Men at home, men and home in two Anglophone novels by Indian women writers. Issue 7 (2nd July 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mirza, Maryam
• Is Part Of: Gender, place and culture. Volume 23:Issue 7(2016)
• Page Start: 1061
• Page End: 1070
• Publication Date: 2016-07-02
• Subjects: Domestic spaces -- gender, male identity -- class -- age -- The God of Small Things -- Home; espacios domésticos -- género -- identidad masculina -- clase -- edad -- El dios de las pequeñas cosas -- Hogar; 居家空间 -- 性别 -- 男性认同 -- 阶级 -- 年龄 -- 《 微小事物之神》 -- 家庭; Human geography -- Periodicals; Feminism -- Periodicals; Géographie féministe -- Périodiques; 305.305
• DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2015.1090409
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0966-369X

Abstract

Abstract: Postcolonial Indian women novelists writing in English have been deeply concerned with addressing the ways in which 'home' in patriarchal societies is an ambiguous space, characterized by unequal gender relationships that make it a terrain rife with violence, and feelings of alienation and discontent for women. Through the lens of two contemporary Anglophone novels by Indian women writers, Arundhati Roy's (1997) The God of Small Things and Manju Kapur's (2006) Home, this article evaluates the significance of the relationship between male identities, politics and domestic spaces in India. Focusing primarily on two bourgeois male characters, Estha and Vicky, the article examines, in depth, their painful coming-of-age in terms of the complex intersection of gender, class and age hierarchies in the domestic arena and demonstrates the centrality of the concept of home to their sense of self and space.