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Divide and rule : King Lear as feminist, postcolonial critique of contemporary Indian society
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Taneja, Preti (2014) Divide and rule : King Lear as feminist, postcolonial critique of contemporary Indian society. International Journal of Literary Humanities, 11 (4). pp. 29-37. ISSN 2327-7912 .
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Official URL: http://www.i-scholar.in/index.php/IJLHCG/article/v...
Abstract
Shakespeare's tragic masterpiece is deeply concerned with patriarchy linked to kingship, gender relationships and familial control. Opening as it does with a partition of land, the play provides an extraordinary literary lens through which to explore and critique attitudes towards nationalism and gender in contemporary Indian society. These attitudes include the importance of 'dowry' and women's roles as objects of material exchange between fathers and husbands, their considered 'nature' in bearing a duty of care to their fathers that eclipses all others, and their position, as Partha Chatterjee argues, as the embodiment and custodians of the spiritual purity and conscience of the nation and of its men. These are the norms both in Lear's world and in Indian society, ancient and modern. Yet women's marginalisation is accompanied, both in contemporary India and at the start of 'King Lear' by silencing and personal poverty in pointed contrast to power's verbosity and material wealth. By considering responses to the play in the Indian context, and parallels between the play and Indian society, I show how the culture of 'divide and rule' in state and family lies at the heart of 'King Lear' as it did in India's Independence struggle, giving rise to war over contested land and women as representatives of it. Drawing on critical theory including feminism, Marxism and presentism, I will argue for a new postcolonial reading of the play and a fresh way of considering its dialectical relationship to India today.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > English and Comparative Literary Studies | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | International Journal of Literary Humanities | ||||
Publisher: | Common Ground Publishing | ||||
ISSN: | 2327-7912 | ||||
Official Date: | 2014 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 11 | ||||
Number: | 4 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 29-37 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 21 February 2019 |
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