Welcome dear friends to the fifth module of
the sixth week, in the previous module we
had started discussing the works of Virginia
Woolf and in this module we would continue
the discussion of Shashi Deshpande.
We would review how gender is a praxis for
the construction of identity in the works
of these women characters.
We have also discussed how across the globe
in different cultures, there are certain common
characteristics in the portrayal of women
characters by certain authors.
We can see, looking at the representative
novels of Virginia Woolf and Shashi Deshpande,
how gender and culture conditioning work is
a praxis as gendering is a process of learning
and it is an inseparable axis of culture and
cultural understanding.
Gender is a component as we have seen in our
previous discussions also which helps us to
express one's sexuality and also how to understand
our relationships in a given social construction;
it helps us to understand the belief system
of a particular culture.
We find that only a few women writers have
taken up the gender construction in as explicit
manner in which Shashi Deshpande has taken
up.
India has a rich national literary tradition
in other languages as well as an English.
In terms of creative and critical writings
we find that Indian writers have been able
to incorporate their own rhythms, the lucidity
of their own mother tongue whereas retaining
a universal appeal using the medium of English
for expressing their artistic talent and to
express their understanding of cultural issues.
In the works of Shashi Deshpande we find that
the technology of gender, to borrow the phrase
from De Laurentiis, has been presented, she
has been able to take up the growing up process
of young girls which continuously casts its
shadows on the mature personality in her novels.
She is one of those very few novelists who
have taken up the complete life span of women
and have shown, through their narratives,
how gender is an artificial construct which
is propagated by patriarchy only.
In her narratives, we find that a gendered
identity is formulated not only for women
but also for men and this identity formation
is supported often by social as well as religious
traditions.
In her novels we find how the propagation
of particular gendered norms condition the
mind-set of the people.
In her opinion social conditioning is a double
edged sword which works against men as well
as against women.
However, since women are often the victims,
they feel the impact more but it does harm
the psyche and the personality and identity
of men also.
In her narratives, she has taken up and discussed
the role of social practices, the religious
myths, the economic facets as well as the
cultural climate which are responsible for
the formulation of the individuation process
and the ultimate formulation of one's identity.
She has also tried to tap in her novels through
various women characters, the guilt which
is there in a women's heart, if she is not
able to conform to the societal standards
in the given cultural setting.
In various novels, we find the different facets
of the technology of gender in an Indian context
have been taken up.
Even though, there are many facets which are
typically found in Indian subcontinent only
we find that there are several others which
have a universal appeal.
A particular aspect which she has taken up
in her novels is the preference for the boy
child.
In several novels through various women characters
through Vanna in Binding Vine, through Manorama
in A Matter of Time, through Mriga, in If
I Die Today, she has suggested how in our
society it is the preference for the boy child
which works as a motivation for retaining
the marriages intact.
She has also referred to various social and
religious customs which reinforce this preference.
For example, in that long silence she has
illustrated the preference for a boy child
with the way in which a family tree is constructed
because the girls are not a part of this family
tree.
In Come Up and Be Dead, she has suggested
how the preference for the boy child which
ultimately is a gender and patriarchal norm
is supported by the religious rituals.
Because in the Hindu tradition last rites
should be preferably performed by the son
only.
She has suggested how because of the preference
for the boy child, girls often have to face
a certain negligence in the family.
It has been presented through the character
of Indu, in Roots and Shadows very effectively
as well as through the character portrayal
of Kshama in Come Up and Be Dead.
In Roots and Shadows again as well as in the
Sahitya Academy prize winner novel, The Dark
Holds No Terror, she has depicted how the
growing up process for a girl becomes a matter
of shame for her as well as sometimes for
the family.
She is also depicted the over emphasis which
the Indian situations lays on sexual purity
of girls, it has been illustrated through
various motives in Binding wine, in small
remedies as well as in moving on.
So, in the novels of Shashi Deshpande we find
that these aspects through which a gendered
identity is created in an Indian society has
been presented through these various ways,
interestingly she has also suggested how one
aspect of our cultural tradition supports
the other one as far as the formation of a
gendered identity is concerned.
We can see that the preference for the boy
child results in certain social and religious
customs which ultimately result in the marginalisation
of girls.
And this also makes the growing up process,
a shameful activity for girls and women.
Through the presentation of this technology
of gender, we find that Deshpande has also
presented how the concept of femininity can
be a burden for a women, it is considered
preferable if a woman conforms to the societal
norms, follows the given societal roles that
of a daughter a sister, a wife and later on
that of a mother.
She should not be thinking outside these constraints.
And therefore in Roots and Shadows, we find
that one of the old uncles of the family advises
the woman protagonist by saying that intelligence
is a burden for women, “we want our women
not to think”.
The patriarchal preference for silence within
the family which is often misunderstood as
a reflection of inner grit and courage is
also presented through this particular statement
in which it is clearly said and suggested
that women should preferably pursue their
own given roles in a social setup.
Sometimes, we find that this emphasis on womanly
functions leads to an inner vacancy.
We have seen it being depicted in Mrs. Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf also, where Clarissa Dalloway
tries to arrange for a party to fill up the
inner void.
In the same way we find that an emphasis on
womanly function, the repeated nature of the
household chores creates an inner vacancy
which women try to fill up with following
different activities only.
Shashi Deshpande has clearly admitted in an
interview to Geetha Gangadharan that there
are certain autobiographical links also as
far as this projection of the burden of femininity
in her novels and stories is concerned.
She has clearly accepted that “the stress
which was laid on feminine functions at the
cost of all your potentials as an individual
enraged me” and this aspect has been presented
in her novels and stories repeatedly.
She has shown how this burden of femininity
is equated not only with a preference for
silence but also how the silence is often
misrepresented as an inner strength in traditional
women.
And when a woman starts to speak up against
the atrocities she has to put up in her life,
it is often presented in a negative light.
In Shashi Deshpande also there has been a
delineation of the theme of marriage from
different perspectives.
In her novels, we find that the presence of
a husband as a sheltering tree has been presented.
As in the novels of Jane Austen and also to
a large extent the novels of Virginia Woolf,
in the novels of Shashi Deshpande too, marriage
has been presented as a panacea that is the
ultimate aim of a woman's life.
We can also quote Simone De Beauvoir from
the Second Sex in which she has said that
a women is compulsorily introduced in terms
of being married, being unmarried etc.
So, marriage is a compulsory component in
a women's introduction.
Deshpande has suggested how a girl is not
prepared for a vocation and she is always
trained to become a better housewife.
This aspect is discernible in Mrs. Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf also.
Shashi Deshpande has gone slightly ahead and
has represented that over a passage of time
particularly in the traditional Indian household
even the mothers become tools to perpetuate
the patriarchal preference for women in terms
of following certain rules.
She has also suggested how the society encourages
self-effacement among girls and women and
how the projection of our desire of a women's
desire is often considered in a negative manner.
In fact in That Long Silence a character gives
a very interesting piece of advice to the
protagonist of the novel.
This character has been given the name of
Vanitha mami, one of several owns in the family
who are there as stock characters.
And she says “if your husband has a mistress
or two, ignore him take up a hobby instead
may be cats or your sister's children”.
The idea behind this advice is that marriage
is such as sacrosanct of fear that it should
never be disturbed at any cost.
Even if a girl has to face out her personality
absolutely, the marriage has to be there.
Among women, this concept generates a sense
of self-effacement and a tendency to accept
their secondary status without questioning.
However, we find that among men it consolidates
the belief that such servile self-effacement
among women is natural and therefore, they
accepted as a norm.
So we find that in Deshpande's novel, the
constitution of identity, the formation of
identity is also related with the definitions
of normative behaviour.
So we find that gender is a major component
of identity formation which tells us that
certain behaviour is normative and has to
be accepted and certain behaviour is not to
be accepted.
We can particularly refer to Deshpande’s
novel Roots and Shadows, in which she has
looked at the social conditioning in terms
of construction of identity from a gender
perspective from different perspectives.
Through various characters we find the different
facets of marriage and girlhood, marriage
and womanhood, the presence of economic independence
etc., have been presented very thoroughly.
Through the protagonist Indu, we are told
how childhood constraints can result into
a constricted personality which would hinder
the progress of an individual.
Through the character of Mini, we are told
that in the absence of any vocational training,
how in the absence of any professional education,
girls would have no other way but to opt for
marriage.
Because marriage is the only way to gain as
semblance of economic independence for them.
Through the characters of Akka and Atya, the
trauma of widowhood in India is depicted and
through various Kakis, like Vanitha kaki etc.,
referred to in one of the previous slides,
the idea of meek submission of a women as
a traditional value has been presented.
A major issue which had not been taken by
Virginia Wolf or by her contemporary writers
is the issue of economic independence.
And we find that this economic independence
has been presented by Shashi Deshpande very
thoroughly.
We find that in all her novels and in the
majority of her stories, the women protagonists
are economically independent.
They are highly educated women, for example,
they are doctors or teachers or journalists
or officers but we find that not all of them
are necessarily liberate self.
And here in Shashi Deshpande attempts to show
how the social conditioning and the constructions
posed by the normative behaviours of a society
are responsible for constructing an individual's
personality, identity and ideology also.
In Deshpande’s novel, we find that though
all the women protagonists are shown as being
economically successful and secure, it is
never presented as a guarantee of freedom
for women.
She has also presented how firstly women themselves
are not very comfortable with their economic
security.
Another aspect which is very interestingly
presented by Deshpande and which is a very
contemporary Indian problem in our lives is
the issue of economic independence of women
in those situations, when the wife earns more
than the husband.
So what would be the reactions of the husband
to this scenario have been interestingly depicted
in Deshpande's novels.
It begins with one of her early novels, The
Dark Holds No Terrors and this motive continues
in many of her later date novels also.
Sometimes, we find that this economic success
when wives earn more than their husbands,
generates a guilty conscience among women
because they think that culturally they should
not do it.
And they start treating their own emotions
as bits of garbage as we find in Indu’s
case in Roots and Shadows.
In That Long Silence we have it in the character
portrayal of Jaya, who tries to come across
as a women who coped with this fact.
However, we find that the economic aspect
and what exactly economic independence means
for a girl and a women has been depicted by
Shashi Deshpande taking up different social
situations.
We find that in a gendered perspective, the
emphasis on the creation of an authoritarian
submission syndrome.
And Deshpande’s novels depict how many of
contemporary Indian women suffer from this
syndrome.
In the novels of Shashi Deshpande we find
that the portrayal of the issue of economic
independence and how it provides an interesting
dimension to the individuality of Indian women,
the portrayal of authoritarian submission
syndrome also presents an interesting scenario
for us.
In the authoritarian submission syndrome,
we find that the emphasis is on surrender
to a certain authority without wondering whether
that authority holds any validity or not.
In a way, we can say that this submission
to an authority without looking for the validity
of that authority generates a culture of martyrdom
which is in consonance with the culture of
patriarchy.
In the culture of patriarchy the relationship
between a husband and wife is not on an equal
fitting, it is based on the principle of master
and a subordinate and the culture encourages
a woman to lose her independence and identity
and merge it with the identity of that of
her husband.
While she has talked about how the culture
promotes Indian women to follow a particular
ideology and formulate a particular type of
identity, Deshpande has also commented on
how Indian men are encouraged to develop a
tone deafness towards this plight of women.
In Deshpande we find that there is a continued
maturity in terms of the projection offer
women protagonists.
We find that gradually as she progresses as
a novelist, the women protagonists she has
displayed also become mature.
They become bolder gradually in the assertion
of their individual choices, in the formation
of their identity, in claiming their sexuality
and in emphatically putting across their desires.
Deshpande has also taken up the issue of sexuality
in relative openness.
We find that in all her novels, her protagonists
are working women and they have moved from
submissiveness to open admission of their
sexuality.
In all her novels we find that there is a
figure of a friend or a lover.
Without fail, in all her stories and in a
novels, we find that this figure exists.
In one of her interviews with Pallavi singhasan,
Shashi Deshpande has admitted that this figure
has been important for her.
Even though she has consciously not thought
of depicting extramarital relationships in
a novels, she has presented this figure.
Her idea is that it is not possible for women
to express all facets of their identity and
personality in the constricted relationships
within a marriage and therefore they are able
to open up with this figure who may be a friend
or who may also be a lover but then there
should not be any associated guilt in the
mind of a woman about her.
In her later novels particularly in Small
Remedies in Moving On and in a last novel
In the Country of Deceit, we find that this
motive has been presented in a very emphatic
manner.
We find that in Deshpande's novels all conceivable
connotations of gendered identity have been
presented during the childhood, during the
youth as well as during the old age, what
it means to have a gendered identity has been
presented by Shashi Deshpande.
She has also taken up the question of economic
independence and she has also discussed how
the status of women becomes different within
the same strata, if they have economic independence.
At the same time we find that she has also
introduced the figure of a woman writer in
most of her novels as an important sub motive.
So when we look at the role of gender as a
basic component of identity formation, we
find that it has played a very significant
role in literary products.
We have seen how it is important in a cross
cultural fashion in the novels of different
women writers belonging to different societies
and cultures.
When we would look at some of the works by
the male writers, we would also understand
how this motive of gender constituting a particular
type of personality and identity is taken
up in a different formation.
So, in this module we have discussed how ideology
is important for the formation of an identity.
And how identity is formed on the basis of
our understandings of these core issues which
have been presented in literary works.
In our next modules, we would continue this
discussion of what culture means in the context
of literature and also in the context of media,
thank you.
