INTERROGATING CASTE AND GENDER MARGINALISATION-A READING OF MEENA KANDASAMY’S SELECT POEMS

Abstract

Indian English poetry has risen above the hegemonic canonization of art and has embraced multiple concerns that touch the lives of the hitherto muted subalterns. By expressing the malaise that throngs the lives of the marginalised section of the Indian society, Indian English poetry by women has given voice to the voiceless. Dalit women’s writings bespeak of unchartered territories of caste-ridden violence, discrimination, and the burden of victim- blaming carried by every Dalit. Their writing impacts their very existence in the socio-cultural dynamics as it subtly marks their shift from a peripheral position to a central one. Dalit history is a history of torment and trauma, of agony and endless aching. It is herein that Meena Kandasamy, in keeping with the true spirit of the marginalised subaltern historian, critiques the homogenising propensity of the narrative of national history and thereby tries to advance an alternate version of history for the Dalits by reconstructing their past which remained always subdued. A voice of vehement dissent and resistance to marginalisation permeates her entire poetic oeuvre. This paper tries to underscore the poetics of protest and resistance as evinced in some of Meena Kandasamy’s poems.

Keywords

marginalisation, caste, gender, meena kandasamy, protest, resistance.

Works Cited

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“How They Prostitute A Poem”. Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry, 2017, https://meenakandasamy.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/how-they-prostitute-a-poem/.

“Mascara”. Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry, 2017, https://meenakandasamy.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/mascara/.

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Mascara. Meena Kandasamy’s Poetry, 2017, https://meenakandasamy.wordpress.com/2008/06/01/mascara/.

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To cite this article

Yasmin Chaudhuri. (2020). Interrogating Caste and Gender Marginalisation-A Reading of Meena Kandasamy’s Select Poems. Sparkling International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research Studies, 3(2), 12-23.