The price of visibility in a woman's imaginative supremacy : a study of men's quest for masculinity in Kiran Desai's the inheritance of loss

Abstract EN

This paper aims at studying Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss and her treatment of male characters with a special focus on the gendered ways in which she views their perception of masculinity.

Desai is one of those Indian woman writers who occupy a distinctive place as a novelist in the realm of postcolonial literature.

With a vivid feminist consciousness, she portrays men's urge to restore their sense of masculinity and compete in many areas such as: power, position and sexuality.

The quest for masculinity is clearly observed through four of her male characters: The judge, the cook, Gyan and Biju.

Desai portrays the image of men who face void in their lives.

The study shows how masculinities are constructed with different levels of anxiety according to the social, cultural and political dictum.

Characters strongly put across their views about their masculinities with regard to many different incidents.

These incidents disturb their psyche and cause serious personal discord.

Some of them do seem to indulge questioning their situations while others dare openly rebel against the imposed circumstances.