Abstract:
The interplay between spatial dynamics and the construction/reconstruction of identity has been a topic of engaging interest in different fields including Gender Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Subaltern Studies and Minority Studies. Spatial practices are fundamental to the issue of identity construction precisely because creation, affirmation and negotiation of social identity occur within and through spatial relations. Spatial relations are fundamentally bound up with socio-cultural realities and it is aptly theorized by Henry Lefebvre. Through his theorization of the production of space, Lefebvre vindicates that space is socially produced and social space and time are both result and precondition of the production of society. Further, spatial relations are also the outcome of the dynamics of power and are manifested through identity constructions. As space is the site for power, hegemony and resistance, interrogation of female identity becomes a pertinent issue in the Indian context precisely because of the overwhelming presence of the oppressive patriarchal space. In this regard, the present paper aims to analyse the poetic representation of the dynamics of space and female identity in the modern Indian English poetry with specific reference to the poetic works of selected poet/poetess.
Key Words: Dynamics of Space, Identity Politics, Female Identity, Patriarchy, Modern Indian English Poetry
The notion of ‘space’ is inherently related to the questions of identity formation, power politics and resistance. The constructions like colonial space, postcolonial space, subaltern space, diasporic space, patriarchal space, domestic space, transnational space etc. signify the fact that space is socio-politically oriented and is a site of constant struggle and power politics. Challenging the notion of space as neutral and absolute, the Marxist theorist Henry Lefebvre views that the appropriation of space in the backdrop of socio-political relationships makes spatial practices politicized and relativized. In other sense, space should be seen as the site of ongoing interactions of social relations rather than the mere result of such interactions – a process of production rather than a product which is reminiscent of the philosophical musings of Hegel (dialectic method), Heidegger (notion of ‘being in the world’) and Nietzsche (rhythm, space and body).
The theorization of space by Lefebvre in his seminal work The Production of Space (1991) vindicates that space is socially produced and social relations themselves are produced by space as well. Lefebvre theorizes space in terms of politics and his comment “There is a politics of space because space is political” encapsulates the power politics of the society which is instrumental in establishing the spatial binaries- dominating space versus dominated space, mainstream space versus marginal space at the periphery. In his work, Lefebvre suggests that just as everyday life has been colonized by capitalism, so too has its location — social space. Social space is allocated according to class, and social planning reproduces the class structure. According to Lefebvre, the class struggle is inscribed in ‘space’ due to the uneven allocation of space to the rich and poor. Bill Ashcroft (1989) also aptly observes that the colonizer’s notion of space / place is dominated by idea of property and power (162). Besides Ashcroft, the works of other seminal postcolonial theorists like Edward Said and Homi K. Bhabha also effectively establish a comprehensive and broad-based theoretical argument for the privileging of space in postcolonial studies. Homi Bhabha can be seen as the natural inheritor of Said’s spatial sensibility whose concept of ‘Third Space’ as the location of hybridity attempts to spatialize history as well as historicise space.
In Lefebvre’s scheme of things, space is not only an output produced but also the means of production. Lefebvre distinguishes three types of space within the trialectics of spatiality- ‘perceived space’, ‘conceived space’ and ‘lived space’. Whereas ‘perceived space’ refers to the experientially accessible materialized space which we perceive through our senses, ‘conceived space’ denotes the mental or imaginative space and finally the ‘lived space’ emerges as a result of the dialectical relation between spatial practice and representation of space which is the space of ‘inhabitants’ and ‘users’. Being the space of ‘inhabitants’ and ‘users’, the ‘lived space’ becomes the ground for generating ‘spaces of resistance to the dominant order arising precisely from their subordinate, peripheral or marginalized positioning’ (The Production of Space 68). To Lefebvre, the ‘mental space’ that conceives and represents the space as absolute, is grounded upon the intention of hierarchization, social fragmentation and capitalist exploitation which has further been interpreted by Edward Soja as ‘the representations of power and ideology, of control and surveillance’ (Thirdspace 67). Although Soja’s work is an original contribution in respect of the application of spatial dynamics to postcolonial studies, he is in fact influenced by Michel Foucault (1986) who makes the prophetic and influential proclamation that ‘the present epoch will perhaps be above all else the epoch of space’ (22). According to Foucault, space not only determines but also generates and regulates power relations and he opines, “whole history remains to be written of spaces—which would at the same time be history of powers (both these terms in the plural)—from the great strategies of geopolitics to the little tactics of the habitat” (149).
Identity as a construction always interacts with the politics of space. Due to its constant interaction, identity formation remains an ongoing process, characterised by persistent crisis and negotiation. This is aptly vindicated by Stuart Hall (1992), who conceptualises the postmodern subject “as having no fixed, essential or permanent identity. Identity becomes a ‘moveable feast’: formed and transformed continuously in relation to the ways we are represented or addressed in the cultural systems which surround us. It is historically, not biologically, defined. The subject assumes different identities at different times, identities which are not unified around a coherent ‘self. ’ Within us are contradictory identities, pulling in different directions, so that our identifications are continuously being shifted about… The fully unified, completed, secure and coherent identity is a fantasy” (277). The essentialist concept of stable identity has been replaced by fragmented and fractured, multiple and shifting identity and according to Hall, the entire aspects of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, race and nationality are affected by the transformative dimension of identity construction. Further, the concept of identity is constructed on the underlying principle of difference—the difference between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’ which is also supported by the theoretical frameworks of Hegel and Lacan according to whom, human consciousness cannot perceive itself without being recognized by ‘others’. The absence of recognition from ‘others’ not only gives birth to the crisis of identity but also generates a space wherein the ‘self’ constantly attempts to resolve the crisis through asserting his/her individuality with the aim to recover and restore the lost identity. The deconstruction of elite domination, hegemony and the dynamics of power in the backdrop of postcolonial consciousness which ultimately gives birth to new spatial zones of radical perspectives - an idea which is brilliantly conceptualized by bell hooks (1990), according to whom, marginal space offers fluidity, diversity and multiplicity and thus becomes ‘a space of radical openness’ (145-53). In other words, hooks argues that the interplay of centre and margin creates an alternative space like Bhabha’s ‘Third Space’ and Rushdie’s ‘Imaginary Space’, which becomes ‘the site of radical possibility, a space of resistance’ (1990: 149).
The dialectical relationship between oppression and resistance becomes a continuous phenomenon among the marginalized females in the patriarchal society who are both threatened and emancipated by their marginality. Feminist literature in general has constantly endeavoured to bring to the limelight the common experience of marginal space shared by women. Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (2010) and Kate Millet’s Sexual Politics (2000) uphold the notion that female is subjected to the patriarchal power politics. As a result of which, she is forced to be the one who is bereft of voice or dignity. She is even denied a subject position. Being victim to the multiple forces of oppression, she is the one who occupies the lowest position in the social space of an orthodox society. Her presence is not even authenticated; if at all it is done, it is only to enforce the superiority of the male space. Her social space bears the stamp of a deviant identity, signifying all the lacks, the voids and she is destined to be always the erratic, the aberrant and the abnormal. Beauvoir’s (2010) claim that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” (295) endorses the distinction between sex as the biological aspect of the female body, and gender as the cultural meaning gradually acquired by that sexed body. Heavily influenced by Simone de Beauvoir, Judith Butler proposed her performative theory of gender and sexuality. According to Butler, gender roles are performed and become naturalized over time thereby constituting gender identity. Keeping in mind the above theoretical background, the present paper is an attempt to showcase the poetic representation of female identity against the backdrop of patriarchal space as reflected in the modern Indian English poetry with reference to the poetry of selected poet/poetess.
After independence modern Indian English Poetry emerged with an introspective critical self-awareness and was equally dealing with the various facets of living contexts. Almost all the poets of this generation have manifested their critical awareness towards the postcolonial context together with universal predicaments of individuals corresponding to fragmentation, alienation, marginality and quest for identity. The ‘new poets’ broke away from both the Tagore-Aurobindo tradition of philosophising poetry and the romanticizing tendency of Sarojini Naidu and Toru Dutt and ushered in new era in content, form and technique even though they did not reject the old tradition altogether. K.R. S. Iyengar (2003) aptly observed the situation as follows:
In most commonwealth countries, parallel to the movement from colonialism to freedom, there has been witnessed also the movement, at the cultural level, from imitation and immaturity to creative experimentation and conscious adulthood (833).
With the modernist trends of expression, the ‘new poets’ have shaped their poetic voices which discarded not only decadent romanticism but also gave new dimensions to poetry where poetry stands as the medium for reflection, introspection and interrogation of day today life. They started their voyage to establish a new canon of Indian English poetry by addressing the burning issues of human life including patriarchal hegemony and otherization, subalternity and resistance, politics of space and identity.
While addressing the poetic representation of female identity in the modern Indian English poetry, it becomes pertinent to mention the names of Kamala Das, Jayanta Mahapatra and Mamta Kalia who have realistically brought to the fore the subjugated female space in the patriarchal Indian society in their respective poetry. While doing so, Kamala Das projects the fate of Indian women who are often subjected to the patriarchal politics which dictates and defines her life including her behaviour, societal role, dress, food habits, entertainment etc. Their traumatic experiences of discrimination, oppression and male hypocrisy are realistically handled by the poetess often with a sharp sense of irony and dry humour. Das aptly observed the female space, controlled and manipulated by the hypocritical, aggressive society:
My womanliness. Dress in sarees, be girl,
Be wife, they said. (‘An Introduction’)
Her space is controlled not by others but by her own family members who plays the rituals of torture by restricting her freedom and space. The poem ‘The Sunshine Cat’ explicitly projects the horrifying picture of the authoritative husband to whom wife stands only for physical pleasure. She remains the silent victim to isolation severally and her space lacks the sense of security. Idealistically marriage should bring a safe space to a woman’s life. But very ironically marriage gives her the space where she loses the spirit of life. It situates her in complete isolation and finally she becomes ‘Half-dead woman, now of no use at all to men’ (‘The Sunshine Cat’). Unable to find solace in her relationship with husband in particular and society at large, she entered into extra marital relationship in search of love and emotional bond. But unfortunately she encountered those men who offered her only physical pleasure just like her husband did and expressed their unwillingness to provide the affection she desired for. The poem ‘Substitute’ (The Descendants) mentions the same mental boiling of Kamala Das: ‘Our bodies after love-making/Turned away, rejecting’. Her rejection of having a respectable position at her own residence as well as in society hinges upon her spaceless existence:
.....my poor body that had perhaps no home,
no territory to call its own. (‘The Anamalai Poems’)
In much the same way, Jayanta Mahapatra’s ‘A Monsoon Day Fable’ focuses on the female space where she faces the hostility of others which further develops a crisis in her identity. The poet can feel the crisis in the silence of the ‘woman’s secret whiteness’. As white signifies decay and death, her ‘secret whiteness’ speaks of her own death in terms of mind and spirit. Henry Lefebvre’s theorization of the politics of space can be aptly applied to this woman character who is constantly threatened by the sexual politics, rendering her mental and social death:
I feel the silence of a woman’s secret whiteness
where her petticoat, loose and undone, lies open
sorrowfully, as though after an act of love.
Mahapatra repeatedly interrogates the question of female space which gets distorted by the insensitive politics of the ruthless society. He sympathizes with the married woman, who are even no better than a sex object in the hands of her own husband:
In the dim oil light
a man looks at the girl he had once married.
And something in a woman’s eyes tempts confessions
from her husband as they stretch out to sleep.
A time never lost, rising as a mist, that floats
upon the consciousness; (‘A Rain of Rites’, 38)
At the backdrop of their conjugal love relationship, the woman realises that she is ordained to be an object of carnal need for the male and that her sexual objectification exerted such a terrible impact on her body and mind that it rises as a mist and floats on her consciousness. The sacred relationship between husband and wife has been bedevilled by the sexual act which brings no intimacy and support to this unfortunate woman. Such a gruesome situation is further evident in the poetry of Mamta Kalia who ironically interrogates the institution of marriage so as to bring to the fore the loss of female identity in the patriarchal set-up. In her poem ‘After Eight Years of Marriage’ Kalia hinges upon the patriarchal compulsions under which an obedient Indian house wife is forced to survive. In spite of having no blissful conjugal relationship, the woman prefers to project her smiling face before her parents with the intention of not hurting them by narrating the miseries of her married life. The poem puts it very poignantly:
I want to tell them how I wept in bed all night once
And struggled hard from hurting myself.
That it was not easy to be happy in a family of twelve
........................ I swallowed everything
Her swallowing of ‘everything’ signifies the fact that she is forced to internalize the policies and values of patriarchy without showing any resistance. That the institution of marriage becomes the tool for actualizing the patriarchal agenda gets further befitting poetic expression in her poem ‘Matrimonial Bliss’. The poem exhibits the superficial husband – wife relationship in which wife pretends to be happy in spite of having no conjugal happiness. Her domestic space remains bereft of autonomy and individuality thereby resulting in the loss of identity. Such loss of identity under the repressive patriarchy gets a pertinent poetic articulation in ‘Anonymous’: “I no longer feel I am Mamta Kalia / I’m Kamala / or Vimla / or Kanta or Shanta”. Through confessional mode, Kalia highlights the fact woman the cobweb of patriarchy is bound to have the loss of identity.
Violence serves as a mechanism to create and maintain the subordinated female identity and patriarchal dominance and the politics of exclusion get far more intensified by the dynamics of caste and class. In this connection, Jayanta Mahapatra hinges upon the culture of violence, generated and maintained by the politics of caste, class and gender Against the background of extreme poverty, illiteracy and insecurity, female belonging to the low caste are much more vulnerable to the rituals of male tyranny and all forms of oppression and sexual violence. Such torture is shockingly articulated by Mahapatra when he realistically portrays the picture of a fourteen year old fisherman’s daughter being raped by the son of a priest of the ‘Hanuman Temple’. It is quite ironical that in this hypocritical society even she failed to get secured space at the police station. There also the unfortunate girl is assaulted repeatedly by the four policemen – the so-called guardians of law and order in society:
In the Hanuman Temple last night
the priest’s pomaded jean-clad son
raped the squint-eyed fourteen-year fisher girl
on the cracked stone platform behind the shrine
and this morning
her father found her at the police station
assaulted over and over again by four policemen
dripping of darkness and of scarlet death.
Priesthood is the sacred profession which has been bedevilled by the act of rape done by the son of a priest. The sacred environ of the ‘Hanuman Temple’ has been spoiled by the heinous crime of rape done to the fisherman’s daughter whose space exists nowhere except in death. Kamala Das too talked about the injustice meted out to women when she pinpointed to the inevitable fate of ‘Nani’, the pregnant house maid, who hanged herself due to shame and moral austerity of the society. Her humiliation and suffering speaks of the fate of maid servants in India who are deprived of both ‘physical space’ and ‘social space’.
Marginal space is also the site for resistance. The language of protest against the politics of space is eloquently heard in the modern Indian English poetry. The tension in man-woman relationship, the inadequacy of love and intolerable sexual tyranny ignite poetic articulations against sexual subjugation. In Kamala Das’ ‘The Dance of Eunuchs’, the eunuch’s dance signifies the emotional vacuum that she personally experiences due to the frustration of her conjugal relationship. The ‘vacant ecstasy’ in which the eunuchs ‘wailed and writhed’ is symbolic of the same emotional vacuum that she experienced within her. All the images and symbols used in the poem like “lovers dying” and “children left unborn” signify the barrenness in her, caused by her inability to assert her womanhood. In this regard, she is also like the eunuchs who have no dignified space in the society. The convulsed dance of the eunuchs is equated to her agitated mental state. Again in the poem ‘The Suicide’ we draw a different nature of protest where the woman character pretends to be a happy wife. Much akin to Kamala Das, there remains the revolutionary spirit of Mamta Kalia who yearns for liberation. Her resentment against patriarchal society is so intense and forceful that she even likes to shed her womanliness. In ‘Compulsions’ she articulates:
I want to pick my nose
in a public place
I want to sit in my office chair
with my feet up
-------------------
I want to pay. Sunday visits
totally undressed
I want to throw away
all my cosmetics
I want to reveal
my real age
Kalia intends to reject all standards set by the patriarchal society and wants to reveal her own identity with a sense of freedom. Her revolting spirit aptly symbolises her agonised self, fractured by the rituals of patriarchy. In ‘Tribute to Papa’ she very much like Sylvia Plath interrogates the patriarchal image of her father and boldly challenges the stereotypical notions of her father. She expresses her strong will to shape her own identity without following her father’s vision and viewpoint:
You want me to be like you, papa
Or like Rani Lakshmibai
You’re not sure what greatness is
But you want me to be great.
-----------------------------------
These days I am seriously thinking of disowning you, Papa,
You and your sacredness.
As the poem is confessional in nature, it provides a sort of psychic relief to Kalia who takes her pen to express her suppressed emotion and feeling. Further, the poem bears greater significance in the sense that she represents female in general. Situating a crisis, which is essentially collective in nature, Kalia attempts to give voice to the unheard stories of female victimization. Unlike Kamala Das and Mamta Kalia, Mahapatra’s language of protest remains always gentle and refined. Being a humanist, Mahapatra always envisions an inclusive world where no one be the victim to the target of space politics. Symbolically, he articulates his protest against all those oppressive forces which remain instrumental to the creation of marginal space:
How can I live with the birds who cannot sing
and the wind that has lost its voice
staring simply at those fabulous, holy oil lamps
that perform their ritual in the musty depths of life? (‘The Plot’)
An exhaustive analysis of some the selected poems of Kamala Das, Jayanta Mahapatra and Mamta Kalia vindicate the fact that the ‘new poets’ remain extra sensitive to the issue of female identity in the Indian socio-cultural context against the backdrop of the patriarchal spatial politics. Their poetry is not only the stereotypical representations of the Indian women, but also a vigorous interrogation of the patriarchal ideology shaped by dominance and the politics of exclusion. That female identity is subjected to the spatial practices / politics of patriarchy has convincingly been reflected by the selected ‘new poets’. Further, the analysis of their poetry also testifies the fact that identity construction strongly interacts with the spatio-temporal dimensions of a particular society (Henry Lefebvre). As spatial relations are manifested through the dynamics of power (Michel Foucault), negotiation of female identity against the backdrop of repressive patriarchy becomes a leading poetic topic in the hands of the selected new poet/poetess who unanimously have articulated his/her deep concern for the fate of Indian females and equally exhibited a strong sense of protest against the exclusionary practices of space politics.
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