W poszukiwaniu głosu: postać dziewczynki w wybranych opowiadaniach pisarek pochodzenia indyjskiego
In Search of a Voice: the Figure of a Little Girl in Chosen Texts by Writers of Indian Origin

Summary/Abstract: The author's analysis of the chosen literary texts focuses on the representation of childhood. An attempt to investigate childhood from the postcolonial perspective means reevaluation of the process of identity construction, both in the individual and in the communal aspect. The postulated turn from the polarized perception of adulthood and childhood towards the figure of a hybrid suggests also concentration upon the Third Space where we are the Others of ourselves. Homi Bhabha's concept of the Third Space helps to avoid the "politics of bipolarity" and is used here to conceptualize the period of "girlishness" which, according to Judith Butler, is connected with a forced citation of the norm of womanhood and the impossibility to reach to that norm. Exploring the relationship between the gaze and scrutiny with the "phallomorphic sexual metaphors" the author points to Luce Irigaray's and Julia Kristeva's conceptions of womanhood. The forceful citation of the norm mentioned above is strictly connected with language: the author questions the position of language in the postcolonial literature where the choice of a language is politically charged. Here the "feminine" language remains the language of silence or the body; both failing to provide an access to the Third Space where one can speak of oneself and of others.

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