Identity Dilemma In Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable And Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance Of Loss: A Strategic Essentialist Reading
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Date
2015-06
Authors
Sunmugam, Sashikala
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Abstract
This study explores the selected characters (Indian individuals) as depicted by Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable (1935) and Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss (2006). This study finds that the selected characters are struggling from identity dilemma which induces their inner-conflicts - double-consciousness, resistance and Othering- due to the dominance of the caste and colonial systems. This study observes that both these hegemonic influences have designed the privileged and less-privileged status of the Indian individuals which have concealed their true façade. Thus, these Indian individuals are found to be confined and recognized through their essentialized identity as connoted by the caste and colonial systems. Therefore, the objective of this study is to de-contextualize the selected characters from their essentialized identity and expose their genuine façade without the essence of their privileged and less-privileged status. To achieve the targeted objective, this study discusses the identity dilemma of the selected characters through a Strategic Essentialist reading, a term coined by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (1987). This is to detach the Indian individuals from their identity which is defined and structured by the caste system which segregates them under the formation of social hierarchy and also, to detach them from their post-colonial condition. In the conclusion, this thesis discloses the ability of the term, Strategic Essentialism which unveils the disguised façade of the privileged members and the hidden façade of the less-privileged members and conveys their identity dilemma which fails their assimilation in their own homeland and foreign land.
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Mulk Raj Anand , Kiran Desai