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

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Photo-4: Illustrates second generation homosocial gathering and their bearing of marital symbols [Source: Dola Banerjee’s personal album] There are other women who are sceptical of the religious significance of such rituals but cannot also deny completely, the semiotic value of such marital signs as “meaningconstitutive traditions” (Gross, 2005: 288) which involve patterns of sense-making transmitted from one generation to the next. Third generation Tanya says, “I am not a ‘big fan’ of wearing shnidur but since I have always seen Ma (her mother) wear it and how important she holds it for her love for Bapi (her father), it feels a little ‘strange’ for me not to wear it at all. Moreover being newlywed it is a little ‘odd’ to immediately break familiar taken-for-granted marital traditions in inlaws’ presence. So I just wear it like a very small ‘dot’ so that it cannot be easily visible. That way you take care of all sentiments! (Expresses contentment on her face)” This narrative brings out the concept of self as embedded within one’s habitus; in classculture, family relations and traditions (Smart, 2007: 188) and as constituted by shared generational meanings that pose limits to the self’s unbounded creativity and agency which the individualization thesis seems to unproblematically champion (Jamieson, 247
1999; Gross, 2005; Smart, 2007; Heaphy, 2007). Tanya and many other women of her age do not identify their femininity with such signs and therefore bear them in a way that is inconspicuous to others’ eyes. They often avoid the shnakha and pala but rarely the gold made ornamental loha and bear the shnidur by paradoxically concealing it. Their modern professional identities and trans-national representation of self through ‘smart Western wear’, in Tanya’s words sometimes seem to be uncomfortably at odds with the supposed traditional conformity to bearing marital signs. Therefore, they negotiate this ‘traditional’ practice that is also a part of their ‘modern’ identity at the inter-subjective and the intra-subjective level, in a strategic way if not by its outright rejection. The photo below illustrates the insignificant way of bearing the shnidur as a dot on the forehead, and ornamentalizing the loha as a gold bangle worn in the left hand. Photo-5: Illustrates third generation Anandita’s cultural politics of bearing marital symbols [Source: Anandita Dutta’s personal album] 248
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PROCESSES OF NEGOTIATING INTIMATE H
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT For their convictio
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ABSTRACT Through interview generate
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Bhadrasamaj- Respectable society im
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Saundarya- Emotional internal beaut
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The ‘Liberating’ Narrative/Disc
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Summary of Analyses: ..............
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negotiate and deal with these issue
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) Academic Contextualization Within
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practices of intimacy and analyze a
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that were at the heart of both foun
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also be explored in relation to mas
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In this context my research seeks t
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Appreciating Western academic schol
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only manifests itself in the public
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to love one another” (Beck and Be
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This double standard sexual reputat
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In this context of appreciating het
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‘woman’ as a collective politic
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satisfaction giving meaning to life
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This brings us back to the apprecia
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embedded in culture and history and
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same relation (Paul and Spencer, 20
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gender friendships reported (Allan,
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therefore never totally comprehensi
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understands this erotic as a ‘sha
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empirical study of friendship patte
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Hence, Banerjee argues that a conte
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In this contextual appreciation and
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and they have to be interpreted by
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postmodern turn. It links the micro
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1989). From a post-colonial feminis
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Bourdieusian Analysis of Class-Cult
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the individual” Contrarily he aff
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caste and class (Lakha, 1999: 265).
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home or the inner sphere (Chatterje
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of Bankim’s reading of the image
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ecognize the structural imperatives
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Western inspired romantic model of
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clue to the relational structure of
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Seymour, 1999). Cultural identity a
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) How do subjects negotiate, that i
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narrative and linguistic turns take
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The Ethnographic: Most commonly eth
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ealism is based on the view that th
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and ‘cultural narratives’ (Laum
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of, “then in our times”, I thou
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commitment is practised in and thro
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empirical methodology to a communic
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Third Generation Second Generation
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hadrasamaj’s constuction of Rabin
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simplistically read as a story of g
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Bengal. The distinctiveness of Beng
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2002: 124). An in-depth narrative q
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Since there is no one ‘correct’
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assured my interviewees a certain r
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eactions, for this may have been a
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Method of Analysis: The method of a
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and personal life that are understo
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Deconstructive discourse analysis i
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‘interactionist turn’, a post-s
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valorization of ‘brotherhood’.
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men continually seek for communal a
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Ronjon links adda to nostalgic imag
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eproducing the cultural imperatives
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extended and elevated bench-like co
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comfortable, secure and familiar ha
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extent, socially structured by one
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practices but are, in fact, shaped
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as Sundordi (adjective sundor means
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otherhood in male homosocial intima
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This narrative illustrates trans-na
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suggests the cross-cultural relianc
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Similar narratives across all gener
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perform family-like rituals and tra
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It is significant to note that stor
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“Precisely because I detest the s
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“Other things may change such as
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latant and visible (Seidler, 1989).
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homosocial bonding and loyalty is,
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‘innocuous’ ragging and informa
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male power; modern homosexual intim
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Through various cultural practices,
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knowledge and practice is an ongoin
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The topics discussed may have also
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on to an associated binary politics
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conditioned by sedimented structure
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friend with whom I can share these
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Situating ‘Woman’ and ‘Homo
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homogenous male self and space is u
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waste of time’ and moreover I don
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materialistic, public ‘work’ an
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afford this subversion of hetero-no
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The Generational Re-production of F
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and reproduce institutionalized het
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through a woman’s prioritization
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ief each other about how we are goi
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Dalia is highly disdainful of putti
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only practice a reflexive narrative
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possibility of such subversive homo
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not think of myself as just a house
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of the para) and provide cultural e
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women, the people of the para have
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successfully become so dominating a
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Page 289 and 290: woman then for men) through the pro
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Page 293 and 294: Through narrating over and over sto
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Page 305 and 306: CHAPTER-8 CONCLUSION Through interv
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Research Contribution: Theoretical
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coloniality academically necessitat
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In this context, by appreciating th
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) deconstruction of both the ‘sel
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dialoguing with existing scholarshi
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) Self-Other Reaffirmation and Cult
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various power dynamics involved in
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Chakraborty (ed.) Jounota o Shonksh
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Chakraborty, D., 2000. Provincializ
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Finch, J. (2007) Displaying familie
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Grossberg, L. (1993) “The Formati
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Jackson, S. (1996) “Heterosexuali
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Lawler, S. (1999) ‘Getting out an
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Morgan, D. (1996) Family Connection
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Robinson, V. (1993) “Heterosexual
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Somers, M.R. (1994) The Narrative C
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APPENDIX Table-1: Brief Biography o
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Table-2: Brief Biography of Female
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