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Issues of Gender in Indian Literary Texts

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Course Type Course Code No. Of Credits
Discipline Core NSUS1EN232 4

Course Coordinator and Team:                   SES Faculty

Email of course coordinator:                       pcbabed@aud.ac.in 

Pre-requisites: No

Course Description: The course will examine the processes through which gendered

identities are constructed, produced and reproduced in Indian societies by

analysing literary and cultural products across various genres like poetry, fiction,

non-fiction, drama and films.

Course Objectives:

The course aims to enable students to critically analyse cultural products from a gendered lens, to question binaristic constructions of gender, to perceive the performative aspects of gender and thus to understand the nexus between patriarchy, global capitalism and casteism.

Course Outcomes:

The course will enable students to challenge received notions around gender, to identify the performative aspect of gender, to uncover normalizing mechanisms that allow the socio-cultural construction of gender, to envision alternative modes of being, intersectionality, solidarity across class, caste, religion, ethnicity and so on.

Brief description of the modules:

Module 1: Poetry

This introductory module aims to interrogate received notions around gender by engaging

students in a close reading of select poetry. The poetry selection would allow an

interrogation of discourses around marriage, love, body, sexuality, relationships, societal

expectations, heteronormativity and homophobia, invisibilization of women’s domestic.

Essential readings:

  • Selections from Das, Kamala. Selected Poems. New Delhi: Penguin, 2014.
  • De Souza, Eunice. “Marriages are Made”. These My Words: The Penguin Book of Indian

Poetry. New Delhi: Penguin, 2012.

  • Selections from Merchant, Hoshang. Sufiana: Poems. New Delhi: Harper Collins India, 2013.
  • Nair, Rukmini Bhaya. “Gender Roles” and “Gargi’s Silence.” Yellow Hibiscus: New and

Selected Poems. New Delhi: Penguin, 2014.

  • Kandasamy, Meena. “Screwtiny,” “Pride goes before a full-length mirror,” “Jouissance,” and “Backstreet Girls” in Ms Militancy. Delhi: Navayana, 2014.
  • Ao, Temsula. “Lament for Earth”, “Cry, for the River”, “Earthquake”.
  • Selections from Arundhathi Subramanian edited Eating God: A Book of Bhakti Poetry. Penguin, 2014.

Module 2: Fiction

This module will look into how fictional narratives in the Indian subcontinent are engaging with issues of gender. Opening up the category of gender to include a plurality of gendered identities, this module focuses on how fictional narratives have the ability to lay bare and thus challenge the meta narratives of history and mythology. This module will also alert students to questions of the politics of representations: who can/should represent whom and why? Any 6 of the following may be covered.

Essential readings:

  • Selections from Sukthankar, Ashwini, ed. Facing the Mirror: Lesbian Writing From India. New Delhi: Penguin, 1999.
  • Selections from Namjoshi, Suniti. The Fabulous Feminist: A Suniti Namjoshi Reader. New Delhi: Zubaan, 2012.
  • Bedi, Rajinder Singh. “Lajwanti.” Cultural Diversity, Linguistic Plurality and Literary Traditions. Ed. Sukrita Paul Kumar. Delhi: Macmillan, 2005.
  • Devi, Mahasweta. “Standayini.” Breast Stories. Seagull Books, 1997.
  • Chughtai, Ismat. “The Invalid.” The Quilt Stories. Delhi: Penguin, 2011.
  • Manto, Saadat Hasan. “A Woman’s Life.” Kingdom’s End: Selected Stories. Trans. Khalid Hasan. Delhi: Penguin, 2007.
  • Detha, Vijaydan. “A Double Life.” In Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai edited Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History. NY and England: Palgrave, 2001. Pp. 318-324

Module 3: Non-fiction

This module will examine non-fictional narrative forms viz life-narratives, oral histories, graphic novels and journalistic articles to further the understanding of critical issues around gender. In continuation with the previous module, this module will offer a close study of counter narratives, micro narratives through which the dominant discourse of gender can be subverted. The readings in this module range across the spectrum to cover masculinities perspectives, relationship between caste, class and gender, life conditions of sex-workers and LGBTQI communities in India. Any 5 of the following may be covered.

Essential readings:

  • Excerpts from Revathi, A’s The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story. Penguin, 2010.
  • Butalia, Urvashi. “Honour”. The Other Side of Silence. Delhi: Penguin, 1998.
  • Excerpts from Rahul Roy’s A Little Book on Men. Delhi: Yoda Press, 2007.
  • Dasgupta R.K and Gokulsing K. M. “Introduction: Perceptions of Masculinity and Challenges to the Indian Male.” Masculinity and its Challenges in India: Essays on Changing Perceptions, eds. Rohit K. Dasgupta & K. Moti Gokulsing. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014. Pp 5-26.
  • Rege, Sharmila. “Dalit Women Talk Differently: A Critique of ‘Difference’ and Towards a Dalit Feminist Standpoint Position” in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 33, No. 44, 1998, pp. WS39-WS46.
  • Soofi, Mayank Austen. “I Had Come Too Far.” Nobody Can Love You More – Life in Delhi’s Red Light District. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2012.
  • Selections from Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai edited Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History. NY and England: Palgrave, 2001.

Module 4: Drama

This module will consider any one of the following dramatic texts to enhance students’ critical approach to gender. Besides continuing to deepen understanding of issues raised in the previous modules around the relationship between class, caste and gender, this module would initiate discussions around disability, gendered violence, forms of violence, resistance and disillusionment

Essential readings:

  • Devi, Mahasweta. “Bayen.” Trans. Mahua Bhattacharya. Translating Caste. Ed. Tapan Basu. New Delhi: Katha, 2002. Pp. 25-41.
  • Karnad, Girish. “Broken Images.” Collected Plays. New Delhi: Oxford UP, 2005.
  • Tendulkar, Vijay. “Kanyadaan.” Collected Plays in Translation. Trans. Gowri Ramnarayan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. 495-566.

Module 5: Films

This concluding module will incorporate short films, films and web series to further problematize neat categories around gender. As the deliberations draw to a close, this module will aim to raise questions for further research like: how does a society that acknowledges the existence of only two genders, normalizes the easy association between men and violence and categorizes the woman as either devi/angel in the house/marriageable/ pure/sacrificial/heroine or dayan/mad woman in the

attic/prostitute/impure/seductress/vamp manage to produce willing subjects, even agents of its ideology, what role do popular cultural products have to play in this process of indoctrination, how does resistance look like in such a society and so on. Any 2-3 of the following may be picked up for discussion in class.

Essential watching list:

Stree, Mulakaram: The Breast Tax, Fire, The Great Indian Kitchen, Rajkahini/Begum Jaan

Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star) OR Komal Gandhar (E-Flat) OR Subarnarekha

(Golden Lining) OR Kaathal-The Core

Suggested watching list:

Joyland, Devi, Chhapaak, Dangal, Chak De, Pink, Bulbul, Thapad, Love Hostel, Dor, Laapata Ladies, Mardani, Article 15, Masaan, Arth, Astitva, Mother India, The Handmaid’s Tale (Web series, Amazon Prime, 2017), Made in Heaven (Web series, Amazon Prime, 2019), Taali (Web series, JioCinema, 2023)

Assessment Plan

S.No

Assessment

Weightage

1

Participation

10%

2

Assignment/Creative Project

45%

3

End Semester Examination

45%

References

  • De Souza, Eunice, “Recovering a Tradition: Forgotten Women’s Voices” EPW, April 29, 2006. Selections from Merchant, Hoshang, ed. Yaraana: Gay Writing from South Asia. New Delhi: Penguin, 2010.
  • Jha, Sonora, and Mara Adelman. “Looking for love in all the white places: a study of skinc olor preferences on Indian matrimonial and mate-seeking websites.” Studies in South Asian Film & Media 1.1 (2009): 65-83.
  • Kumar, Radha. Excerpts from The History of Doing. New Delhi: Zubaan, 1993.
  • Geetha, V. Gender. Kolkata: Stree, 2006.
  • Nabar, Vrinda. “Our Women, Their Women: An Introduction.” Caste as Woman. Delhi:Penguin, 1995.
  • Pritam, Amrita. “Stench of Kerosene.” Contemporary English. Ed. Chandra Mohan.Delhi: OUP, 1999.
  • Tagore, Rabindranath. “A Wife’s Letter.” Selected Short Stories. Ed. Sukanta Chaudhuri. New Delhi: Oxford UP, 2000.
  • Rizvi, Fatima. “Feminist and Marxist Tendencies in Urdu Fiction by ‘Progressive’ Women Writers of the Indian Sub-continent” JSL, Autumn 2007
  • Spivak, Gayatri C. “A Literary Representation of the Subaltern: Mahasweta Devi’s
  • ‘Standayini’”, Subaltern Studies V, ed. Ranajit, Oxford University Press. 2005
  • Butalia, Urvashi, ed. Katha: Short Stories by Indian Women. New Delhi: Alter Notes Press, 2007.
  • Revathi, A. A Life in Trans Activism. Delhi: Zubaan, 2016. Pp. 158—168.
  • Menon, Nivedita, ed. Sexualities. Zed Books, 2007.
  • Chaudhuri, Maitrayee. “Gender and Advertisements: The Rhetoric of Globalisation,”Women’s Studies International Forum 2001 24.3/4. Pp. 373-385.
  • Dattani, Mahesh. Dance like a Man. Penguin Random House. 2006
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