Exploring the Identity Crisis in Mahasweta Devi’s Novel The Glory of Sri Sri Ganesh

Sheeba Parvez; Zeba Siddiqui

Authors

Sheeba Parvez Department of English Literature, Amity University Madhya Pradesh, India, Pin: 474005 Author
Dr Zeba Siddiqui Department of English Literature, Amity University Madhya Pradesh, India, Pin: 474005 Author

Keywords:

exploitation, gender consciousness, identity crisis, postcolonial studies, sociocultural context

Abstract

Postcolonialism, in the early 21st century, have brought to the fore pertinent issues of identity crisis, ethnicity, gender, and culture. The predominant theme of Mahasweta Devi’s fiction is to highlight the issue of identity crisis. This paper examines the novel, The Glory of Sri Sri Ganesh using the tools of qualitative textual and content analysis. The paper aims to study the complex elements of the identity crisis that the novel’s female characters experience. In light of the sociocultural context of India, Devi explores the mental conflicts that her characters go through in various situations. This research outlines the many aspects of women in which women’s bodies become the object of sexual exploitation while maintaining the social stigma of caste. She reflects on a broader perspective of the women’s experience of extreme suffering and identity problems.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Agarwal, M. (2010). Excerpts from the personal interview with Mahasweta Devi on 12.2.2008. Impressions, 4(2). https://www.impressions.org.in/jul10/int_manvia.html

Ashcroft, B. (2012). Introduction: Spaces of Utopia. Spaces of Utopia: An Electronic Journal, 2(1), 6. http://ler.letras.up.pt

Beauvoir, S. de. (1953). The Second Sex. In Internet Archive.

Beaumont, C. (2013). A Theological Engagement with Current Theories of Dissociative Identity Disorder Using the Mimetic Theory of Rene Girard [Thesis]

Brand, B. L., Loewenstein, R. J., & Lanius, R. A. (2014). Dissociative identity disorder. In G. O. Gabbard (Ed.), Gabbard’s treatments of psychiatric disorders (pp. 439–458). American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2014-23557-024

Brown, D. (1989). The Modernist Self in Twentieth-Century English Literature. Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19913-6

Butler, J. (1988). Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory. Theatre Journal, 40(4), 519–531. JSTOR.

Devi, M. (2003). The Glory of Sri Sri Ganesh (I. Chanda, Trans.).

Fuchs, T. (2007). Fragmented Selves: Temporality and Identity in Borderline Personality Disorder. Psychopathology, 40(6), 383. https://doi.org/10.1159/000106468

Gardner, G. K. (2004). Dissociative Identity Disorder. In Encyclopedia of Women’s Health (pp. 385–387). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48113-0_129

George, M. (2008). Religious Patriarchy and the Subjugation of Women in India. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences: Annual Review, 3(3), 21–30.

Gilbert, S., & Gubar, S. (1984). The Madwoman In The Attic” The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary imagination Second Edition (Second). Yale University Press New Haven and London 1979.

Guha, R. (1984). Subaltern Studies III: Writings on Indian History and Society. (p. vii). Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Gupta, S. (2013). Resistance to Oppression: A Study of Mahasweta Devi’s Selected Works [Thesis].

http://www.ricorso.net/tx/Courses/LEM2014/Critics/Gilbert_Gubar/Madwoman_full.pdf

Kothari, A. (2020). Erik Erikson on stage of Adolescence, Identity, Identity Crisis. Budding Psychologists. https://buddingpsychologists.org/erik-erikson-on-stage-of-adolescence-identity-identity-crisis/

Lerner, G. (1986). The Creation of Patriarchy. Semantic Scholar, 21(2), 256. https://doi.org/10.2307/493602

McLeod, J. (2000). Beginning Postcolonialism (p. 174). Manchester University Press.

Nayar. (2010). Contemporary Literary And Cultural Theory: From Structuralism To Ecocriticism. In Google Books. Pearson Education India. https://books.google.com.np/books?id=YhnRQLya90MC

Purakayastha, A. S. (2021). Fyataru and Subaltern War Cries: Nabarun Bhattacharya and the Rebirth of the Subject. Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry, 1(2), 90–102.

Showalter, E. (1986). Review of The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature and Theory. History Workshop, 22, 189–192. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4288728

Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty – Postcolonial Studies. (2014). Scholarblogs.emory.edu. https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/postcolonialstudies/2014/06/19/spivak-gayatri-chakravorty

Tyrer, P. (2019). Dissociative identity disorder needs re-examination. BJPsych Advances, 25(05), 294–295.