Fractured Selves: Identity Crisis and Alienation in Jaishree Misra’s Ancient Promises
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1603.01Keywords:
identity crisis, alienation, postcolonialism, psychological trauma, patriarchal oppressionAbstract
This paper aims to analyze the connections between identity crisis and alienation in Jaishree Misra’s Ancient Promises. It is an autobiographical novel, where the author narrates the life of the protagonist, Janaki. The literary theories utilized for this analysis are feminism, postcolonial theory, and psychoanalytical theory. This paper aims to highlight the underlying connection between Janaki’s struggle and her identity crisis. Further, the paper discusses how her identity is shattered due to the suppression and oppression faced by her in the family, marriage, and the society. Through the readings of the theorists Julia Kristeva, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Homi K. Bhabha, it was analyzed that Janaki’s trauma, social alienation, and feelings of dislocation are a result of her oppressed gendered body and an experience of cultural loss. By applying the theory of Kristeva’s abjection, it was revealed that Janaki’s abjection and feelings of ambivalence are responsible for the identity crisis. Through the use of the theory of the subaltern by Spivak, it was shown how Janaki’s early silence is caused by the patriarchy in her society. Bhabha’s concept of hybridity shows the ambiguity of Janaki’s experience of diaspora in England. It can be concluded that although the struggle for Janaki’s identity was not as loud as the writers who do not oppose the structures that oppress them, her voice of agency becomes a form of strength and resistance.
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