Gender, Resistance, and Identity: Women’s Rewriting of the Self in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess

Abstract

The image of Indian women has often been associated with the act of obedience and submission. Previous studies on gender and sexuality in India’s literary tradition and culture point to the dominance of heteropatriarchal normativity and the scarcity of the image of a powerful woman capable of contesting and dismantling such impositions. In this study, we argue that Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Before We Visit the Goddess (2016) presents a more nuanced image of the Indian women who constantly problematize the mainstream prescriptions of gender roles and boundaries. In pursuit of the argument, this study aims to explore the novel to examine the multiple ways in which the leading female characters contest, negotiate, and reconstruct pre-existing definitions of gender identities. As an analytical framework, we draw upon the poststructuralist feminist Hélène Cixous’s notions of “the feminine,” “the other,” and “écriture féminine” (feminine writing) to shed light on female characters’ struggles against submission to patriarchal discourses. The findings reveal that the three female characters—i.e., Sabitri, Bela, and Tara—resist discourses of masculinity through empowerment in their unique ways: establishing a business, getting a divorce, and having an abortion. Through such practices, the female characters demonstrate the will of both a woman and a mother and a strong sense of love that works as a key factor in their resistance to patriarchy and rewriting identity relations.

Gender Vulnerability and Resistance in Selected Malayalam Movies The Great Indian Kitchen and Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey

“…Women in traditional Indian families are confined in the space of the kitchen and tied to their husbands (Anuar & Asl, 2022); they become resistant by walking away from the house without any argument to achieve their dream of becoming dance teachers. Sometimes, silence and separation are used as modalities of resistance to achieve liberty.…”

Gender and Security: Empress Cixi's Contribution in China's Reform (1861-1908)

“…Maharani Cixi merupakan pemimpin wanita lampau yang telah menafikan status quo patriarki bagi mendominasi pentadbiran China silam pada era lewat dinasti Qing. Status quo Qing yang bertunjangkan patriarki itu menjulang superiority lelaki dan inferiority wanita yang menyaksikan wanita Qing terpaksa tunduk kepada golongan lelaki dan ini dilihat mempunyai persamaan dengan imej wanita India yang juga terikat dengan status quo dan praktik yang sama (Gao 2000;Nasuha Anuar and Moussa Pourya Asl 2022). Amalan diskriminasi wanita ini dilihat meliputi setiap sudut kehidupan wanita Qing di mana mereka ditindas dan dikongkong misalannya dinafikan hak pendidikan menyeluruh dan hanya layak mendapat pendidikan wanita berkaitan kewanitaan dan rumah tangga Nü sìshu (Empat Buku Konfucius untuk Wanita) (Gao 2003).…”