Politics of Performance: a Study of Kandasamy’s Novel When I Hit You

Abstract

“…[T]he category “woman” as well as the category “man” are political and economic categories not eternal ones” as commented by Monique Wittig. However, in any patriarchal society these categories are treated to be eternal through repeated naturalisation determining ‘ideal’ gender roles for both the genders. In Kandasamy’s novel When I Hit You the ‘young wife’ started to imbibe and epitomise the role of an ‘ideal wife’ as determined by the patriarchal society. The novel emphasises on the performativity of the pre-assigned gender roles of the protagonist and the authoritative agencies of patriarchy determining her as “evil spirit” when faced with performative resistance. In this dialectics of performance and resistance the writer’s words become the tool of resistance for the marginalised ‘young wife’ of Kandasamy’s novel. Her criticism is not only against the construction of these gendered roles but also against their naturalisation and appropriation. The primary focus of this paper is thus to discuss the politics behind the gendered roles and the agenda of interpellation working behind the project of their naturalisation with a focus on the necessity of subversion of these roles for the protection of the individual self.