Resistance and its Discontents in South Asian Women’s Fiction

This week’s review applies an intersectional lens to South Asian women's fiction, examining the resistance, and lack thereof, of its women and transgender characters.

Posted on August 12, 2024 in Reviews of the Month

Resistance and its Discontents in South Asian Women’s Fiction

Mirza, Maryam. Manchester University Press, 2023
248p bibl index, 9781526150615 $112.68, 9781526150608

Resistance has been a main theme of postcolonial critical discourse, which has favored the progressive direction of women lifting the mantle of oppression and finding freedom. Mirza (Durham Univ., England) troubles the blanket acceptance of this theme and teases out the lack of resistance in many fictional characters. She analyzes the reasons for apathy in characters such as Virmati in Kapur’s Difficult Daughters and Aasmani in Shamsie’s Broken Verses. Mirza examines the function of personal, familial, social and political backgrounds in the evolution of these characters and their lack of resistance. Looking at the intersectional functions of race, class, caste, and gender, Mirza studies what makes characters like Roy’s Ammu and Velutha or the narrator of The Gypsy Goddess into active resistors of caste strictures, gendered violence, or party politics, and what creates apathy in other characters. A standout chapter, “Queering Resistance,” analyzes Roy’s Utmost Happiness as an example of the intersex character Anjum’s necropolitical resistance. Mirza highlights Anjum’s shifting resistances, her struggle for acceptance even within the Hijra community and in the Hindu-majoritarian India, and finally her sanctuary in a graveyard, where she finds life-affirming work in managing a funeral parlor. Mirza’s book is a sharp-eyed analysis of women and transgender characters in South Asian women’s fiction.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty; professionals.
Reviewer: P. Venkateswaran, Nassau Community College
Interdisciplinary Subjects: Asian and Asian American Studies, Women’s & Gender Studies, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Studies
Subject: Humanities – Language & Literature – Asian & Oceania
Choice Issue: Sep 2024

Resistance and its Discontents in South Asian Women’s Fiction

This week’s review applies an intersectional lens to South Asian women's fiction, examining the resistance, and lack thereof, of its women and transgender characters.