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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

orientalist association of romantic love with “choice, agency and modernity” (Majumdar, 2000: 7) by illustrating that the very caterogies of choice and agency are socially structured and culturally embedded and the category ‘modern’, discursively constructed and inter-generationally negotiated. A narrative of the self that embodies practical and emotional sensibilities of intimacy is difficult to categorize as either modern (read active) or traditional (read passive) (Mohanty, 1991), based on love or arrangement (Mody, 2008: 156). Subjects’ narratives show that everyday experiences of family life do not segregate the emotional and the material into separate spheres but are shaped by both at once, and they have to be grasped in their systematic inter-connection (Medick & Sabean, 1984: 11). Cross generational narratives of intimacy problematize the discourse of nationalism that associates material/practical with ‘Westernization’ and spiritual/emotional with ‘Indianness’. Subjects’ narratives illustrated how middle-class and upper middle-class women came to be expected to embody national cultural tradition and its hegemonic codes of feminine and sexual respectability. However, narratives also showed that if women’s bodies and identities are used to articulate hegemonic discourses of gender and nationalism, then these are also the sites where fear of loss of national tradition are expressed (Puri, 1999: 2-3). Subjects’ accounts of heterosexual conjugality are shaped by the inter-connected discourses of hetero-normativity, nationalism, also equally transnational hegemonic gender codes within the postcolonial middle-class urban milieu of Bengal, India. It can be argued thereby that women’s subjectivities embody culturally hybrid identities, (Bhabha, 1991, 1996) that is, their identities are “hyphenated – neither one nor the other; at most, they challenge what means to be Indian” (Puri, 1999: 3). 235
In the way familial arrangement creeps into individual choice, the latter also creeps into the former. Sometimes, again these two domains of experience are so intertwined that it is difficult to even distinguish one from another. Twenty-nine year-old Sudip’s narrative manifests agency and structure through such multi-layered co-constitution, that it becomes difficult to assign an ontological priority to either structure or agent (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992: 15). Sudip narrativizes the institution of marriage in a way which sees no ‘real difference’ between love and arranged marriage, “It’s all the same ‘ultimately’! ‘I am too busy with my career at the moment to even find the time to look for a girl’ but as you can understand, parents want you to get married at this age. So I have given them the responsibility of looking for a girl and ‘I will just marry’. ‘I’m concentrating on my professional life and career and have really no time for any romantic engagements. Anyway, it’s not a man’s cup of tea especially at this age amongst much more important issues of work’!” Sudip’s bilinguial narrativizing in Bengali and English suggests an influence of both national and trans-national discourses of intimacy. These discourses influence his narrative idea of a gendered romance through which he upholds the hegemonic masculine construction that romance is not a “man’s cup of tea”. This disassociation is heightened with his professional life, career and work that are ‘much more important issues’, at his age. It is significant to note that although he has no time for looking for a girl to marry, the need for an institutionalized marriage, particularly its familial wish is conformed to by Sudip. However, although he willingly gives his family the responsibility of choosing a girl for him, his parents narrate various instances where they had ‘arranged’ for the prospective couple to meet and how, in many cases he “rejected the girl” on the basis that “there wasn’t any vibe that said yes she is the one!” It is 236
Page 1 and 2:
PROCESSES OF NEGOTIATING INTIMATE H
Page 3 and 4:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT For their convictio
Page 5 and 6:
ABSTRACT Through interview generate
Page 7 and 8:
Bhadrasamaj- Respectable society im
Page 9 and 10:
Saundarya- Emotional internal beaut
Page 11 and 12:
The ‘Liberating’ Narrative/Disc
Page 13 and 14:
Summary of Analyses: ..............
Page 15 and 16:
negotiate and deal with these issue
Page 17 and 18:
) Academic Contextualization Within
Page 19 and 20:
practices of intimacy and analyze a
Page 21 and 22:
that were at the heart of both foun
Page 23 and 24:
also be explored in relation to mas
Page 25 and 26:
In this context my research seeks t
Page 27 and 28:
Appreciating Western academic schol
Page 29 and 30:
only manifests itself in the public
Page 31 and 32:
to love one another” (Beck and Be
Page 33 and 34:
This double standard sexual reputat
Page 35 and 36:
In this context of appreciating het
Page 37 and 38:
‘woman’ as a collective politic
Page 39 and 40:
satisfaction giving meaning to life
Page 41 and 42:
This brings us back to the apprecia
Page 43 and 44:
embedded in culture and history and
Page 45 and 46:
same relation (Paul and Spencer, 20
Page 47 and 48:
gender friendships reported (Allan,
Page 49 and 50:
therefore never totally comprehensi
Page 51 and 52:
understands this erotic as a ‘sha
Page 53 and 54:
empirical study of friendship patte
Page 55 and 56:
Hence, Banerjee argues that a conte
Page 57 and 58:
In this contextual appreciation and
Page 59 and 60:
and they have to be interpreted by
Page 61 and 62:
postmodern turn. It links the micro
Page 63 and 64:
1989). From a post-colonial feminis
Page 65 and 66:
Bourdieusian Analysis of Class-Cult
Page 67 and 68:
the individual” Contrarily he aff
Page 69 and 70:
caste and class (Lakha, 1999: 265).
Page 71 and 72:
home or the inner sphere (Chatterje
Page 73 and 74:
of Bankim’s reading of the image
Page 75 and 76:
ecognize the structural imperatives
Page 77 and 78:
Western inspired romantic model of
Page 79 and 80:
clue to the relational structure of
Page 81 and 82:
Seymour, 1999). Cultural identity a
Page 83 and 84:
) How do subjects negotiate, that i
Page 85 and 86:
narrative and linguistic turns take
Page 87 and 88:
The Ethnographic: Most commonly eth
Page 89 and 90:
ealism is based on the view that th
Page 91 and 92:
and ‘cultural narratives’ (Laum
Page 93 and 94:
of, “then in our times”, I thou
Page 95 and 96:
commitment is practised in and thro
Page 97 and 98:
empirical methodology to a communic
Page 99 and 100:
Third Generation Second Generation
Page 101 and 102:
hadrasamaj’s constuction of Rabin
Page 103 and 104:
simplistically read as a story of g
Page 105 and 106:
Bengal. The distinctiveness of Beng
Page 107 and 108:
2002: 124). An in-depth narrative q
Page 109 and 110:
Since there is no one ‘correct’
Page 111 and 112:
assured my interviewees a certain r
Page 113 and 114:
eactions, for this may have been a
Page 115 and 116:
Method of Analysis: The method of a
Page 117 and 118:
and personal life that are understo
Page 119 and 120:
Deconstructive discourse analysis i
Page 121 and 122:
‘interactionist turn’, a post-s
Page 123 and 124:
valorization of ‘brotherhood’.
Page 125 and 126:
men continually seek for communal a
Page 127 and 128:
Ronjon links adda to nostalgic imag
Page 129 and 130:
eproducing the cultural imperatives
Page 131 and 132:
extended and elevated bench-like co
Page 133 and 134:
comfortable, secure and familiar ha
Page 135 and 136:
extent, socially structured by one
Page 137 and 138:
practices but are, in fact, shaped
Page 139 and 140:
as Sundordi (adjective sundor means
Page 141 and 142:
otherhood in male homosocial intima
Page 143 and 144:
This narrative illustrates trans-na
Page 145 and 146:
suggests the cross-cultural relianc
Page 147 and 148:
Similar narratives across all gener
Page 149 and 150:
perform family-like rituals and tra
Page 151 and 152:
It is significant to note that stor
Page 153 and 154:
“Precisely because I detest the s
Page 155 and 156:
“Other things may change such as
Page 157 and 158:
latant and visible (Seidler, 1989).
Page 159 and 160:
homosocial bonding and loyalty is,
Page 161 and 162:
‘innocuous’ ragging and informa
Page 163 and 164:
male power; modern homosexual intim
Page 165 and 166:
Through various cultural practices,
Page 167 and 168:
knowledge and practice is an ongoin
Page 169 and 170:
The topics discussed may have also
Page 171 and 172:
on to an associated binary politics
Page 173 and 174:
conditioned by sedimented structure
Page 175 and 176:
friend with whom I can share these
Page 177 and 178:
Situating ‘Woman’ and ‘Homo
Page 179 and 180:
homogenous male self and space is u
Page 181 and 182:
waste of time’ and moreover I don
Page 183 and 184:
materialistic, public ‘work’ an
Page 185 and 186:
afford this subversion of hetero-no
Page 187 and 188:
The Generational Re-production of F
Page 189 and 190:
and reproduce institutionalized het
Page 191 and 192:
through a woman’s prioritization
Page 193 and 194:
ief each other about how we are goi
Page 195 and 196:
Dalia is highly disdainful of putti
Page 197 and 198: only practice a reflexive narrative
Page 199 and 200: possibility of such subversive homo
Page 201 and 202: not think of myself as just a house
Page 203 and 204: of the para) and provide cultural e
Page 205 and 206: women, the people of the para have
Page 207 and 208: successfully become so dominating a
Page 209 and 210: smell of the fragrance Natasha wear
Page 211 and 212: exaggerating gendered commonalities
Page 213 and 214: CHAPTER-6 NARRATIVES OF COUPLING: N
Page 215 and 216: often invoked to strategically circ
Page 217 and 218: exchanges of glances was a feeling
Page 219 and 220: eclipses the conditions of its own
Page 221 and 222: Her constant self-doubt and guilt t
Page 223 and 224: and sexual nature that was otherwis
Page 225 and 226: Pushpa’s imaginative space was in
Page 227 and 228: ‘present/now’ and ‘past/then
Page 229 and 230: ‘open’ and ‘flexible’ about
Page 231 and 232: disassociates the idea of respectab
Page 233 and 234: 2000) but also generally an individ
Page 235 and 236: in this narrative, her earlier narr
Page 237 and 238: Therefore, what she thinks they thi
Page 239 and 240: constantly evoked in Priya’s repe
Page 241 and 242: argues, there is often a possible s
Page 243 and 244: free play of sentiment as by delibe
Page 245 and 246: 1998, 2001). These empirical instan
Page 247: self and society through a critique
Page 251 and 252: phase of de-mystification can, in f
Page 253 and 254: and subjects’ positioning within
Page 255 and 256: • these categories of intimacy an
Page 257 and 258: appreciate and then read in relatio
Page 259 and 260: Today, some women bear these signs,
Page 261 and 262: 1999; Gross, 2005; Smart, 2007; Hea
Page 263 and 264: imaginings into neat dichotomous cl
Page 265 and 266: of a particular community and bodil
Page 267 and 268: Photo-6: Illustrates the homosocial
Page 269 and 270: (Mohanty, 1991). A direct and also
Page 271 and 272: new middle-class is concerned today
Page 273 and 274: and beliefs that distinguishes them
Page 275 and 276: “traditional”)...domestic (read
Page 277 and 278: “Udayan often complains about my
Page 279 and 280: objects to them as “too ‘consum
Page 281 and 282: ‘sangeet’ (musical musings invo
Page 283 and 284: internalization as an ‘obvious du
Page 285 and 286: prescribed institutional imperative
Page 287 and 288: omantic coupling cue. This phrase t
Page 289 and 290: woman then for men) through the pro
Page 291 and 292: then mediated their marriage of ‘
Page 293 and 294: Through narrating over and over sto
Page 295 and 296: ‘practices of intimacy’, in whi
Page 297 and 298: For instance to define the self as
Page 299 and 300:
of sexual sobriety still reigns str
Page 301 and 302:
‘Intimate’ English Language: Tr
Page 303 and 304:
This section on the language of int
Page 305 and 306:
CHAPTER-8 CONCLUSION Through interv
Page 307 and 308:
to confirm, subvert and reproduce t
Page 309 and 310:
illustrations showed that it is not
Page 311 and 312:
Research Contribution: Theoretical
Page 313 and 314:
coloniality academically necessitat
Page 315 and 316:
In this context, by appreciating th
Page 317 and 318:
) deconstruction of both the ‘sel
Page 319 and 320:
dialoguing with existing scholarshi
Page 321 and 322:
) Self-Other Reaffirmation and Cult
Page 323 and 324:
various power dynamics involved in
Page 325 and 326:
Chakraborty (ed.) Jounota o Shonksh
Page 327 and 328:
Chakraborty, D., 2000. Provincializ
Page 329 and 330:
Finch, J. (2007) Displaying familie
Page 331 and 332:
Grossberg, L. (1993) “The Formati
Page 333 and 334:
Jackson, S. (1996) “Heterosexuali
Page 335 and 336:
Lawler, S. (1999) ‘Getting out an
Page 337 and 338:
Morgan, D. (1996) Family Connection
Page 339 and 340:
Robinson, V. (1993) “Heterosexual
Page 341 and 342:
Somers, M.R. (1994) The Narrative C
Page 343 and 344:
APPENDIX Table-1: Brief Biography o
Page 345 and 346:
Table-2: Brief Biography of Female
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?