Deconstructing the Class and Critiquing the ‘Other’ Discourse in Girish Karnad’s Plays

Girish Karnad’s dramatic themes focus on the basic issues that concern the existential problem of an individual in the postcolonial modern Indian society. Gender and culture are two important social constructs that keep on modifying the existential space of an individual. These various class identities often identify the individual as a marginal ‘other’. This concept of the ‘other’ superficially seems to lie within the class constructs that are governed largely by the concepts of gender and culture. By deconstructing the class constructs we can identify and understand how gender and culture subjugate the individual and make him/her the ‘other’ thus creating subclasses within a class and locating the margin within the centre. Girish Karnad’s three plays Yayati, Hayavadana and Naga-Mandala focus on the gender narratives and their presentations through cultural perspectives that try to locate the individual within the constructs of class narratives as a marginalized other.

In his three plays Yayati, Hayavadana and Naga-Mandala Karnad has made a subtle blending of the gender and culture to portray the identity of the individual. This can be analyzed and understood by critiquing the ‘Other’ discourse of which the individual becomes an indispensable part. In my paper I focus on the representation of gender and culture in relation to the existence of the individual in these three plays of Girish Karnad. My paper also highlights the individual’s existence that is modified by the gender and culture constructs that can be better understood by deconstructing the class narratives and critiquing the ‘Other’ discourse of which the individual becomes an indispensable part.

In Yayati and Hayavadana class orientation is an important f...

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...he postcolonial modern Indian society that has raised a bold question against the authenticity of the traditional phallogocentric world.

P.T.O.

Works Cited

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Desai, Falguni P.. “Girish Karnad’s Yayati.” Contemporary Vibes 4.16 (Jul-Oct

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Raykar, Meenakshi. “An Interview with Girish Karnad.” New Quest 36 (Nov-Dec, 1982):

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Sugarwala, Fatima. “The Real and Ideal in Karnad’s Plays.” The Quest 12.1 (June 1998):

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