Sunday, June 15, 2003		Books

Shackled by lack of choices
Manisha Gangahar

Collected stories, Volume I
by Shashi Deshpande Penguin Books, New Delhi. Pages 217, Rs 250.

STORIES carry the ideologies of the writer along with them. It is impossible for a writer to remain unaffected by the politics of life. Although Shashi Deshpande refuses to be categorised into any of the ‘isms’ of literary and cultural theories, one cannot overlook the fact that she "makes gender central to her writings" and "stories in this collection give a perception on women in their complex and real relationships".

The stories are not tales or narratives with a definite structure. They can be viewed as episodes reflecting the condition of individuals in general and women in particular. A close reading would make it possible for the reader to draw a parallel between an anecdote by the writer and probably an absurdist drama like Harold Pinter’s Birthday Party which has overtones of existentialism. The volume opens with the story. The Legacy, where the doctor on his death bed comments: "You know these past few days I’ve been thinking of all these years of mine...struggling with sickness, disease, death, stupidity, ignorance, poverty. And I’ve been asking myself, "What has it all been about?" An individual fails to understand the purpose of his/her life, keeps looking for justifications for his/her actions yet is not able to give a definite explanation regarding his/her existence. Not only do women have to endure the pangs of existentialism but also put up with their essentialised characterisation as Simone de Beauvoir asserts: " To pose Woman is to pose the absolute Other, without reciprocity, denying against all experience that she is a subject, a fellow human being."

Shashi Deshpande’s stories shed light on the predicaments of human life. The characters are very ordinary individuals who are trying to sustain themselves amidst convolutions of day-to-day living. The experiences, emotions and moods are very normal and this gives a universal appeal to the work. However, the world and life itself is viewed through the prism of women’s psyche. The dilemma she faces, the choices that are not made by but are rather imposed upon her and the isolation she experiences is the real focus of most of the stories. Although the repressed feelings of women are acknowledged and very well understood by the writer yet the liberation is far from possible. The idea of modernity seems only textual as the woman protagonist of the story, A Liberated Woman declares: "Modern? In what way am I modern? Just because I dress the part?... All this is because I don’t have the courage not to conform." Whatever role she may adopt, she is expected to conveniently adapt to that part. Somewhere in the process the individuality is lost. Whether it is as the mother, lover or a wife, the woman is always overshadowed. However, are these not a part of a woman’s roles or are they merely jobs that a woman is obliged to take? Perhaps, the concern is not the essentialised, stereotypical categories but the exploitation of a human being that takes place through this classification.

In the effort towards restoring woman’s subjectivity, the writer emphasises the right to language as well as to the power that the language possesses, as Frantz Fanon states: "A man who has language consequently possesses the world expressed and implied by that language." The predicament for women is the denial of this right to express themselves, thus their withdrawal into their silences. The idea is not to form a balanced equation of man and woman but only regard both genders as autonomous beings. There is no desire, on the part of the writer, to break free of the confines of gender-specific roles but the feeling is that these roles should not be allowed to constrict one’s identity. Thus, the marginalised women in the prose of Deshpande have yet to make their choices. They seem to be positioned in that "Third space" where "negotiations have to be carried out across differences of gender and ranks. Not only is it important to correct the misrepresentations about women but it is equally important to allow a voice to them and an opportunity to come out of the socially inflicted as well as self-imposed misery. Literary and cultural texts serve as a very considerable apparatus for redemption of women. Whether a woman compromises with her commodification or rebels against the androcentric society is her individual choice but she should have the freedom to make that choice.