ISSN (Online): 2583-0090 | A Double Blind Peer-reviewed Journal

WOMEN’S SELF-AGENCY THROUGH THE METAPHOR OF SYMBOLIC OBJECTS IN SELECTED FILMS OF SATYAJIT RAY

Authored by
Ivana ChowdhuryIvana Chowdhury,PhD Research Scholar,Raiganj University
on 01/11/2022

Abstract

Satyajit Ray (‘true to his time’),the great creator- the aficionado of Indian literature, perfectly captured in his writings the 20th century ‘public panorama’ and people bounded by the social hierarchical dispositions by focusing more on the interplay of several characters, than the words they spoke. Satyajit Ray portrayed and emphasized more on human and domestic factors representing neorealism by stressing upon the structure of the behavioral characteristics prominently in his writings between 1960 and 1985.Therefore specially the female characters of Ray are very interesting as the writer Ray himself was a synthesis of EAST and WEST, Tradition and Modernity and the amalgamation of INDIAN and WESTERN. Ray simultaneously tapped and displayed his closeness and fondness of natural affinity towards the middle-class as well as Subaltern Colloquialism and the postcolonial approach. Ray symbolises the objects in a subjective way to justify the ways of inner self reflective approach to the outer world via mirrors and lots of dream sequences in his writings. And this paper also provides a postcolonial document by retracing Indianness in Bengali literature as well. His writings specially the Calcutta Trilogy : (1) Pratidwandi (The Adversary) (1970), (2) Seemabaddha (Company Limited) (1971), (3) Jana Aranya (The Middleman) (1976) has an immense reference to the mirror reflective structures and dream sequences that are enclosed with the inner conflict of the ‘self’ and ‘other’, specially the identity crisis of the female characters . So, therefore the Calcutta Trilogy leads the lexicon of the female psyche as a ‘weapon’ to demonstrate by showing how patriarchal thinking dominates and perpetuates by implementing discourses and denies the gender meritocracy. The paper submits how the desires of Satyajit Ray’s writings were eschewed by the social and political vices that control over our film watching experience too.


Keywords : Patriarchy, Self-Identity, Women Desires, Objects, Dream sequence


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