Dichotomy In Inside The Haveli
Abstract
Feminism is not a clichéd term. Though with so many writings on women issues we find this topic very redundant but as a reader we forget the importance of subject, subjectivity and agency. This is where the idea of this paper rests. By analyzing these paradigms this paper will unfold the gender matrix structured by Rama Mehta in her novel Inside the Haveli. The novel is not only a voice a Geeta but it voices the plight of every woman caught in the maze of social dichotomy.
Key Words
Subject, Subjectivity, Agency, Deconstruction, Gender Matrix, Social Dichotomy
Introduction
The matrix of gender that constructs everyday life is spatialized, and women are both actively and passively influenced by space in their constructions of identity. The coincidence of material, symbolic and discursive constructions of space influence and determine the gendered construction of space. This paper problematizes concepts of female subject, subjectivity & agency in relation to the inside/outside, private/public, female/male dichotomy.
A recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award in 1979, Inside the Haveli portrays the life and experience of the people associated with the haveli in Rajasthan. Here the haveli is projected as an archetype of Rajasthan’s way of living. The novelist herself being a
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It takes her about fifteen years to adjust in accordance with the rules of haveli. Mehta comments,’ Two years ago when she (Geeta) left her parents’ home in Bombay, she did not know that she was leaving behind a way of life in which there was a free mingling of men and women” (15). The novel takes a sociological approach and represents the two cities Udaipur and Bombay as a representative of tradition and modernity respectively. As Mehta writes,” In Bombay Geeta enjoys full freedom but in Udaipur she has to abide by the form and the etiquette of the
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