TROPES OF GENDER: A STUDY OF THE NOVELS OF MANJU KAPUR

Abstract

The present research work is an attempt to trace the tropes of gender in the novels of Manju Kapur namely Difficult Daughters (1998), A Married Woman (2002), Home (2006), The Immigrant (2008), and Custody (2011). A study of Kapur’s novels reveals the socio-cultural aspects through which gender distinctions are constructed and developed. These novels also challenge the pre-conceived notion of gender as biologically ordained and reinforce it as a socio-cultural outcome. The activities and behaviours of men and women are shaped as masculine and feminine by socio-cultural impacts, influences and conditionings. Gender theorists and critical thinkers also support the argument that gender constructs the concept of sex and emphasize that sex is not as powerful instrument as gender in distinguishing our behaviour as men and women. The thesis attempts a close scrutiny of Kapur’s novels to investigate how she has incorporated various tropes of gender in her novels which collectively influence the construction of gender hierarchy. Kapur’s novels exhibit how the tropes of gender, viz., cultural conditioning, patriarchal socialization, exploitative nature of the institution of family, skewed education, constricted economic spaces, domesticity, undue significance attached to marriage, dowry system and pre-conceived societal norms regarding motherhood are responsible for the inferior and secondary position of women. These influential tropes of gender manipulate and almost decide the destiny of women as submissive objects. Kapur’s novels challenge these tropes of gender by criticizing the subsistence of those myths and rituals which reinforce the marginalization of women in a male dominated society. Structurally, the present work is divided into five chapters; namely, Chapter I-–Gender: Origin, Evolution and Theories; Chapter II—Gender: Cultural Conditioning, Patriarchy and Socialization; Chapter III—Gender: Education and Economic Spaces; Chapter IV—Gender: Marriage, Motherhood and Sexuality; Chapter V—Conclusion. The first chapter is divided into two parts. The first part analyzes the origin and evolution of the term “gender” and various critical theories related with the concept. The second part of the first chapter traces the life and works of Manju Kapur. The subsequent chapters are based on the novels of Kapur and are scrutinized from the points of view of gender theories. The instrumental lens of gender tropes ii show how men and women are framed within different social-cultural roles, norms and anticipations as reflected in Kapur’s novels from Difficult Daughters to Custody. The exploration of Kapur’s novels unravels various parameters which cause the exploitation of women. These parameters establish the tropes of gender which strongly influence the identity and existence of a woman. The tropes of gender are based on cultural conditioning, patriarchy and socialization in terms of education, economy, domesticity, marriage, motherhood and sexuality – in all these spheres and institutions women are given a secondary status in comparison to their male counterparts. In addition, these tropes of gender are also exploitative for men. The analysis of Kapur’s novels also echoes that gender is constituted by society and the lives of men and women are deeply conditioned to follow numerous social provisions, norms and conventional traits. Her novels advocate the dissolution of gender boundaries and those practices, which constrict women on the ground of their sexuality. Kapur’s novels showcases that the dissolution of gender boundaries proposes the ways through which both men and women may transcend the limitations posed by the stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. Manju Kapur deconstructs tropes of gender by destabilizing the boundaries of gender and sex in her novels.