Identityshift to Emancipation of Women: Study of Apollo-Dionysus conflict in the Modern Narratives

Abstract

When it comes to subjugation of women in the Indian context, patriarchal culture plays the most dominant role. Additionally post-colonial experiences also tend to thrust women physically and psychologically into further subjugation. While patriarchy works at the centre of the scheme, post-colonialism forges a shift from the core to the periphery. With an ironic tinge, the latter, by often exposing women to an alien culture, happens to condition eventually their emancipation and identity too. The present paper aims at investigating the complex interactions among different forces—political, social, cultural and psychological—that make the shift from subjugation to emancipation possible. With special reference to six women from the select 20th century narratives, it has been analysed how the feminine ego undergoes a journey from the Apollonian composure to the Dionysian unrest, ignited by the desires for an identity hitherto suppressed by the cultural deterministic agencies. Post-colonial hegemony, creating an amnesia about the cultural determiners (like her past, pedigree or traditional moralities), makes her realize the meaninglessness of her present existence and the potential new identity and emancipation waiting her. To assert her identity, Mrs. Mainwaring wanted to be ‘pukka’; Pecola wanted to internalise the ‘white’ ideal of beauty and love. Drawing from the critical perspectives of post-colonialism, feminism and psychology, the article enumerates the attempts made by women to break away from the different forms of cultural subordination (effected by geographical dislocation, class, caste or gender) to find a new space and identity that can help them grapple with the post-colonial reality.

Keywords

• post-colonialism
• women emancipation
• feminine identity