Post-Pandemic Gendering in Namita Gokhale’s The Blind Matriarch

Abstract

The fluidity of gender is overt when cultures of different geographical locations in different eras are taken into account though they appear to be fixed in the popular imagination. The study intends to investigate the dynamics and dialectics of gendering that could be observed in the novel The Blind Matriarch by Namita Gokhale. The study seeks to explore the perception of gender and the process of gendering the novel through the plot’s narrative and the characters’ interplay with one another, oneself and the outside world. The first part of the study shall be an introduction to gender and the concepts associated with it. The second part of the study further explores the significance of post-pandemic times in the process of gendering. The third part of the study investigates the permeative articulation of gendering in the novel by how the characters make the novel align through the narrative. The fourth and final part of the study shall summarise the findings.