Socio-Cultural Dynamics and Gender
Re-alignments in Nissim Ezekiel’s Nalini
Dashrath Gatt
ABSTRACT
The representation of gender- masculine or
feminine- is culture, space and time specific and gets effected and
metamorphosed by certain signifiers that co-exists with gender
constructing process The constructing agency showers praise and
applaud to the conforming agent with approving terms as ‘dignified’
‘acceptable’ whereas denounces and deplores those not going by the
norms with smearing. Power determines all relations but at the same
time it works as stimulus to create resistance to the agency of
power. (Foucault, 1978, 95) The effect of power and resistance as
co-existential terms is all pervasive and their interplay results in
shaping the gender identity. The representation of gender in
literary texts, both at private and public spaces, and of late at
‘third’ or ‘shared space’ as well, is the reflection of this
power-politics involved in projecting gender. The long trajectory of
resistance to gender appropriating forces expresses a gradual and
perpetual churning of gender alignments, more from the perspective
of the marginalized. Nissim Ezekiel in his play dramatic works
brings to the fore the operational powers structures that determine
the gender construction process and consequently the gender centric
relations where important signifiers like body, space, language,
socio-cultural dynamics determine the gender identities. The present
paper discusses how in Nissim Ezekiel’s play Nalini the process of
gender construction gets affected when the gender boundaries are
being re-marked, re-negotiated and re-appropriated with continuous
socio-cultural interventions.
Key words: Gender, Body, Space, Patriarchy, Culture
