‘Rhetoric of Violence’ and Representation of the Self: A Study of Select Dalit Women’s Writings in Malayalam

Abstract

The degraded social status of Malayali Dalit women, signified by the intersectionality of caste and gender disparities is not well recognized in Kerala so far. Dalit women writers in Kerala gained momentum with a prospectus to challenge misrepresentations and stereotyping by mainstream and Dalit men writers. Their writings criticize the caste order that demonstrates its power through symbolic forms of violence against Dalits in Kerala. This article is an attempt to understand representation and counter-representation of caste-based violence and oppression in three Malayalam short stories by Dalit women writers, Rekha Raj, Reena Sam and M. D. Dhanya. The stories are analyzed on the background of Teresa De Lauretis’s concept of the ‘rhetoric of violence’ that recognizes how the language of violence codifies and constructs objects and subjects of violence to propagate dominant ideologies. The article will also look at how the authors depict the traumatic effect produced by caste-based violence on Dalit psyche.