Preview

Some Thoughts

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
6834 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Some Thoughts
187

MEDIA, DIASPORA AND GENDER IDENTITY IN NATIONALISTIC SPACES: NEGOTIATING GENDER IN DIASPORIC CULTURAL AND LITERARY SPACES.
Baby Pushpa Sinha* Lalan Kishore Singh** This paper endeavors to study gender identity in the framework of the ideology of nationalism and its projections in media and literary texts. It analyses how masculinity and nationalism have always been parallel discourses in its exclusion or subordination of feminine roles in the constructions of the nation whether through its media projections or through literary texts.. The paper attempts to examine how these dominant discourses re-inscribe themselves in postcolonial ideologies of nationalism, especially India. It examines the effects of these discourses in creating stereotypes of feminine identities, which get further complicated in the context of migration and diasporic cultures. The nationalist discourse and the ideology of hegemonic masculinity are co-terminus, and both are of European lineage. Infact, as Mosse detects, the modern form of Western masculinity emerged at about the same time and place as modern nationalism. Mosse notes that nationalism 'was a movement which began and evolved parallel to modern masculinity ' in the West about a century ago. Modern masculinity is, according to him, a focus of all varieties of nationalist movements: The masculine stereotype was not bound to any one of the powerful political ideologies of the previous century. It supported not only conservative movements . . . but the workers ' movement as well; even Bolshevik man was said
*Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Assam University, Silchar. **Assistant Professor, Dept. of English, Bodoland University, Kokrajahar. Vol.-II 3 Jan-June (Summer) 2010

188

to be "firm as an oak." Modern masculinity from the very first was co-opted by the new nationalist movements of the nineteenth century (Mosse 1996: p. 7). Nationalist politics is a key site for 'accomplishing ' masculinity (Connell 1987) for several



References: Appadurai, Arjun. 1996. Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press. Ahmed, A. S. 1992. “Bombay films: The Cinema as Metaphor for Indian Society and Politics.” Modern Asian Studies, 26(2), pp. 289320. Bhabha, Homi. 1994. The Location of Culture. London and New York: Routledge. Connell, Robert W. 1987. Gender and Power: Society, the Person and Sexual Politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Chatterjee, Partha. 1990. "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women 's Question.” In Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, (ed) " In Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, pp. 233-53. Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and its Fragments: Colonial and postcolonial histories. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Courtright, P. 1995. “Sati, Sacrifice, and Marriage: The Modernity of Tradition.” In L. Harlan & P. B. Courtright (Eds.), From the Margins Vol.-II 3 Jan-June (Summer) 2010 206 of Hindu Marriage: Essays on Gender, Religion and Culture. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 184-204. Daiya, Kavita. 2003. "No Home But in Memory: Migrant Bodies and Belongings, Globalization and Nationalism in The Circle of Reason and The Shadow Lines.” In Bose, Brinda (ed) Amitav Ghosh: Critical Perspectives. Delhi: Pencraft International, pp. 36-53. Dasgupta, S. 1993. “Feminist consciousness in Woman-Centered Hindi Films. In The South Asian Women 's Descent Collective” (Eds.), Our Feet Walk the Sky: Women of the South Asian Diaspora. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Press. Enloe, Cynthia. 1990. Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. Berkeley. CA: University of California Press. Franzway, Suzanne, Court, Dianne and Connell. 1989. Staking a Claim: Feminism, Bureaucracy, and the State, Cambridge: Polity Press. Ghosh, Amitav. 1998. The Shadow Lines. New York: Penguin. Grant, Judith and Tancred, Peta.1992. “A feminist Perspective on State Bureaucracy,” in A.J. Mills, and Tancred. P (eds), Gendering Organizational Analysis. Newbury, Park, CA: Sage Publications. pp. 112-28. Glick Schiller, N., Basch, L. and Blanc. C.S.1995. “From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transnational Migration.” Anthropological Quarterly, 68(1), pp. 48-63. Hobsbawm, Eric.1990. Nations and Nationalism since 1780. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Mosse, George L.1996. The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity. New York: Oxford University Press. McClintock, Anne. 1991. "No longer in a future Heaven: Woman and Nationalism in South Africa,” Transition, Vol. 51, pp. 104-23. Vol.-II 3 Jan-June (Summer) 2010 207 Malhotra, Meenakshi. 2003. “Gender, Nation, History: Some Observations on Teaching The Shadow Lines.” In Brinda Bose (ed) Amitav Ghosh: Critical Perspectives. Delhi: Pencraft International, pp. 161-172. Paranjape, Makarand. 1991. : World Literature Today. Volume: 65. Issue: 1. pp. 72-74. Sarkar, Tanika. 1987. "Nationalist Iconography: Image of Women in Nineteen-Century Bengali Literatures." Economic and Political Weekly 21, pp. 2011-55. Sam, Agnes. 1989. Jesus is Indian and Other Stories. Berkshire: Heinemann. Saidullah, J. K. 1992. “Shakti--the Power of the Mother: The Violent Nurturer in Indian Mythology and Commercial Cinema.” Canadian Women 's Studies, 13(1), pp. 37-41. Said, Edward. 1994. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Vintage. Thomas, R. 1989. “Sanctity and Scandal: The Mythologization of Mother India.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 11(3), pp. 11-30. Vijayasree, C. 2001. “Survival as an Ethnic: South Asian Immigrant Women 's Writing.” In Makarand Paranjape, (ed) InDiaspora, New Delhi: Indialog Publications Pvt. Ltd, pp. 130139. Vol.-II 3 Jan-June (Summer) 2010

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Gender Roles in Transition

    • 1612 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The bond of marriage and the ideals of a family are always changing. Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies describes several short stories presenting generalizations of Indian Culture as situated in India, as well as in America. “This Blessed House” tells the story of a newly wed Indian American couple as they settle into their new home in America. “Sexy” tells the story of an American woman and her affair with a married Indian American man. Indian Culture dominates themes as characters either grow closer or further away from the values that define them. Lahiri uses gender roles to show how relationships are changing for the Indian diaspora in America. She depicts traditional female gender roles in transition, away from traditional Indian culture in “This Blessed House” toward the changing diaspora in “Sexy”.…

    • 1612 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Unreached Peoples Project

    • 4982 Words
    • 20 Pages

    Bibliography: Dirks, Nicholas. Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. Princeton, NJ:…

    • 4982 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: Desai, U., & Goodall, S. (1995). “Hindu Women Talk Out.” Agenda: No. 25; Agenda Feminist Media.…

    • 1520 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    To set them apart in another way, the Indians “openly engaged in premarital sexual relations and could even choose to divorce their husbands” (10). “Under English law, a married man controlled the family’s property” (10). In Indian gender relation, the women take charge; on the other hand, the English men make the…

    • 1370 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Forbes, Geraldine. 1979. “Women 's Movements in India: Traditional Symbols and New Roles.” Pp. 149–165 in M. S. A. Rao (ed.), Social Movements in India (vol. 2). Delhi: Manohar.…

    • 10846 Words
    • 44 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Role of Women in Hinduism

    • 2173 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Sarkar, Tanika (2003) Hindu wife, Hindu nation: community, religion, and cultural nationalism. New Delhi: Permanent Black…

    • 2173 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    While thinking about writing a research paper on female characters under the context of Indian play wrighters, the mind suddenly striked with that glorious name of a writer who was the first Indian English playwright to win a Sahitya Akademi Award. It is not that the former writers are less significant but Mahesh Dattani reveals his genius through the representation of the suppressed invisible issues that are forced back to the periphery and especially about the patriarchal domination of men over women, that are often hidden under the beauty masks of many Indian women. Dattani basically deals with the ladies of the urban, so called sophisticated families who under the hegemony of this autocratic social system cannot be able to find their proper identities. Actually this topic for this paper is appropriate because as a lady everyone find herself in that same social system where nothing changes and the position of women, though better than previous ages, actually remains same. Therefore the chief interest behind this paper lies in revealing that very truth fact, the fact of the exact position of women and their actual identities in this modern social construction.…

    • 5858 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Draper, A. S. (2003). India: A primary source cultural guide. New York: Rosen Publishing Group.…

    • 1719 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    8) Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Durham, NC: Duke University Press 2000..…

    • 2714 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mukta, Parita (1999) ‘‘The 'Civilizing Mission ': The Regulation and Control of Mourning in Colonial India’ Feminist Review, 63/Negotiations and Resistances: 25-47…

    • 1911 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Women Movement in India

    • 5586 Words
    • 23 Pages

    References: Bagal, J.C., 1964, “Sarala Devi Chaudhurani”, Sahitya Sadhak Charitmala, no.99, Bangiya Sahityya Parishad, Calcutta Basu, Aparna, 1976, “Role of Women in the Freedom Movement”, in B.R.Nanda, ed, Indian Women From Purdah to Modernity, Vikas, Delhi. Basu Aparna, 1996, Mridula Sarabhai: Rebel With A Cause, Oxford University Press, Delhi Basu Aparna and Ray, Bharati, 2003 (2nd edition), Women’s Struggle: A History of the All India Women Conference, 1927-2002, Manohar, Delhi Basu, Aparna, 2008 “Women’s Struggle for the Vote” in Indian Historical Review, XXXV, No.1 Chattopadhyaya, Kamaladevi, 1983, Indian Women’s Battle for Freedom, Abhinav Publications, New Delhi Cousins, Margaret, 1950, We Two Together, Ganesh & Co., Madras Forbes, Geraldine, 1998, Women in Modern India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Kaur, Manmohan, 1968, Role of Women in the Freedom Movement, 1857-1947, Sterling, New Delhi Kumar, Radha, 1993, The History of Doing, Kali for Women, Delhi Lerner, Gerda, 1981, The Majority Finds Its Past, Placing Women in History, Oxford University Press, London, New York, Toronto, etc. Nanda, Reena, 2002, Kamaladevi Chattopahdhyaya, Oxford University Press, Delhi Reddy, Muthulakshmi, 1956, Mrs. Margaret Cousins and Her Work in India, WIA, Madras…

    • 5586 Words
    • 23 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Difret Film Analysis

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the film Difret 2014 by Zeresenay Mehari and the reading “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid, both the film and the reading portray either patriarchy or colonialism. This paper outlines that although individuals may think that there is a relationship between patriarchy and colonialism that there isn’t. Illustrations and meanings will be provided on to further explain this, as well as how colonialism has affected the indigenous world for worse, and lastly, the treatment of women. In the film Difret, patriarchy is depicted for the reason that Meza who is a female lawyer who is representing Hirut, is standing up to the man in power. In the system of the society the men hold the power and the women are excluded from it. In the reading,…

    • 1299 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dear Patricia, You’ll be sorely missed. Thank you for all your wonderful work and for your enormous support over all these years. X…

    • 3354 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The term nation has been envisioned variously by primordialists and modernists and is enmeshed in bewildering contradictions. In this paper it has been used to mean “ . . . not so much a cultural artifact . . . but a web of material relations and practices, which rests on classes, caste structures, gendered systems of production and reproduction, armies, laws, territories and yes, signifying practices as well.” (Ahmad 2007:40) The establishment of India as a nation-state upon Indian sub-continent not only conferred the people living within its political boundary a new overarching national identity of being ‘Indians’ above other ‘fuzzy’ identities based on caste, class, community but also brought in its wake the catastrophe of Partition that made the exclusionist and territorial aspects of nation-state quite evident. Sudipta Kaviraj in “The Imaginary Institution of India” explicates the idea of territorial demarcation of boundaries of the modern- nation state, as an imperative condition for enumerating its subjects in the process of nation formation for the purpose of administration and control. He also purports the…

    • 3422 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    They are compelled to be muted. Their voices do not get an opportunity to speak out of the women’s problems and needs. Their desires always get lost before the grand narratives of patriarchy, even the national history and narrative rarely recognize the major contribution of the females in the texts or document. Whenever the woman is portrayed, she is put in the second position below the man. She is always kept silent. Identifying this issue, Indian critic and feminist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak asks— can the subaltern speak? in her essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’. To answer this question, she says: “There is no space from which the sexed subaltern subject can speak . . . The subaltern cannot speak” (Spivak 103-104). The reason, Spivak shows, is that Indian woman is always given a label of Sati or good wife. “Sati as a woman’s proper name is in fairly widespread use in India . . . Naming a female infant ‘a good wife’ has its own proleptic irony . . .” (102). By giving a great woman portrayal to the Indian woman, the grand narrative of patriarchy stereotypes the status of woman in the society. Through this, a boundary is imposed on the Indian women’s lifestyle and so-called freedom. While examining the power and position of Indian women, Spivak observes a fragile…

    • 780 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays