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Contesting the ideologies of gender : the confrontational literature of Kamala Das and Bonny Hicks
Author
Tong, May Yee
Supervisor
Wong, Patricia
Abstract
What is a woman?
A woman is a woman. She only becomes a domestic, a wife, a chattel, a playboy bunny, a prostitute, or a human dictaphone in certain relations.
(Rubin 533)
The context of this academic exercise focuses on Confrontational Literature by women, which examines the issue of female desire and sexuality. Integral to the concept of Confrontational Literature is the right to redefine women. In rejecting conventional role-types that stems from age-old patriarchal assumptions, women writers engaged in the production of Confrontational Literature show how knowledge has been arbitrarily deployed within ideology.
From an epistemological viewpoint, the concept of 'woman' has been codified, regulated and mis-represented. In retaliation, writers of Confrontational Literature moves beyond the available notions of 'woman' by contesting prevalent gender ideologies through the medium of public print. Confrontational Literature is, therefore, a reactionary measure against the compartmentalization of women into gender roles. In this thesis, I posit that Confrontational Literature by women is an alternative medium in literary practice, one which ultimately asserts new sexual 'truths' in order to locate new subjects of power and to provide transformational possibilities for women's existence.
In my analysis, I will focus on Kamala Das' My Story (1977) and Bonny Hicks' Excuse Me. Are You A Model? (1990). Both are noteworthy examples of Confrontational Literature in Asia.
A woman is a woman. She only becomes a domestic, a wife, a chattel, a playboy bunny, a prostitute, or a human dictaphone in certain relations.
(Rubin 533)
The context of this academic exercise focuses on Confrontational Literature by women, which examines the issue of female desire and sexuality. Integral to the concept of Confrontational Literature is the right to redefine women. In rejecting conventional role-types that stems from age-old patriarchal assumptions, women writers engaged in the production of Confrontational Literature show how knowledge has been arbitrarily deployed within ideology.
From an epistemological viewpoint, the concept of 'woman' has been codified, regulated and mis-represented. In retaliation, writers of Confrontational Literature moves beyond the available notions of 'woman' by contesting prevalent gender ideologies through the medium of public print. Confrontational Literature is, therefore, a reactionary measure against the compartmentalization of women into gender roles. In this thesis, I posit that Confrontational Literature by women is an alternative medium in literary practice, one which ultimately asserts new sexual 'truths' in order to locate new subjects of power and to provide transformational possibilities for women's existence.
In my analysis, I will focus on Kamala Das' My Story (1977) and Bonny Hicks' Excuse Me. Are You A Model? (1990). Both are noteworthy examples of Confrontational Literature in Asia.
Date Issued
2001
Call Number
PR9555 Ton
Date Submitted
2001