Place/Space and Gender Identity: A Reading of Shobha Rao's "An Unrestored Woman" and "The Merchant's Mistress"
According to post-structural feminism, no woman is fully female and no man is fully male. The actual image of gender is blurring. Every individual carries more or less some masculine and feminine characteristics. Judith Butler in Gender Trouble (1990) has strongly convicted that not only gender but...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Sarat Centenary College
2022-07-01
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| Series: | PostScriptum: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literary Studies |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://postscriptum.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/pS7.iiSuparna.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797936210467880960 |
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| author | Suparna Bag |
| author_facet | Suparna Bag |
| author_sort | Suparna Bag |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | According to post-structural feminism, no woman is fully female and no man is fully male. The actual image of gender is blurring. Every individual carries more or less some masculine and feminine characteristics. Judith Butler in Gender Trouble (1990) has strongly convicted that not only gender but sex is also constructed or organized. Regarding this issue, space or place as a context plays a vital role in the formation of the gender or sexual identity of an individual. This paper will focus on two short stories of Indian diasporic writer Shobha Rao. The stories under discussion are “An Unrestored Woman” and “The Merchant’s Mistress”. These stories belong to Indian Partition literature as they delimitate a true vignette of the Indian Partition phenomenon as their backdrop. At the same time both stories portray a transformation of gender and sex of the characters. Initially, both Neela and Renu (the protagonists) had heterosexual experiences in their conjugal life, but as time passes, both became widows and they had to migrate from their home environment and spend life in a “refugee camp” which is nothing but an unmentioned ‘other space’ of Michel Foucault. New space gave them an opportunity of having homosexual experiences. So their actual gender or sexual identity is in question. And everything happened after the change of their geographical or social location. Both the stories defray an incarnation of the 1947 Indian Partition which imparts an opportunity of seeing mass movement, the lives of the refugee camp, and the different life experiences of the protagonists. The actual intention of this present paper is to highlight the issue that how different places or spaces affect an individual’s gender or sexual life and help in making a new imaginary map of that individual’s geography of gender or sex. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T18:26:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-eea76c1bda384dfc83f19ca30a6af5db |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2456-7507 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T18:26:08Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Sarat Centenary College |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PostScriptum: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literary Studies |
| spelling | doaj.art-eea76c1bda384dfc83f19ca30a6af5db2023-02-02T05:50:23ZengSarat Centenary CollegePostScriptum: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literary Studies2456-75072022-07-01VIIii10.5281/zenodo.7559058Place/Space and Gender Identity: A Reading of Shobha Rao's "An Unrestored Woman" and "The Merchant's Mistress" Suparna Bag 0AKPC Mahavidyalaya According to post-structural feminism, no woman is fully female and no man is fully male. The actual image of gender is blurring. Every individual carries more or less some masculine and feminine characteristics. Judith Butler in Gender Trouble (1990) has strongly convicted that not only gender but sex is also constructed or organized. Regarding this issue, space or place as a context plays a vital role in the formation of the gender or sexual identity of an individual. This paper will focus on two short stories of Indian diasporic writer Shobha Rao. The stories under discussion are “An Unrestored Woman” and “The Merchant’s Mistress”. These stories belong to Indian Partition literature as they delimitate a true vignette of the Indian Partition phenomenon as their backdrop. At the same time both stories portray a transformation of gender and sex of the characters. Initially, both Neela and Renu (the protagonists) had heterosexual experiences in their conjugal life, but as time passes, both became widows and they had to migrate from their home environment and spend life in a “refugee camp” which is nothing but an unmentioned ‘other space’ of Michel Foucault. New space gave them an opportunity of having homosexual experiences. So their actual gender or sexual identity is in question. And everything happened after the change of their geographical or social location. Both the stories defray an incarnation of the 1947 Indian Partition which imparts an opportunity of seeing mass movement, the lives of the refugee camp, and the different life experiences of the protagonists. The actual intention of this present paper is to highlight the issue that how different places or spaces affect an individual’s gender or sexual life and help in making a new imaginary map of that individual’s geography of gender or sex.https://postscriptum.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/pS7.iiSuparna.pdfplacespacegender identityindian partition |
| spellingShingle | Suparna Bag Place/Space and Gender Identity: A Reading of Shobha Rao's "An Unrestored Woman" and "The Merchant's Mistress" PostScriptum: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literary Studies place space gender identity indian partition |
| title | Place/Space and Gender Identity: A Reading of Shobha Rao's "An Unrestored Woman" and "The Merchant's Mistress" |
| title_full | Place/Space and Gender Identity: A Reading of Shobha Rao's "An Unrestored Woman" and "The Merchant's Mistress" |
| title_fullStr | Place/Space and Gender Identity: A Reading of Shobha Rao's "An Unrestored Woman" and "The Merchant's Mistress" |
| title_full_unstemmed | Place/Space and Gender Identity: A Reading of Shobha Rao's "An Unrestored Woman" and "The Merchant's Mistress" |
| title_short | Place/Space and Gender Identity: A Reading of Shobha Rao's "An Unrestored Woman" and "The Merchant's Mistress" |
| title_sort | place space and gender identity a reading of shobha rao s an unrestored woman and the merchant s mistress |
| topic | place space gender identity indian partition |
| url | https://postscriptum.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/pS7.iiSuparna.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT suparnabag placespaceandgenderidentityareadingofshobharaosanunrestoredwomanandthemerchantsmistress |