Moral Policing and Gender-based Violence: Portrayal of Honour and Shame in Poile Sengupta’s Mangalam
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2023.2.425.436Keywords:
Violence, honour, shame, patriarchy, domestic sphereAbstract
Thesis. The article aims to study Poile Sengupta’s play entitled Mangalam to analyse how the play raises a voice against society’s enforced models of masculinity and femininity, and sexual and psychological violence and its impact on women in the domestic sphere.
Concept. The study foregrounds the impact of moral policing via the notions of honour and shame in Sengupta’s Mangalam and analyses that family, a micro-unit of patriarchy is the primary location of violence inflicted on women. The present study further attempts to examine interpersonal violence perpetuated through the institution of marriage through a study of the portrayal of marital violence in Sengupta’s Mangalam.
Results and Conclusion. Sengupta presents contemporary social issues and interrogates moral policing and violence perpetuated by patriarchy through the discussed play. It presents a dramatic piece written by a woman, thus challenging the male-dominated narratives through a voice of protest and addressing violence inflicted on a woman’s body and psyche.
Originality. The originality of the study relies on examining the underlying causes of gender-based violence within the institution of marriage and family as the smallest unit of patriarchy while also understanding the relevance of literary representations by women dramatists as resistance literature.
Downloads
References
Alam, S., & Haque., S. A. (2021). Gender language and Indian reality television: Locating social stereotypes and linguistic sexism. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 12(2), 482–492. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2021.2.482.492
Alam, S., Khalid, S., Ahmad, F., & Keezhatta, M. S. (2021). Mocking and making: Subjugation and suppression of marginalized and the politics of identity. Journal of Education Culture and Society, 12(1), 375–389. https://doi.org/10.15503/jecs2021.1.375.389
Bhasin, K. (2000). Understanding gender. Kali for women.
Bhatia, N. (2010). Performing women / performing womanhood: theatre, politics, and dissent in north India. Oxford University Press.
British Broadcasting Corporation. (2020, March 20). Nirbhaya case: Four Indian men executed for 2012 Delhi bus rape and murder. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51969961
Cixous, H. (1976). The laugh of the medusa. Signs, 1(4), 875–893. www.jstor.org/stable/3173239
Jackson, S. (2001). Why a materialist feminism is (still) possible—and necessary. Women's Studies International Forum, 24(3/4), 283-293. https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Stevi-Jackson-Why-a-Materialist-Feminism-is-still-possible-Copie.pdf
Khan, O. (2019). Four men confess to gang rape of woman they later burned alive, Indian police say. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/30/asia/india-gang-rape-intl/index.html
Millet, K. (2000). Theory of Sexual Politics. In W. Kolmar & F. Bartkowski (Eds.), Sexual Politics (pp. 23-58). University of Illinois Press. https://monoskop.org/images/c/c2/Millett_Kate_Sexual_Politics_1970.pdf
Rich, A. C. (1977). Women and Honor: Some notes on lying. Motheroot Publications, Pittsburgh Women Writers. http://www.oregoncampuscompact.org/uploads/1/3/0/4/13042698/women_and_honor_-_some_notes_on_lying__adrienne_rich_.pdf
Sengupta, P. (2019). Women centre stage: The dramatist and the play. Routledge.
Sharma, S., & Singh, B. (2022). The Gendered Subaltern and the Urban Theatre Space. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Singh, A., & Mukherjee, T. T. (2013). Gender, Space and Resistance: Women and Theatre in India. D. K. Printworld.
Singh, B. (2020). Reassessing progress: a study of Tripurari Sharma's Aadha Chand in the context of globalisation and displaced identities. Literary Voice, 1(12), 277-285. https://www.literaryvoice.in/LV%20March%202020.pdf
Singh, B. (2021). Theatre of resistance: A study of the selected works of Tripurari Sharma. [Doctoral Dissertation]. Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha Universityhttp://hdl.handle.net/10603/448331
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Bhawna Singh, Ansa Hameed, Sohaib Alam
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
CC-BY
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. All authors agree for publishing their email adresses, affiliations and short bio statements with their articles during the submission process.
