Subjectivity in Literature

Alpna Saini

Contemporary Indian drama has made use of bold innovations and daring experiments both in terms of themes and techniques. It has increasingly turned to history, myth, folklore as well as existentialism and absurdism on the one hand and shifting temporal settings, dream sequences, use of masks and voice-overs on the other. It has not only assimilated the elements of Indian theatre tradition but also simultaneously borrowed from the modern western dramatists such as Bertolt Brecht, Jean Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. Hence the Indian drama has emerged as a new and modern force. It as attracted considerable critical attention and as a result enormous work has been done on it.

The critical scholarship as of now leaves, however, a lot to be desired as there are many gaps yet to be filed. Critics and scholar have generally looked at Indian drama from conventional points of view and carried out humanistic studies of it. But the Indian drama in its present shape and output calls for a fresh critical analysis in the light of modern literary theory.

Literary theory today is, broadly speaking, anti-foundationalist and anti-essentialist. For instance, in recent years it has moved away from obsolete terminology and increasingly employed the term ‘subject’ in place of ‘self'. The term ‘self’ pre-supposes the idea of Unitarian identity, of identity as something unique, coherent and autonomous. The term ‘subject’ is relatively more open and marked by difference as it takes into account various socio-political, linguistic and cultural factors that constitute subjectivity. Hence the subject is not a definite, coherent and fixed construction but a malleable structure open to change, moulding and remoulding by a variety of factors.

As the Post-structuralists argue, the subject is not a free and autonomous consciousness as Rene Descartes thought, but a formation in language, history, culture and ideology. Subjectivity thus can be examined in the ways in which it is fashioned by language, discourse, power, culture and ideology. Language, for instance, which was once thought to be only a medium of expression, is now considered to be a limiting factor on what we can think.

The question of subjectivity occupies the centre of the Indian literary scene today due to rapid cultural change, driven mainly by globalisation and the increasing popularity of media and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The emerging culture thrives and encourages multiple subject positions. Consequently, an Indian is today faced with the question of identity which can only be posed in terms of subjectivity as formulated in contemporary theory. Consequently questions such as the following emerge. What does it mean to be an Indian? What do we mean by Indian subjectivity in the contemporary cultural contexts? How does this subjectivity manifest itself in Indian literature, particularly in the contemporary Indian drama? These questions need to be especially addressed in the sphere of Indian drama insofar as it tries to explore the question of subjectivity as central to the contemporary concerns of culture, politics and society.