26, 79, 81-84, 86, 89-90, 92-95, 228-233

G gay 26, 29, 31, 33, 35, 39-41, 43-44, 4648, 53-54

Index

gender 3, 7, 10-14, 16, 25, 27-28, 31-37, 47, 58, 65, 76, 79-80, 95-97, 105, 111, 113, 115, 117, 121-123, 125-126, 128129, 131-138, 149, 155, 158, 170-171, 174, 185, 192-193, 199, 203, 206, 208, 213-214, 221-223, 226-233 Gender binary 221 Gender Performance 131 gender roles 80, 96, 111, 128, 131-134, 137, 228-229, 232 gender, 11, 16, 28, 97, 105, 121-122, 131, 134, 136-138, 171, 174, 203, 228-229 Gengoroh Tagame 39-40, 48 Greek civilization 64-65

H habitus 10, 96, 98, 102-104 haptics 202-203, 205-207, 209, 211 Helen of Troy 64-65, 67-71 heteronormativity 25, 39, 50-51, 53, 57 heterosexual 43, 54-55, 57, 59, 98, 121, 144, 221, 223, 225 Hinduism 1-2, 7, 150, 194, 196 history 9, 18-20, 49, 62-63, 66-67, 69, 71, 78, 80-82, 88, 93-94, 104, 107, 115, 122, 133, 140-141, 148, 151-152, 155, 157-158, 161-162, 175, 179-181, 192193, 195, 200, 221, 227 Holocaust 17-18, 22 homoeroticism 52, 222-223 homosexual couple 39 homosexuality 26, 30, 32, 37, 39, 41, 52-57, 62-63, 113-114, 118, 221-223 honour 158, 161 husband 4, 21-22, 32, 39-41, 43, 47-49, 65-66, 68, 84-87, 93, 100-101, 103104, 110, 115-116, 144-145, 150-153, 155, 159-160, 165-166, 168-169, 174, 177-179, 193, 215-219, 225-226

I ideal feminine 140, 142-143, 145 identities 15, 20, 23, 26, 31, 39, 46-47, 92, 96, 99, 123, 131-136, 149, 172, 229 Igbo 50-55, 57, 59, 63 254

Indian households 213

J Judith Butler 131-132, 134, 136, 174, 222-223

K Kashmir 114, 118-119

L language 2, 11, 72-76, 78, 96-99, 152, 174, 183, 204, 210-211, 217 LGBTQ+ 25 liminality 50-52, 60-62 literature and women 148 love 25-33, 35, 37, 43-44, 47-48, 54-55, 57-58, 65, 67-68, 70, 77, 80, 86-88, 93, 96-99, 101, 103-104, 116, 118, 126, 133, 142-143, 151, 169, 176-178, 185, 203, 223, 225-227

M Mamang Dai 183-187, 190 manga 39-40, 43, 47-49 marriage 22, 26, 30, 33, 42-48, 55, 63, 65, 80, 88, 115, 132, 151-152, 154, 167, 177, 213, 222, 226, 231 masculinity 12-13, 15, 57, 91, 123-125, 127, 129-130, 135-136, 149, 213 meaning 14, 62, 70, 82-83, 96-99, 126, 144, 149, 193, 203, 219 metanarrative 139, 141 mourning 18, 21-23 movement 92, 97, 107, 114, 118, 120, 144, 148-149, 152, 155-156, 173-175, 191, 193-199 myth narrative 173-174, 176, 179 mythology 65, 139, 216, 223

N nature 5-6, 8, 13, 27, 43, 52, 55, 58, 61, 82, 96, 99, 101, 104, 106-111, 122,

Index

125, 129, 134-137, 140, 143, 145, 167, 182-183, 185-187, 195, 203, 205, 221-222, 226, 228, 230 nature conservation 106 Nigerian Literature 59 Nigerian Queer Fiction 50 Nighat M. Gandhi 25, 27-28, 35-36 normative 50-51, 60-61, 89, 160, 221-222, 230, 232 norms 3, 11, 14, 21, 26, 30, 36, 102, 111, 114, 131-132, 134-137, 148, 151-153, 155, 177, 179-180, 213, 218, 232 Northeast India 173-174, 182-185, 189-190

Q

O

S

occupation 37, 118, 140, 194, 196, 206 Orlando 131-132, 134-138

same-sex 26-27, 30, 32, 36, 39, 46-47, 55, 57-60, 223 school 41, 43-46, 48, 115, 127, 143, 166 Self-Formation 1 self-identity 15, 121, 124, 126-127, 130, 174, 179 semantic memory 14 Sexual Harassment 202, 206, 208-211 sexual orientation 28, 53-54, 130, 221222, 225 Sexual Politics 173-174, 180, 233 sexual violence 14, 79, 81, 90-95, 155, 158 sexuality 15-16, 46, 52, 54, 56, 58, 63, 72-73, 75-78, 81-82, 84, 89-90, 9394, 118, 121-123, 125-130, 138, 141, 144-145, 168, 192, 206, 221-223, 226 social position of women 148 social stigmatisation 166 society 2, 10, 13, 18-21, 23, 25-27, 29, 31-36, 39, 50-53, 55-62, 64-67, 69, 72-76, 79-83, 85, 87-88, 93-94, 99, 102-103, 107, 111, 113-117, 121, 123, 126, 129-130, 132-133, 135, 137, 140141, 143, 148-155, 160-161, 166-170, 173-177, 179-180, 182-184, 186, 189, 191-195, 197-199, 204, 213-214, 219, 221-222, 225, 228, 230, 232 subalternity 139, 141, 146, 154 subjugation 79, 81, 93, 115, 230 Sultana’s Dream 228-229, 232-233 suppression 12, 23, 76, 161, 183, 185

P Panthoipi Khongkul 173-176, 181 Partition literature 157-170 patriarchal hegemony 72 patriarchy 19, 64, 66, 69-70, 73-74, 96, 111, 116, 120, 135-136, 143, 149-150, 153-154, 157, 170, 173-175, 179-181, 195, 213, 219, 226, 228-229, 232-233 patri-oriented 192 performativity 10-13, 136-137, 222 pogrom 114, 118-119 politics 21, 51-52, 73, 89, 94-95, 109, 111, 113-115, 156, 158, 161, 171, 173-175, 180, 199, 213, 232-233 power 7-8, 18, 20-21, 28, 30-31, 51, 6770, 76-77, 79, 81-85, 87-94, 97, 104, 107-108, 110-111, 114-115, 117, 120, 123, 125, 142, 144, 153-154, 175, 177, 184, 193, 195, 204-205, 207, 219, 222, 228-233 power and knowledge 81, 93, 228-229 prejudice 17, 22, 76-77, 140, 152, 156 prosthetic consciousness 10, 12, 14 protest 86, 119, 193-194, 199, 225 PTSD 123, 130

Queer Literature 39, 50 Queer PAKISTAN 25 Queer theory 26, 28, 37, 222

R race 11, 13-14, 16, 18-21, 23, 63, 77, 121123, 125, 130, 138, 174, 192, 203, 229 Re-presentation 1 Rokeya Sakhwat Hossain 228 Room of One’s Own 131-138

255

Index

T

W

taboo 25, 27, 36, 55, 59, 77, 219, 222 Temsula Ao 183-187, 189 thought 41-43, 46, 54, 62, 77, 88, 96, 99, 101-104, 124, 131, 134, 137, 142, 154, 184, 221-222 totalitarian dictatorship 22 Touch. Transgress 72 Touching behavior 202 transgender 25, 27, 31-38, 114, 118, 222 Transgenders 25 transgression 12, 73, 169 trauma 17-18, 22, 24, 121-124, 126, 128, 130, 168, 170, 207 traumatized 17-18, 21-23, 119, 126 Tribal Women Writings 182, 184

war 18, 21-22, 64-70, 76, 79-80, 90-94, 114, 118, 122-125, 140, 142, 186, 189, 193, 195, 206 woman 1-4, 9, 27, 30-31, 33, 35, 41-42, 46, 64-66, 69-70, 73, 75, 77, 84-88, 90, 99-101, 103-104, 107, 109, 111, 114-115, 118-119, 126, 131-137, 140-145, 148-155, 162, 164, 166-169, 171, 173-177, 179-180, 185-187, 189, 193-194, 199, 202, 204, 208, 210, 213-217, 219, 222-223, 226, 228-230 womanhood 142-144, 189, 193 women 1, 3-4, 6, 8-9, 11, 13, 17-23, 25, 27, 31-35, 37, 53-55, 57-58, 64-70, 72-74, 76-79, 81, 84-93, 97-99, 101, 103, 106-107, 111-115, 119-123, 125-129, 131-135, 137, 141, 143-158, 161-171, 173-175, 180-186, 189-200, 202-203, 205-219, 223-224, 226-233 women education 153, 213 women identity 182 workplace 123, 202-203, 206, 209-211

V Vaidehi 213-216, 218-220 Video Games 10, 13-16 violence 14, 16, 18-20, 22, 27-28, 68-69, 74, 79-81, 83, 90-98, 102-103, 105, 116, 121-122, 124-126, 142, 155, 157-165, 168, 171, 182-184, 186-188, 198, 211 Virginia Woolf 31, 131, 137-138, 140, 189-190

256