The construction of contemporary indian subjectivity in the selected plays of vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani

Abstract

The present dissertation examines the construction of contemporary Indian subjectivity in the selected plays of Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani. It is organised into five chapters. The first chapter is divided into three parts. The first part deals with a brief survey of the historical course of drama in India, including a survey of the criticism with special reference to Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani. The second part deals with the Western perspective on subjectivity in terms of theory. The third part briefly studies the Indian perspective on subjectivity. Chapters Two examines subjectivity as it appears in the selected plays of Vijay Tendulkar. Tendulkar explores the socio-political matrix of Indian subjectivity in his plays. In the third chapter of the dissertation Girish Karnad's selected plays are examined for the construction of contemporary Indian subjectivity. Karnad addresses the problematic of Indian subjectivity chiefly by employing the devices of myth, folklore and history. The fourth chapter deals with the plays of Mahesh Dattani who addresses the relatively unexplored and very contemporary issues of sexuality as constitutive of the contemporary urban Indian subjectivity. The Conclusion tries to forge a common ground on which the plays of Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani can be compared so as to help us form a more or less composite conception of contemporary Indian subjectivity.