Paradigm Shift of Gendered Roles and Emotional Trauma

Abstract

The mission of this research is to take literature as a primary site for investigations newlineinto trauma in all its forms and manifestations. This research is an extension of the newlineresearcher s MPhil work on Gender conflicts wherein the study is an exploration in newlineGender Conflict in fiction of women writers at the turn of the 21st century. It was explored newlinewithin this time frame because Gender Studies came into being as a discipline then and newlinewriters have written about Gender related issues during that time period more vigorously. newlineThis research focuses on selected indigenous and pan diasporic male and female newlinewriters and their writings from various dominant communities of the state of Kerala. Their newlinewritings, primarily fiction, are texts of a given period of 1950s to the turn of the 21st newlinecentury and deal largely on the paradigm shift in the gendered roles and emotional newlinetrauma emerging from gender conflicts encountered by them and thereby forging an newlineidentity of the Malayalee women. The choice of these texts is to enable a comprehensive newlineunderstanding of the women of the region Kerala and how the society in which they lived newlineperceived them as a whole. newlineFor theoretical framework, primarily Trauma Theory of largely indigenous and pan newlinediasporic writings of Post-Colonial India coupled with theories of Re-Orientalism and newlineCultural Complex theory have been used as supporting theories to the writings from the newlineinternal diaspora and indigenous male and female writers of different communities from newlinethe region of Kerala. For conceptual framework, the concepts of Trauma supported by newlinepost-colonial cultural studies and diasporic writings are used. Analysis of the primary newlinetexts using these theories and concepts reveal that the women in the region of Kerala are newlinehighly educated and are granted opportunities to venture into public spheres but within newlinethe parameters assigned by its patriarchal society. Their high literacy has not translated newline newline12 newline newlineinto their liberation. They are still of secondary importance, mostly relegated to the newlinedomestic spheres and have a gendered existence. They are conditioned to follow the norms newlineof the patriarchy right from their birth and hence very few men and women like the newlineauthors of the primary texts for this research have distanced themselves from this newlineoppressive structure of the community. Despite being the state with the highest rate of newlineliteracy, the exploitation of a woman in her own socio-economic ladder takes place. This newlinehas resulted in gender conflicts in all strata of the community as evidenced in the study of newlinethe primary texts mentioned above. A pattern of defiance and breaking off from oppressive newlinenorms of the community can be derived from the study of the above novels as the newlineprotagonists in these novels cannot protect themselves from the bigger structures of power newlinein the society and this has created a deep wound in their lives and changed their life newlineforever. newlineA subtle form of acceptance of their social positioning is also seen when the very newlinesocietal forces used for subjugating them viz. Dowry and working for common good newlineprofessions (like teaching and nursing) are used as weapons to assert themselves. Thus, newlinethere has been at the turn of the 21st century, a radical change in thinking about Gendered newlineRoles and the resultant Emotional Trauma that women go through. For future scope, this newlinestudy can be extended to study the coping mechanisms of the Kerala women (and also newlinefrom other regions in India and Asia) in the face of evident fissures existing in their newlinesociety. newline