Intrusive Memories and Re-performance of Collective Trauma in Kanyadaan

Abstract

The article focuses on the play Kanyadaan by Vijay Tendulkar to underline the transmission of cultural trauma to collective memory, which shapes the portrayal of an individual traumatic post-memory. Trauma becomes a performative act in Kanyadaan. The performative aspects of mourning the plights of the marginalized, caste and untouchability are equated with the performative quality of cultural trauma. Even though separated by space and privilege from the suffering of caste-based oppression, Arun Athavale, the Dalit anti-hero, holds on to the original trauma, which he (un)consciously reproduces and reconstructs. Jyoti, his wife, suffers the brunt as Arun avenges the history of injustices directed at Dalits, expunging Jyoti of her identity and blurring the traces of her elite upbringing. The cultural trauma suffered by the Dalits is performed at will by an individual, Arun. The article strives to state that the trauma of his forefathers is, in a way, what defines him.

Keywords

Dalit collective trauma post-memory performance

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abraham

J. K.

, & Misrahi-Barak

(Eds.). (2018). Dalit literatures in India. Routledge.

Balaev

(2014). Literary trauma theory reconsidered. In Balaev

(Ed.), Contemporary approaches in literary trauma theory. Palgrave Macmillan.

Bhagat

(1994). Routes and escape, routes ( Pandit

, Trans.). In Alekar

(Ed.), Yatra: Writings from the Indian subcontinent (Vol. III). Indus.

Bhattacharyya

(2021). Datta Bhagat’s Routes and escape routes and Vijay Tendulkar’s Kanyadaan: Critiquing the Dalit. Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 13(2), 177–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328X21995737

Bond

, & Craps

(2020). Trauma. Routledge.

Brown

L. S.

(1995). Not outside the range: One feminist perspective on psychic trauma. In Caruth

(Ed.), Trauma: Explorations in memory. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Caruth

(1996). Unclaimed experience: Trauma, narrative, and history. The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Chinnaswamy

(2023). Dalit cosmos: Understanding caste, marginalisation and Dalit literature in India. Routledge.

Dean

C. J.

(2020). Witnessing. In Davis

& Meretoja

(Eds.), The Routledge companion to literature and trauma. Routledge.

10.

Gajvi

(2013). The strength of our wrists: Three plays ( Gokhale

& Hatkanangalekar

M. D.

, Trans.). Navayana Publishing.

11.

Gokhale

(2010). Dalit theatre. In Kennedy

(Ed.), The Oxford companion to theatre and performance (pp. 153–154). Oxford University Press.

12.

Hirsch

(1992–1993). Family pictures: Maus, mourning, and post-memory. Discourse, 12(2), 3–29. https://blogs.cuit.columbia.edu/mh2349/files/2019/07/Family-Pictures-Maus.pdf

13.

Hirschberger

(2018). Collective trauma and the social construction of meaning. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01441

14.

Kumar

(2019). Dalit literature and criticism. Orient BlackSwan.

15.

Kumar

(2014). Marriage, caste, violence and liberal reforms in Vijay Tendulkar’s Kanyadaan. Research Scholar: An International Refereed e-Journal of Literary Explorations, 2(3), 186–195. https://researchscholar.co.in/downloads/26-umesh-kumar2.pdf

16.

Leydesdorff

, Dawson

, Burchardt

, & Ashplant

T. G.

(2014). Introduction: Trauma and life stories. In Rogers

K. L.

, Leydesdorff

, & Ashplant

T. G.

(Eds.), Trauma and life stories: International perspectives. Routledge.

17.

Loomba

(2013). Inter-caste marriage and the liberal imagination: Vijay Tendulkar’s Kanyadaan. Economic & Political Weekly, 48(43), 101–111. https://www.epw.in/journal/2013/43/special-articles/inter-caste-marriage-and-liberal-imagination.html

18.

McGlothlin

(2020). Perpetrator trauma. In Davis

& Meretoja

(Eds.), The Routledge companion to literature and trauma. Routledge.

19.

Nytagodien

, & Arthur

(2010). Collective trauma, apologies, and the politics of memory. Journal of Human Rights, 3(4), 465–475. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1475483042000299714

20.

Satyanarayana

, & Susie

(Eds.). (2013). The exercise of freedom: An introduction to Dalit writing. Navayana Publishing.

21.

Singh

(2023). Trauma translates to activism: A study of select Dalit women poetry. Contemporary Voice of Dalit, 0(0), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2455328X231168020

22.

Tendulkar

(2003). Collected plays in translation ( Ramnarayan

, Trans.). Oxford University Press.

23.

Wallis

, & Patrick

(2011). On trauma. Performance Research, 6(1), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2011.561669

24.

Zeitlin

F. I.

(1998). The vicarious witness: Belated memory and authorial presence in recent Holocaust literature. History and Memory, 10(2), 5–42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25681026