A CRITICAL STUDY OF SELECT DALIT AUTOBIOGRAPHIES
Mahamadul Hassan Dhabak
All About Ambedkar: A Journal on Theory and Praxis, Volume 2, Number 2 | Full Text PDF
ABSTRACT
Masculinity and femininity exist in binary opposition. Connell categorizes four types of masculinities such as hegemonic, subordinated, complicit and marginalized. Dalit masculinities are largely subordinate and marginal. This paper deals with images of subordinate masculinity which are depicted by male Dalit writers. Literary representations of Dalit Masculinities are relational to gender identification, social legitimacy of caste, economic value of labour, manifestations of maleness within family and community. The paper aims to critically examine notions of “caste body” and “outcaste body”; and how masculinities of ‘outcaste’ male bodies are represented in the writings of Dalit male writers. It also explores the relations of caste-based production of Dalit bodies. The primary sources of this study are two Dalit autobiographical narratives Manoranjan Byapari’s Interrogating My Chandal Life: An Autobiography of a Dalit and Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan: A Dalit’s Life.
KEYWORDS:Dalit, outcaste, subordinate, manhood, masculinity, representation