The Architectonics of Corporeal and Textual Selves:: From Durga Via Banalata Sen to the Virtual Indian Woman

Abstract

This paper traces a line of thought in representations of the Indian woman across literary and visual genres, from the so-called traditional to modern conceptualizations. It discusses the manner in which the woman was variously represented in line with the cultural architectonics that assigned her particular identities––from the woman as goddess/mother, located in the private space to the woman as modern entity located within the public (urban) domain, as well as the outcast woman and the virtual woman. I attempt an inter-textual reading of the literary/visual corporeal and textual selves, by drawing mainly on Bakhtin’s concepts of “answerability” and “unfinalizable selves.” I emphasize these concepts with regard to the dialogue between artists and authors, and between the work of art and its readers.

Keywords

• woman
• self
• literature
• painting
• film
• Bakhtin