Intersectional Analysis of Gender in Indian Children's Literature: Comparison of Novels Written in English and Gujarati

Abstract

This paper examines the validity of perceived associations of ‘parochialism’ and social conservatism with regional language literature (RLL) and ‘modernity’ and ‘progressiveness’ with Indian writing in English (IWE), through a comparative examination of gender in Indian children's literature in English (ICLE) and children's literature in Gujarati (CLG). For this purpose, it adopts an intersectional framework which studies how gender functions in conjunction with other identity markers, rather than operating in isolation. The conclusions emerging from this feminist analysis of intersections of gender with other systems of oppression such as caste, class and community in Indian children's novels in English and Gujarati challenge the associations of ‘parochialism’ with RLL and ‘modernity’ with IWE. They reveal that while both ICLE and CLG are similar in silencing dalit girls/women, and in enforcing minority community stereotypes as far as Muslim masculinity is concerned, CLG shows progressive trends by undertaking to re-gender dalit masculinity and by sensitively exploring gender and class intersection in the construction of poor women.

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