Dear participants, welcome to the sixth week
and fourth module of our course on Literature,
Culture and Media.
In this module, so far we have discussed issues
related with identity as well as ideology.
We have seen how ideology and identity are
interconnected and how they can also not be
separated from the overall culture which is
created in our contemporary world.
In this module, we would see how identity
is created with the help of literary works.
Identity has been defined as a set of characteristics,
trades or qualities that make someone different
from others.
It is an identification of the characteristics
which are unique to somebody.
The process of individuation is also an integral
part of the creation of one's identity because
the process of individuation helps us in defining
our basic impulses in understanding our dreams
and ambitions in a better way and to combine
them with our own personality traits.
Identity defines not only the individual but
we have to look at it from the perspective
of a group identity also.
Because the identity of a group also provides
the context to an individual.
It provides a context to the interpersonal
relationships of an individual.
An individual cannot live in isolation and
therefore whereas the construction of individual
identity is important, the social context
and the cultural climate is also important
for its formation and for imparting a unique
flavour to it.
Across different groups of people, communities
and societies we find that the identity is
being formed not only as a product of individual
dreams and aspirations not only through once
process of individuation but also we find
that the identity is simultaneously being
created and transformed through the environment-
the social, the political and the cultural
environment.
In this environment, we find that different
aspects related with the work colour or race
and ethnicity, our economy class as well as
gender etc., intersect continually and overwhelmingly
with the process of the formation of our identity.
Often we find that this connection may not
be very explicit but let us say that it is
a part of our personality, it is a part of
our makeup and cannot be absolutely and categorically
dissociated from it.
In the same way, we find that in literary
discourse and an literary narratives, these
connections which issues of race, colour,
class and gender, ethnicity etc., with have
with the formation of identity are also exhibited
in complex ways, these factors for example
the factors of class and race and gender etc.,
mould the perception and the concept of the
self of the author but at the same time they
also mould the perception and the self-concept
of the reader.
And as we have seen in our discussions of
post-modernist theoretical background, it
is the perception of the audience which is
equally important in internalising the message
of a literary product.
So we can say that these factors underscore
those practices which are circumscribed, they
are limited within a periphery, they are not
universal and in the same way our understanding
of societal roles and what constitutes in
normative behaviour in a given circumstances
are formed by our constraints and considerations
of race, class, gender, ethnicity etc.
Literature represents them the interconnectivity
is retained by various literary pieces and
communicated in a connotative and suggestive
way to the audience.
So, we can say that the formation of identity
is normally unfolded in these contexts or
pre-cut grooves of gender class, race, sexuality
as well as ethnicity and nationality and all
these determinants are responsible for the
formulation and contestation of identities.
Identity itself is a part of a larger institutional
or structural force which constitute socialistic
modes of being and certain identities are
privileged over others.
During our discussions of gender particularly
we have seen how certain types of sexualities
are giving a hierarchical preference whereas
some other types are not and this in itself
constitute a hierarchy of power in a given
society.
So we find that these identities and privileging
one over the other often generates power dynamics
and our relationships are also influenced
by them.
Literature helps us to understand and interrogate
these dynamics by explaining the dominant
socio-political and cultural forms in many
explicit and implicit ways.
The word culture can be defined as a range
of human activities.
Over the period we find that our understanding
of the term culture itself has undergone several
changes.
In the next module we would be discussing
how the word culture has gone through different
transformations.
But today we understand it as a way of life
is a set of characteristics which belong to
a particular group for example, a particular
language, a particular preference for art,
literature, religion even a cuisine for example.
It also defines a collective habit in terms
of possessing or sharing social beliefs, habits,
norms, customs etc.
Whereas culture defines these aspects of our
day to day behaviour, we find that it also
defines our attitudes towards each other also
towards people who are in different power
relationships with us.
It also defines what type of hierarchies may
exist in a given circumstances and how should
we assist them and form our own value judgement.
Our culture also teaches us to have faith
in certain meanings and notions to prefer
certain systems of knowledge in comparison
to others.
Briefly, we can say that our culture is a
sum total of our learned human behaviour not
only as an individual but also as a member
of a particular community or society.
It is impossible to define culture in strategic
and definitive means.
It is a complex yet an abstract and symbolic
system.
It is a knowledge which is particular to a
particular group and this is perhaps the best
way to understand it.
These definitions of culture also underscore
how our identity formation, our understanding
of the term identity as an individual as well
as has a part of a particular system or society
and culture are inextricably linked.
Identity is formulated through culture only
and here I quote from Hofstede who says that
“Culture is the collective programming of
the human mind”, the phrase which has been
used here is the ‘collective programming’;
programming as in any computer program.
So, according to Hofstede, we find that culture
has been defined as a collective programming
of the “human mind that distinguishes the
members of one human group from those of another”
and “culture in this sense is a system of
collectively held values”.
Edgar Schein also defines culture at a deeper
level as “a set of basic assumptions and
beliefs that are shared by members of an organisation
that operate unconsciously and define in a
basic ‘taken for granted’ fashion and
organisations view of itself and its environment”.
So, we find that culture formulates the human
identity and our perceptions and our belief
systems are also formulated by culture.
We can say that culture and identity are interconnected.
Culture is like an umbrella term under which
we can look at different aspects of over lived
behaviour, different facets of our personality
and our societal positioning are also a part
of this broad umbrella term.
When we look at the linkages which exist between
culture and identity and literature, we find
that literature though primarily comes under
the domain of culture along with certain other
areas like music or religion or art, we find
that literature also lies within the domain
of culture.
It, at the same time, reflects identity and
culture.
The age-old definition of literature being
a mirror to the society confirms this impression.
At the same time, however paradoxically literature
also creates culture, it adds to the existing
system of knowledge about human beings and
at the same time, helps us to internalise
certain values in a way that we are able to
fashion new values, giving yet new dimensions
to the existing culture.
Identity in literature is presented and formulated
in various ways.
Primarily, we can say that with the help of
different narratives, fables, stories etc.,
literature helps us in understanding the formation
of identity.
At the same time, we find that with the presentation
of different characters, with the help of
round and flat characters, with the help of
those plot structures in which the idea of
Bildungsroman is presented, the personal development
arc in transformation of culture also helps
us in understanding the formation of identity
in a human being.
It also represents human nature, the motivations,
emotions and feelings in a very suggestive
manner.
Literature is not only limited to a mere reflection
of our ideas and sentiments but it also narrates
the conflict which may exist within the individual
between different individuals, individuals
and societies between two communities groups
and societies.
It also depicts how identity and culture interact
with each other and what type of the struggles
we have to participate in on the basis of
gender, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity
etc.
At the same time, we find that in various
literary motives, different hierarchies and
institutional forces are presented as being
at the centre of these formations, any good
piece of literature helps us to understand
not only the process of individuation but
also the complete process of identity formation.
Literature therefore helps us to understand
the cultural struggles as well as struggles
which all of us have to face in the process
of the formation of our identity.
It also provides as a, context to understand
these struggles in the cohesive manner.
These struggles may be in the shape of socio-political
struggles, the cultural strives, the material
difficulties etc., but the literary context
which is provided to the reader helps us to
associate ourselves better to the situation
which is being presented.
And therefore literature does not only have
the role of a narrator but it also has an
ideological role to play.
It also helps us to transform as an individual.
And therefore, we find that it documents not
only what is but also what can be and also
what should be.
And therefore, we find that the relationship
of literature with culture is a very intense
one.
It is also interconnected because whereas
it represents culture, it also helps us in
shaping the new cultural norms because it
presents not only a record of what is but
also the possibilities of what can and also
the ethical judgements in terms of what should
be.
This we can say that literature represents
the contemporary world views, the dominant
worldviews as well as not so dominant worldviews
and it also simultaneously represents the
inner fractures which run through these dominant
structures.
It also challenges the notions of dominant
culture and hierarchy by bringing into the
focus, the culture of the subaltern.
And therefore, we find that literature is
open to diverse possibilities.
At the same time, we also have to understand
that different authors as well as characters
in different works of these authors deal with
this issue of identity, what it is and how
it is formed in different ways.
For example, black female writers like Lorde
or Maya Angelou or Bell hooks would deal with
the questions of racial and gendered identities
differently from their male counterparts and
also differently in comparison to the white
feminist writers.
In the same way, we find that the worldview
which is presented by a 19th century novelist
would be very different from the worldview
presented by a contemporary 21st century writer,
these differences would be there because the
circumstances change, the material and historical
and social positions would change and they
would determine to a large extent, the content,
the shape of the narrative, the technical
form of a particular literary genre, the concerns
of a particular novelist or a particular poet
and also the themes which that author is going
to take up.
Even though these differences are there and
they would always remain there, at the same
time we find that there are certain commonalities
which exist.
A good literary piece is able to transcend
the limitations of time and space and would
be able to address certain perennial value
structures and that is why we find that true
literature never becomes stated.
Even though the external situations would
change, the material descriptions would change,
the themes may also change but the values
which are being suggested in any good piece
of literature would always be able to address
the audience, transcending the limitations
of time and space.
When we discuss how identity is constructed
and presented in a piece of literature, we
have to be aware of several things which works
simultaneously.
Let us say to begin with that authors have
a personal identity which is influenced by
the worldview within which they write, for
example, if we take a Margaret Atwood and
Alice Walker, we find that Margaret Atwood
is basically the Canadian writer whereas,
Alice Walker is African and American writer.
Atwoods, Handmaid’s Tale which was published
in 1985 and Walker’s the Colour Purple which
was published in 1982 have certain similarities.
Because their authors share common perspectives
on certain issues related with gender but
they are also very different in terms of their
dealing with the material circumstances because
they do not share the same ethnic or national
roots.
So let us say that these differences are there
but at the same time, commonalities do exist
and these commonalities should also not be
ignored.
Secondly, we can say that the authors develop
characters, who may not necessarily represent
their own circumstances or worldview.
And here it would be pertinent to quote from
the novels of James Sallis featuring Lew Griffin,
the writer and character have different identities,
Sallis is White whereas Griffin has been presented
as a Black person.
So, literature in a way explores complexities
and complications of identity.
It helps us to understand how identities are
formed, charted, explored, demarcated and
also challenged and particularly in those
circumstances where the boundaries are porous,
they are often overlying and contested.
It also helps us to understand how these categories
which we have referred to earlier come about
the categories of race, class, ethnicity,
diaspora being into exile multiculturalism
etc., how do they come about and how do they
influence us, at the same time how do they
coexist and what can be their relationship
with an individual or in a particular situation
for the artist, for the readers and also at
a much wider scale for the arts themselves.
In order to pursue this aspect of the interconnections
which exist between literature and identity
formation, I have taken up a case study of
two women writers.
I am taking up these two writers; Virginia
Woolf and Shashi Deshpande and I would review
how gender as a tool has been used to define
the way identity and related issues are formed
and presented for the individual characters
as well as within a given social setting.
And we would also discuss the commonalities
between these two writers and the differences
in terms of their approaches.
The lifespan of Virginia Woolf is 1882 to
1941; she is a major early 20th century writer.
On the other hand, Shashi Deshpande is a major
contemporary Indian writer born in 1938; she
has produced several novels and story collections
and has also contributed different essays
on various topics.
Virginia Woolf is known for the stylistic
innovations which she had introduced through
her essays and had also tried to explain in
her essays.
She is considered to be a prominent figure
when we talk about the use of a stream of
consciousness technique.
Along with Joyce and Proust, she has also
used a stream of consciousness technique in
a novels to lay bare the inner goings on of
her characters.
Her novels also have basically a lyrical element
in them and since we often talk about the
other aspects of a technique as well as about
the themes related with feminism which she
has taken, this aspect of the lyrical quality
of her narratives is often put on the backburner
but it is very much there.
If we look at Virginia Woolf’s work from
contemporary standpoint, we find that she
has been a major feminist voice.
In her expository writings particularly, we
find that she moves gradually towards a post-feminist
stand.
In her essay Men and Women which was published
in 1920, she has fiercely commented on the
absence of a woman's voice in literature particularly
in literature before the 19th century.
And she says that before the 19th century,
literature was particularly a soliloquy because
it had recorded the voice of man only.
Even when women characters were presented,
the perceptions were that of a man how does
a man views a woman's life to be, so the women
herself was absent.
So as early as 1920, she was telling us how
literature is also a record of the silence
of women.
She was also one of the first writers to talk
about the ameliorating impact of technology
on the lives of human.
She has recorded the impact of technology
in whatever shape it was found in her days
on the lives of women.
And she has also talked about the changes
which have been brought about by the Industrial
Revolution which created a social milieu in
which an emancipated women character could
be created by various authors.
She has said that characters like Jane Eyre
and Isabel Berbers were possible only in a
climate which was created basically by the
Industrial Revolution even though their protest
was low key and unspecified the elements of
liberal feminism which we find in them would
not have been possible without the role of
technology.
So, we find that Virginia Woolf is one of
those early feminist who have talked about
the significance of technology for liberating
a woman's life.
She is also known for her books, A Room of
One's Own which was published in 1929 and
Three Guineas which was published in 1938.
In these books as well as in several other
essays which have been penned by her, Woolf
has talked about the significance of an independent
space for a woman, the significance of education
also.
The concept of economic independence by and
large is only referred to by Virginia Woolf
because she has been stopped by her circumstances
from dwelling in detail about that.
Still we find that along with Bronte and ‘sometimes’
Mansfield, she is one of those writers who
have been referred to by Simone De Beauvoir
in her seminal text, The Second Sex published
originally in 1959 and translated into English
in 1961 as those women writers who had the
capability to portray the life of women in
a significant manner.
If we compare the works of Virginia Woolf
with a works of Shashi Deshpande, we find
the presence of several common themes.
The narratives may look different because
the society they are depicting is different,
the material circumstances are also different.
The cultural quotes in terms of dress and
language are also different but we find that
the basic concerns have lots of commonalities
and similarities.
Shashi Deshpande has been awarded the Padma
Shree award in 2009.
Before that she had won Sahitya Academy award
in 1990 for her novel That Long Silence, she
belongs to the second generation of Indian
novelists that is she has grown up after the
work of the three breaks had become popular
in the Indian scenario.
She is a prolific writer, she has published
so far eleven novels, seven story collections,
several books for children, spy novels and
several other expository and perceptive essays.
Interestingly, we find that in the work of
Shashi Deshpande, as we can say in the works
of Virginia Woolf the themes remain unchanged.
As we find in Virginia Woolf we find also
in Shashi Deshpande, the presence of a lyrical
element.
These two writers are able to use language
in an evocative manner which is almost poetic.
The feminist voice is present in Deshpande
too, unlike Virginia Woolf we find that in
a novels, she gradually moves towards a post-feminists
stunt.
She has also taking up issues of higher education
like Virginia Woolf.
Whereas, Virginia Woolf had not been able
to take up the idea of economic independence
in a novels, even though, she had started
to hint at it in a several essays which were
published after her lifetime, she had not
been able to talk about the total economic
emancipation for a woman because it was still
so far away in the contemporary British society.
But we find that Deshpande has taken up this
theme in the contemporary Indian milieu and
has talked at length about it.
In terms of her social milieus, sometimes
Deshpande is compared with Jane Austen and
we would come to this point later on but I
would like to say that she still has many
commonalities with Virginia Woolf.
To illustrate the concerns of Virginia Woolf
in detail, I have taken up the case of Mrs.
Dalloway particularly.
Published in 1925 Mrs Dalloway is often considered
to be a modernist text with its free indirect
style, the use of the stream of consciousness
in a controlled manner.
The setting in the context is of the post
First World War British society.
It also tells us about the changes which have
taken place in the British society after the
war, loss of lives, the devastation which
has been unfolded, the economic condition,
the deterioration, the psychological effects
of war, the trauma, they grief, the loss of
life and changes which it entailed particularly
for women.
The themes which have been taken up in Mrs
Dalloway are also the teams which interestingly
Virginia Woolf has taken up in the rest of
her novels too.
The fragmentation of identity from the perspective
of gender as well as class, the obsession
with marriage or the absence of marriage,
the resultant alienation and loss of meaning
as well as the destruction of certain values,
the economic hierarchies, the decline of religion
and the technological changes in terms of
progress as well is in terms of destruction
have been repeatedly taken up in a novels.
The idea of a stream of consciousness as a
technique was taken up by Virginia Woolf in
the beginning of the 20th century.
The term was coined by William James in 1890,
in his treatise Principles of Psychology.
So whereas in psychology it is simply the
character of thought or consciousness, we
find that Virginia Woolf along with Joyce
had used this technique in literature to represent
the inner goings-on of her characters.
It is also a technique which Virginia Woolf
and other novelist used to probe deeper into
the recesses of the characters to represent
the psychological realism.
In its predecessors we can look at the figures
like Henry James, Joseph Conrad, May Sinclair,
or Dorothy Richardson but let us say that
it has been fully explored in the hands of
Virginia Woolf and James Joyce.
This technique is also different from the
interior monologue because it mingles thoughts
with impressions and perceptions and also
does not follow any logical sequence and takes
certain liberties with language also to present
the psychological and emotive goings-on of
a character.
The novel is based on a day in the life of
Clarissa Dalloway and whose character has
been explored and whose identity formation
has been laid bare before us with the use
of this technique.
Clarissa Dalloway has tried to understand
her own experiences of the world in which
she has occupied so far is superfluous position.
She has an upper classes stature, simply because
on the basis of her marriage to Mr Dalloway.
She feels that her gender has marginalised
her and she has been a dispensable person
a used body.
The society has given her only two rules that
of a mother and that of a wife.
And she experiences a moment of shock when
she meets with you becomes aware of a decaying
body her mortality, the limitations of a gendered
identity.
In the course of the novel we find that Clarissa
Dalloway attempts to reformulate identity
by revaluing her past decisions and her relationships
with people in her life, for example.
her in security of losing her selfhood when
she chooses to stay with dependable Richard
Dalloway illustrate of marrying Peter Walsh
who was perhaps you know more demanding.
Her consciousness broods over moments in which
she paradoxically defines herself simultaneously
as very young and at the same time unspeakably
aged.
We find that the process of identity formation
based on one's gender choices has been given
in detail.
The inner vacuity which is present in a women's
life, the compulsions which she has to take
up on the basis of playing her societal roles
like throwing a party etc., are laid beer
in the character of Clarissa Dalloway.
Interestingly, we find that these attempts
are duplicated to a certain extent and are
also valorised in the character of her daughter
Elizabeth Dalloway, a 17-year young girl whose
beauty is being noticed.
But we are told by Virginia Woolf that she
also has started to have a certain aspirations
in terms of her career.
So we find that whereas through the character
of Clarissa Dalloway, Virginia Woolf has presented
how gender played a very significant role
in the formation of her identity.
In the character of Elizabeth Dalloway, we
are being told how the changing societal circumstances
and the worldview has enabled Elizabeth Dalloway
to think in a slightly different way about
the gender choices which have been given to
her.
In Mrs. Dalloway we find that through the
portrayal of Clarissa Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
has told us how the role of class and gender
is important for the formation of identity.
And this aspect is further contested and elaborated
on with the character portrayal of Miss Kilman,
Miss Kilman who unlike Clarissa Dalloway is
marginalised in terms of gender, class and
ethnicity.
So the challenges which she has to face in
her life have been portrayed because of these
different ways in which identity is constructed.
So, we find that when these three major characters,
Virginia Woolf has presented this idea that
gender is the main focus for our identity
formation as it exposes women to a particular
process of conditioning and it also tells
them to choose from the given hierarchy.
So we find that issues related with marriage,
lack of choices therein societal pressures
to choose a particular type of a person for
marriage, absence of economic independence
in contemporary British society are the topics
and themes which have been repeatedly taken
up by Virginia Woolf to discuss how this issue
of identity formation takes place.
We also find that her expository writings
are more advanced and though she has raised
several issues in a novels which formulate
and frame a gendered identity for her women
characters not all the ideas which she has
presented in her expository writings have
been truly reflected in a novels.
The repetition of these themes can be seen
in Jacob's Room through the presentation of
Betty Flanders.
In The Waves when Susan practically muses
about this concept of marriage through Katherine
in Night and Day and also through Lily Briscoe
in To the Lighthouse.
When we look at this themes taken up by Virginia
Woolf, we find that in certain other major
novelists and certain other representative
novels of a particular time zone, similar
issues have been taken up.
When we look at the novels of Jane Austen
or Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte or George
Eliot, we find that these women novelists
where struggling with the concept of marriage
and how they were obsessed with it because
a contemporary society did not give them any
other viable alternative.
So how marriage was a compulsion and women
were struggling to escape this compulsion
and were unable to find a way out.
So, we find that even though the awareness
of a gendered situation is very much there
in these women novelist, the constraints of
the contemporary society are also discernible
in them.
In the next module when we would take up Shashi
Deshpande, we would find how in the novels
of Shashi Deshpande, because of the passage
of time, certain constraints have been done
away with but still we find that certain commonalities
are very much there.
Thank you.
