Gendered Guilt: Scapegoatization and Feminine Experience in South Asian Literature

Abstract

The current research paper discusses the role of female characters in the South Asian literature works based on the theory of scapegoatization of Rene Girard. The theory by Girard that states that the collective aggression and guilt of a society is often transferred onto a chosen scapegoat, is applied, to analyse how in South Asian literature, women are often selected as the bearers of the family and communal guilt. This paper discusses the influence of cultural and historical contexts on the construction of narratives of women as scapegoats and examines a range of South Asian Literature works. The paper discusses how these individuals are recognized, alienated, and ultimately murdered to achieve peace in the society. These literary manifestations are analyzed according to the feminist approach, which assists the research in finding the common themes represented and patterns which either reinforce or refute the patriarchal norms. To add to bigger discussions on gender, power and literary representation the study tries to provide a meaningful insight into the development of the Girardian theory of the scapegoat in the South Asian context. This work shows that gendered scapegoatization plays a very important role in fictional discourses as well as real-world gender relations in South Asia by focusing on the intersection of literary and social theory analysis.