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Postcolonial Feminism(S) in the Works of Shashi Deshpande and Prabha Ganorkar

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Postcolonial Feminism(S) in the Works of Shashi Deshpande and Prabha Ganorkar University of Wollongong Research Online University of Wollongong Thesis Collection 1954-2016 University of Wollongong Thesis Collections 2001 Living in translation': postcolonial feminism(s) in the works of Shashi Deshpande and Prabha Ganorkar Shalmalee Palekar University of Wollongong Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses University of Wollongong Copyright Warning You may print or download ONE copy of this document for the purpose of your own research or study. The University does not authorise you to copy, communicate or otherwise make available electronically to any other person any copyright material contained on this site. You are reminded of the following: This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this work may be reproduced by any process, nor may any other exclusive right be exercised, without the permission of the author. Copyright owners are entitled to take legal action against persons who infringe their copyright. A reproduction of material that is protected by copyright may be a copyright infringement. A court may impose penalties and award damages in relation to offences and infringements relating to copyright material. Higher penalties may apply, and higher damages may be awarded, for offences and infringements involving the conversion of material into digital or electronic form. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the University of Wollongong. Recommended Citation Palekar, Shalmalee, Living in translation': postcolonial feminism(s) in the works of Shashi Deshpande and Prabha Ganorkar, Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Faculty of Arts, University of Wollongong, 2001. https://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/1738 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] 'LIVING IN TRANSLATION': POSTCOLONIAL FEMINISM(S) IN THE WORKS OF SHASHI DESHPANDE AND PRABHA GANORKAR A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY from The University of Wollongong by Shalmalee Palekar B.A (University of Bombay), M.A (Honours) (University of Wollongong) English Studies Program 2001 ABSTRACT This dissertation seeks to find under-mapped territories in the discursive formations of postcolonial cultural productions, especially within the framework of Indian women's writing and feminism. These spaces can be the source of aporia because they seek to establish and contribute to a dialogue that is situated beyond debilitating models of Nationalism and even hybridity. As a means of pointing to these spaces, the poetry of a Marathi poet — Prabha Ganorkar— has been translated and analysed in order to discuss how her work falls outside West-defined models of ‘acceptable’ postcolonial literatures, and therefore, meets with difficult to see barriers in its inclusion in the canon of Indian Literature. Closely linked to this, is the issue of translation and its place in contemporary literature in India and postcolonial studies. It is argued that translation theory and practice is important today more than ever, as it is the basis of comparative literary study. Postcolonial studies are fundamentally comparative, and they inject a needed awareness of cultural politics into translation studies. i Translation, on the other hand, shows up some of the weaknesses of postcolonial studies, especially regarding the issue of referentiality versus mediation. Postcolonial theory is a field of dispute, especially when it comes to questions of its empowerment of disadvantaged groups such as women/ women of colour. This dissertation considers Shashi Deshpande and Prabha Ganorkar in the context of debates about the intersection of feminist and postcolonial discourses and their applicability to the Indian situation. It argues that the search for a female selfhood through a painful negotiation amongst assigned and circumstantial subjectivities, despite the impositions of culture and history, marks the central concern of both writers' attempts to undo existing stereotypes of Indian womanhood and politicise the specificities of female experience within the boundaries set up by (in the context of this thesis, Hindu) Indian patriarchal discourses. Rather than attempting to craft an overarching theory of postcolonial feminism or to articulate a 'definitive' postcolonial feminist enterprise, this project seeks to delineate ii the specifics of these two middle-class writers in relation to their particular social contexts. Thus, the need for new interpretive models of postcolonial literary/cultural productions is asserted. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis was largely financed by the Australian Government's Overseas Postgraduate Research Scholarship (OPRS), the University of Wollongong's Postgraduate Award (UPA), and a University Faculty of Arts Scholarship. The title "Living in Translation" has been suggested by Tejaswini Niranjana's text Siting Translation, (Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1992). Special thanks are due to Josie Castle, Dean of Students, and Tim McDonald in Student Records for all their help. I would like to thank the following people— my supervisor. Associate Professor Paul Sharrad, without whose support, encouragement, patience and smiling through gritted teeth this thesis would never have been completed. My parents, Chitra Palekar and Amol Palekar, for instilling in me a love of Marathi writing, especially poetry, for their years of avid interest, thoughtful responses to and pleasure in my research and writing, and for inspiring me with their work in theatre and cinema. Dr Prabha Ganorkar, for enthusiastically giving me permission to translate her poetry, and for being so generous with her time. My friends Meeta Chatterjee, Padmanabhan Iyer, Sumedha Iyer and Shibani Iyer, for their warmth and laughter and for always having a place for me in their lives (and at their dining table)! Goldie Osuri, for being herself, for listening, for long chats on the phone about everything under the sun. Paul Gifford, for writing quirky and interesting emails from whichever corner of the world he happened to be in, for letting me know that I always had a friend. And finally my partner, my love, C. B.: "how many miracles can there be?" iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract .............................................................................. i Acknowledgements ............................................................. iv Table of Contents ................................................................ v Chapter I. Introduction ....................................................... 1 Chapter II. Translation and Postcoloniality ........................ 73 Chapter III. Self-Knowledge Brings Not Liberation, But Despair? The Poetry of Prabha Ganorkar……………………….120 Chapter IV. Negotiating Textual/Sexual Desire and Domesticity: A Reading of Shashi Deshpande’s Work……….193 Chapter V. Conclusion……………………………………………...282 Bibliography………………………………………………………….322 Appendix……………………………………………………………...385 v 1 CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION "Saarya havethach mulgi mhanoon jagnyaacha aagrah/ Mulgi mhanoon disne. Hasne. Vaagne." — Prabha Ganorkar "[A woman in India] at once, lives in different ages: pre-historic, historic, medieval, colonial and post colonial." — Daleep Kaur Tiwana 2 My objective is to examine the diversity and complexity of female experience represented in the novels of Shashi Deshpande and the poetry of Prabha Ganorkar. I also wish to foreground the strategies of resistance the authors lend their female protagonists to subvert, or at least confront, the primary structures of power inherent in the Indian social milieu. I will also examine strategies, of textual resistance on the writers' parts. I will, furthermore, consider the two in the context of debates about the intersection of feminist and postcolonial discourses and their applicability to the Indian situation. These are waged particularly by Indian scholars and are inflected by Indian debates over Third World status, nation and Hindu tradition, as I will argue further in this chapter. The issues that most interest me are the internal contestations of postcolonial feminisms, and the consequences of the positionality, location, and audience of the feminist theorist / critic. By locating women authors at the centre of my work and analysing their representations regional, 3 linguistic and gendered identities, I want to explore identity as an ideological construct and as a material effect; I also want to assess the critical response to these works (or lack of it) within constructions of Indian writing as seen from practices in postcolonial literary studies. My argument is that these works suggest how gender and language accentuate continuing limitations in the academic definition and management of these fields. But rather than attempting to craft an overarching theory of postcolonial feminism or to articulate a 'definitive' postcolonial feminist enterprise, I seek to delineate the specifics of these two middle-class writers in relation to their particular social contexts. Thus these two writers — contemporaries who operate out of similar backgrounds and explore similar concerns, but who. write in different languages and inhabit different locations vis-a-vis the international literary scene — have been selected to demonstrate the variety of Indian positions/ 4 representations
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