Silent no more

Contemporary literature and art in the realm of feminism may not have come of age but they are slowly and hesitantly beginning to capture the complex hybrid woman who takes both deference and power in her stride.

Most male writers write under the spell of alcohol, drugs or tobacco. They use these ‘accessories’ to arouse their fantasy. And the women writers? They are normal, bound to their domestic duties, have no accessories to fall back on, theorises Dr Sr Jesme. “It’s just a joke,” repeats the former nun who has weathered the violent storm her book Amen: An Autobiography of a Nun created last year. The book that broke the silence on lesbianism, sex and other goings on in convent life strode, into the “small, inadequate” world of feminist writing; one that Sr Jesme says suffers from insincerity. The joke, of course, gently implies that contemporary literature by women isn’t as potent as it could be in societies that still insist on witch hunts for bold voices.

Tamil poet Kutti Revathi’s second book Mulaigal (breasts) faced a reception that was replete with threats of assault, obscene calls and letters. Contemporaries Uma Maheshwari, Sugitharani, Salma, Malathi Maithree, stalwarts in modern writing in Tamil, were up against similar ire of male critics. Again, the bone of contention was sexuality, perceived to be the mainstay of so-called brave feminist writing.

However, poets like Meena Kandasamy are raking up other issues that need attention. Domestic violence, discrimination, sexual harassment, trafficking, stereotyping, gender violence including custodial rape and rape of Dalit women, witch-hunting, cybercrime… the list is growing exponentially, she says. To Kandasamy, writing is a way in which she can come to terms with her “womanness and dalitness” and she does this by delving into her experience of being a Dalit woman. Writers like her are only carrying forward a ripe old tradition. “One way of tracing India’s basic feminist movement may be through ‘Dalit writings’, like Bama’s Sangati, where the rawness in both language and emotions is telling,” says author Shinie Antony.

While Western feminists have moved on from basic rights issues, we are still looking at dowry, child marriage and so on, says author Kavery Nambisan who would rather not be put in the bracket of feminist writers. Home-grown feminism, though unique, still bears signs of external influences. “While the writings of popular feminists like Simone de Beauvoir and Germaine Greer have influenced our thinking, we must not lose the advantages of our traditional society, such as a natural deference towards women which comes out of accepting the roles of mother, sister, aunt, etc,” says novelist Usha KR.

And our art has begun to depict this complex hybrid of a woman who takes both the deference and the power in her stride. “The desi dudette has finally arrived in the pages of IWE (Indian writing in English). After empathising down the ages with heroines of every hue and the vernacular breakthroughs when it came to voicing the unspeakable, we have made great progress in identifying — if not demystifying — the contemporary woman,” Antony says. This identification has helped Indianise a western genre of fiction. “An interesting development in recent times, in Indian writing in English, is the burgeoning of chick lit, which focuses on the young, independent, urban woman, who has a hedonistic lifestyle, but is still responsible for her choices,” says Usha RK.

Cinema, theatre, photography are all putting this woman at the centre. Says documentary photographer Anusha Yadav: “The phenomenon of self-portraiture reflects the confidence of today’s woman.” Plays that once relegated the woman to a secondary character are now celebrating her as the protagonist. “Art is shattering the myth about the angel in the house,” says artiste Lakshmi Chandrashekhar. Kathak dancer Aditi Mangaldas points out, “Women were always portrayed as satellites in classical poetry. At that time, doing creative work with feminist undertones was important for me. But today that is not so. Much of those concerns have now been internalised and I feel no need to proclaim them loudly on stage,” she says.

“I may write a second book, exposing more aspects of the church. They’ve already stamped me as a prostitute. I have nothing to fear.” Jesme says. The fearless are slowly making their voices heard.

Interesting times are ahead.