Difference between revisions of "2009-10 AM Fictions of India - Expert Group on Gender"

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==Expert Group on Gender==
 
==Expert Group on Gender==
  
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  -> The meaning of “Padma” is “dung”: Why might the author have chosen this name for one of his major female characters?
 
  -> The meaning of “Padma” is “dung”: Why might the author have chosen this name for one of his major female characters?
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'''Mulk Raj Anand "Untouchable"''' ''(Group: Impersonal narration and the ideology of the text: The representation of India and of Bakha's consciousness)''
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'''Gender: The question of femininity & masculinity in the novel.'''
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- Britain is portrayed as a partriarchy patronizing India (?)
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- Bakha as brother is patronizing Sohini
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- Bakha is turning away from his own father
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- Bakha lovingly misses his mother
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- strict and obvious division in gender-related charateristics and behaviour among the characters
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- Women looking out for their families (Sohini & B.'s mother for Bakha, Gulabo for her son, the Babu's son's mother for her sons)
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-Sohini as a “passive sufferer” who is representing the female role of an outcast
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  → at the beginning of the novel, Sohini is part of the plot to sustain Indian women's fate
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  → why does she stop being part of the story?

Latest revision as of 00:24, 1 February 2010

Expert Group on Gender

Group: Representations of Gender


Kim

- Keep in mind: Double iconography of the Hindu female

- Alternative female figures:

- Kim‘s caretaker (takes opium)

- The Kulu woman (“She was already ordering, haranguing, rebuking, and it must be said, cursing her servants for delays” (p. 74)

      • Dominant BUT benevolent character (nurses Kim back to health, cf. “Mother, I [Kim] owe my life to thee.” (p. 277)

- Huneefa ( portrayed witch-like, cf. p. 179)

- The Woman of Shamlegh (dominating personality in her village, cf. p. 256 and pp. 263-264)


Untouchable

- Keep in mind: Double iconography of the Hindu female


- Female characters that meet the traditional ideal of a devote woman:

- Bakha‘s mother

“He [Bakha] often thought of his mother [...], crouching as she went about cooking and cleaning the home, a bit too old-fashioned for his then already growing modern tastes, [...] it seemed that she was not of his world, had no connection with it.“ (p. 14)

- Sohini tries to replace her mother, inferior role

“[...] he saw that his [Bakha’s] sister was trying to light a fire between two bricks. She was blowing hard at it [...] as she crouched on the mud floor. [...]. She sat back helpless [...]. (p. 21)

“Her father was abusing her, as he now sat on his bed, puff-puffing away at the cane tube [...]” (p. 31)

- Other minor female characters are also bound to the household


Midnight's Children

- Focus on representation of Indian Muslim women

- Dominant characters who possess power to a varying degree and within a certain sector

        - Naseem: conservative, religious, dominant partner within the relationship to Aadam;  
          avoids contact to Western culture


        - Jamila: comes into contact with Christianity, becomes role model of “pure” Pakistan 


        - Padma: […], active audience of Saleem
-> The meaning of “Padma” is “dung”: Why might the author have chosen this name for one of his major female characters?



Mulk Raj Anand "Untouchable" (Group: Impersonal narration and the ideology of the text: The representation of India and of Bakha's consciousness)


Gender: The question of femininity & masculinity in the novel.


- Britain is portrayed as a partriarchy patronizing India (?)

- Bakha as brother is patronizing Sohini

- Bakha is turning away from his own father

- Bakha lovingly misses his mother

- strict and obvious division in gender-related charateristics and behaviour among the characters

- Women looking out for their families (Sohini & B.'s mother for Bakha, Gulabo for her son, the Babu's son's mother for her sons)

-Sohini as a “passive sufferer” who is representing the female role of an outcast

 → at the beginning of the novel, Sohini is part of the plot to sustain Indian women's fate 
 → why does she stop being part of the story?