narratives of three generations of urban middle-class - eTheses ...

disassociates the idea of respectability with caste structure and instead ties it with
considerations of education and its associated family background.
It is interesting to note that narratives of both generations understand the present as
quickly changing and moving, compared to a logically derived unchanging committed
past. However, such descriptions of the present become value-laden through the words
chosen to describe such a change coupled with the non-verbal gestures and cues that
accompany such description. For instance, Shanta interpret’s Priya’s ‘rigid’ ‘then’ as
‘stable‘, ‘firm’ and ‘committed’ rather than Priya’s understanding of it as ‘flexible’, ‘open’
or ‘more liberal’. Priya’s use of the term ‘confusing’ in the context of making ‘the right
choice’ will be elaborately analyzed through her later narrative of ‘choice’. What is clear,
however, from her present narrative is the influence of a normalizing and a naturalizing
discourse of the now ‘liberal modern times’, its companionate nature of coupling and an
obvious/‘natural’ need for courtship experimentation. Its other is ‘backdated’ and
‘traditional’ compared to the ‘modern’, which is the way it is ought to be. So far the two
generations’ narratives have been analyzed as heavily influenced by both nationalist
and trans-nationalist discourses of modernity. In the following sections their narratives
will be further nuanced.
Individual Choice and its Validation: A Post-feminist Neo-liberal
Discourse:
Both the narratives’ focus on ‘choice’ and its availability to the individual, echoes a postfeminist,
neo-liberal discourse that celebrates the spaces available for women to
achieve autonomy through expanded agency (Budgeon, 2011: 130). Taking after
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