Narrating Dalit womanhood and the aesthetics of autobiography

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
Laura R. Brueck
Keyword(s):  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Critical Reception ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Narrative Authority ◽  
Dalit Women ◽  
Hindi Language

This article will consider two Hindi-language autobiographies by Dalit women, to explain how we can emphasize the collective, relational, and specifically gendered character of Dalit women’s life writing without simplistically categorizing them as testimonio, “witnessing”. Nor should we over-privilege their gendered specificity, thereby effacing the very real narrative authority, purposefulness, and perspectival control of their authors. Instead, we must be especially attentive to the language of a text and understand how the relationality and collectivity of experience is not accidental or necessarily organic to a woman’s view on her world, but is actively, politically, and consciously constructed in the course of a narrative. Predicated on a reasonable concern over the appropriation of a revolutionary new literary voice, attention to narrative form has been slow in coming to the critical and scholarly analysis of Dalit literature, somewhat paradoxically resulting in the rendering of this literature too as “untouchable”. In exploring what is therefore only a nascent formal criticism of the Dalit autobiographical genre, I believe it is important to express a note of caution against replicating the same kinds of essentializing processes of differentiation (the kind we have seen before in the critical reception of life writing in other cultures and languages) between men’s and women’s Dalit life narratives as ego-driven and individualistic linear progressions to political awakening versus relational, community-based, politically and purposefully diffuse “witnessings”. In this exciting moment in which we have the opportunity to engage with a critically important and rapidly expanding rhetorical movement such as Dalit literature, it is, I believe, a diligent recourse to textual analysis that may yet save us from such facile stereotyping.

scholarly journals The Advent of Ambedkar in the Sphere of Indian Women Question

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Poonam Singh
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Textual Analysis ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Research Paper ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Indian Women ◽  
Close Textual Analysis ◽  
Dalit Women ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Archival Study

The paper attempts to project Bhim Rao Ambedkar as one of the foremost liberal feminists who advocated for Hindu women’s legal rights through the constitutional provisions listed in the Hindu Code Bill. He proposed four major stipulations, “one change is that, the widow, the daughter, the widow of predeceased-son. All are given the same rank as the son in the matter of inheritance. In addition to that, the daughter is also given a share in her father’s property: her share is prescribed as half of that of the son.”[1] To contemplate the predicament and marginalized position of Indian women, Ambedkar posited that caste and gender are intertwined. The imposition of endogamy was made compulsory by Brahaminical hierarchy which eulogized by Hindu religious scriptures to ensure sustained subjectivity of women, which eventually depreciated the egalitarian position of women. The focal point of the research paper remains a close textual analysis of Ambedkarite canon with archival study and genealogical examination contouring the discourse. The paper also encompasses potent reasons to establish the differences between the marginalization of upper-caste women and Dalit women. Difference between them is maintained by the ‘graded inequality.’ After having observed such differences, the paper intends to extend the idea that Ambedkar worked as a socio-political champion for Dalit women and Indian women concomitantly. To guarantee the freedom, equality, and individuality of Indian women, Ambedkar resorted to legalized mechanism and constitutional provisions. Key Words: Ambedkar, Hindu Code Bill, Manusmriti, Indian Women, Dalit Women, Indian Feminism, Caste, Patriarchy

scholarly journals Writing Thesis in English Education: Challenges Faced by Students

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 45-52
Author(s):  
Hari Prasad Tiwari
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
English Education ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Sampling Procedure ◽  
Narrative Form ◽  
Qualitative Data Analysis ◽  
Purposive Sampling ◽  
Research Document ◽  
Partial Fulfillment

A thesis is the most important write up in a researcher's life. Writing the research document in the form of a thesis is considered as the most challenging among the students. Keeping this view in mind, the present study was conducted to investigate the major challenges facing by the students of Masters of Education (M. Ed.) in English under Tribhuvan University (T.U.) while writing thesis. Fifteen students who have submitted the final draft of thesis in the Department of English Education of their respective campuses in partial fulfillment of M.Ed. in English and waiting for viva-voce were selected employing non-random purposive sampling procedure. The researcher used interview as a tool to collect the data which included open ended questions only. Interviews were audio recorded and they were transcribed, thematized and presented in narrative form. The findings were presented employing descriptive technique of qualitative data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that unsupportive behavior of the supervisors and difficulties of selecting the appropriate field or area of the study are major challenges while writing the thesis in English Education.  

scholarly journals Transformation From Aesthetics to Activism: An Analysis of Select Dalit Women Personal Narratives

2021 ◽  
pp. 2455328X2110389
Author(s):  
Surya Simon
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Lived Experiences ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Political Activism ◽  
Narrative Technique ◽  
The Past ◽  
Dalit Women

Dalit resistance gained prominence in postcolonial India through Dalit literature, with Dalit life writing emerging as a significant way to address ongoing problems and issues faced by Dalit communities. Dalit personal narratives are not mere reflections into the past but lived experiences with a timely and current sociological base. Dalit narratives have become a platform for social and political activism against various hegemonic discourses that otherwise exclude the experiences of the Dalit population. Moreover, Dalit women suffer many layers of oppression and violence, and there is a necessity to understand the intersectionality of Dalit women’s realities. Hence this article analyses select personal narratives of two Dalit women writers: P. Sivakami’s The Grip of Change ([1989] 2006) and ₹Author’s Notes: Gowri’ ([1999] 2006); and Bama’s Karukku ([1992] 2005). The ₹Author’s Notes: Gowri’ is a reflection on The Grip of Change and the two narratives are collectively referred to as The Grip of Change. This article attempts to understand the extent to which Dalit personal narratives transform from aesthetics to activism. This article analyses the narrative technique and form used in the narratives and explores how the narratives expose embodied issues to foster activism in and through the content.

scholarly journals Ecce Homo—Behold the Human! Reading Life-Narratives in Times of Colonial Modernity

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 300
Author(s):  
Nandini Bhattacharya
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Dense Matrix ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
Victorian England ◽  
Writing Project ◽  
Colonial Modernity ◽  
Culturally Informed ◽  
Writing Genres ◽  
Ecce Homo

The essay explores Bankimchandra Chatterjee’s Krishnacaritra—published in 1886—the life of a humanised god, as engaged in cross cultural dialogues with John Robert Seeley’s Ecce Homo, Natural Religion, and The Expansion of England in particular, and the broader European tendency of naturalising religions in general. It contends that the rise of historicised life writing genres in Europe was organically related to the demythologised, verifiable god-lives writing project. Bankimchandra’s Krishnacarita is embedded within a dense matrix of nineteenth century Indian secular life writing projects and its projection of Krishna as a cultural icon within an incipient nationalist imagining. The essay while exploring such fraught writing projects in Victorian England and nineteenth century colonial Bengal, concludes that ‘secularism’ arrives as not as religion’s Other but as its camouflaging in ethico-cultural guise. Secularism rides on the backs of such demystified god life narratives to rationalise ethico-culturally informed global empires.

Life Narratives beyond the Human

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Herman
Keyword(s):  
Mental State ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
Generic Status ◽  
Medium Specificity ◽  
The Way

Chapter 5 turns from issues of medium specificity to the question of how genre bears on narrative engagements with animal experiences in more-than-human worlds. Laying groundwork for chapter 6’s investigation of the way norms for mental-state attributions cut across the fiction-nonfiction divide, the chapter examines forms of generic hybridity, as well as broader questions about generic status, in post-Darwinian life writing centering on nonhuman subjects. In doing so, the chapter explores not only life narratives written about animals, i.e., animal biographies, but also life narratives attributed to animals, i.e., animal autobiographies. The first part of the chapter considers how modernist explorations in the theory and practice of life writing opened up new pathways for interpreting and engaging with animal lives. The second part discusses problems and possibilities raised by classic as well as contemporary animal autobiographies, disputing the assumption that all animal autobiographies are, by their nature, fictional.

scholarly journals Memories from the Margins: Stories and Images of Urban Homelessness

Linguaculture ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia J. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Public History ◽  
Historical Memory ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Psychological Trauma ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Writing Project ◽  
History Of ◽  
Subway Stations ◽  
Powerful Strategy

AbstractAmong any city’s most wounded bodies and minds are the homeless - individuals who live on the streets, without any formal claim to place. For many of these individuals, the vessels of historical memory are not museums, or classrooms, or library archives, but parks, alleyways, and subway stations. As the numbers of homeless individuals increase dramatically each year, their social, physical, and psychological trauma increasingly characterizes urban life, even as their experiences fall to the margins of the city’s history and future. In response, this paper explores the merging of homeless histories with public history, through two interlocking projects carried out in Boston, Massachusetts - “Histories and Homelessness,” a community-based life-writing project, and “Images from the Streets,” a disposable-camera photography project - outreach and education projects, in which all participants are among the unsheltered homeless who spend their nights on heating grates, under highways, and in ATM kiosks. Together, these projects begin to map and make visible the landscape and memories of homelessness, as they are written and photographed by its inhabitants, and firmly situate these histories within the wider community. Recovering the personal and interpretive histories of homeless individuals, so intimately tied to “place,” creates a powerful strategy for expanding the history of the community to include voices and visions often excluded or left at the margins.

Tracing Buried Selves: In Search of Punjabi Dalit Woman Autobiography

2021 ◽  
pp. 2455328X2110393
Author(s):  
Kumar Sushil
Keyword(s):  
Indian Languages ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
State Population ◽  
Constructive Dialogue ◽  
The World ◽  
Entire Country ◽  
Dalit Women

This article is an attempt to understand the significance of autobiographies with particular reference to Punjabi dalit women. In fact, autobiographies are one of the effective mediums for breaking the silence and create a constructive dialogue among people. These dialogues are prerequisite for the solidarity, democracy, equality and fraternity in the society. Besides, the autobiographies from the marginalized section challenge the exploitative established norms. Therefore, to write autobiographies is a courageous act full of risk and daring. In this context, there are more than hundred dalit autobiographies written in Indian languages, but in Punjabi literary discourses only a few dalit autobiographies have been written. However, according to Census 2011, in Punjab state, population of Scheduled Caste people is highest in India that constitutes 31.94% of the population in comparison to 16.6% in the entire country. Despite the largest population of dalits in Punjab, shockingly, there is not a single autobiography that has been written by a dalit woman until date. In this situation, it is a challenge for educated Punjabi dalit women to write their life narratives or autobiographies. They have to represent not only their pain in front of the world but also write about the consciousness, unconsciousness and subconsciousness of their community women who have not got opportunity to attain education. This article will examine and trace the problematics and complexities of gaps and silences so far as autobiographies of Punjabi dalit women are concerned.

scholarly journals The Autofictional in Serial, Literary Works

2022 ◽  
pp. 101-118
Author(s):  
Ricarda Menn ◽  
Melissa Schuh
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
Doris Lessing ◽  
Life Narratives ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Dorothy Richardson

AbstractThis chapter approaches serial literary autofictions as a distinct variant of autofictional writing. While discussions of life writing often focus on male authors, the chapter redresses this imbalance by considering women writers, specifically the works of Dorothy Richardson, Doris Lessing, and Rachel Cusk. The approach is new in exploring the autofictional in serial, literary works, and tracing connections across an author’s oeuvre. Such a focus leads to an extended understanding of autofiction and the autofictional as challenging autobiographical unity and coherence. The chapter distinguishes between different forms of seriality (including series, serial, and serialized life narratives), and argues that serial publications and structures enhance literary and autofictional tendencies in that they draw attention to the complexities of autobiographical representation.

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