Global Regional Review

Abstract

The article engages with the feminist approach in Girish Karnad's Naga-Mandala (1988) in the framework of postcolonial gender analysis. Naga-Mandala (1988) addresses the continued uneven power relations between female and male gender. Karnad's female character, Rani, in Naga-Mandala, is primarily pitiable, downgraded and most importantly an object of patriarchal social and political dominance and authority. The paper postulates Rani as a site of theoretical transformations, engaging with issues of gender subjectivity, sexuality, and power positionality in relation to the patriarchal Indian state. It further argues that Rani situates a performative self in the text through an interrogatory narrative voice that succeeds in participating in the critique of patriarchal subjectivity and hegemonic feminist positioning while inserting a resistant feminist ideology into gender discourse to re-envision the role of Indian women in India's development. Naga-Mandala echoes a substantial constituent of feminism. The drama enquires the patriarchal ethical enigma which burdens women with fidelity to their husbands but not the loyalty of men to their wives.

Authors

1-Amara Khan
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Lahore College for Women University, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.

Keywords

Feminism, Gender discourse, Girish Karnad, Male-dominance, Oppression, Patriarchy

DOI Number

10.31703/grr.2020(V-II).11

Page Nos

102-108

Volume & Issue

V - II