Reimagining Partition through Feminist Posthuman Nomadic Subjectivity: A Study of Selected Stories from Shobha Rao’sAn Unrestored Woman

Reimagining Partition through Feminist Posthuman Nomadic Subjectivity: A Study of Selected Stories from Shobha Rao’s An Unrestored Woman
Rabeya Khatun

Abstract

The continuous emplacement and dispossession of women through the ramifications of the Partition of India have reconfigured the issue of subjecthood. Feminist subjectivity has undergone an ever-evolving process in the posthuman and postfeminist eras. The emergence of “becomingwoman” through “lines of flight” has decentred the notion of the hegemonic framework of gender binaries. Lines of flight refer to the deconstruction of universal codes or norms. The present paper intends to reinterpret Partition through the analytical framework of Rosi Braidotti’s “nomadic subjectivity” in select stories such as “An Unrestored Woman”, “The Merchant’s Mistress” and “The Lost Ribbon” from Shobha Rao’s collection, An Unrestored Woman (2016). Nomadic Subjectivity is a posthuman feminist ethos that challenges unified subject and fixed identity. The construction of the self is a complex social process.