Layered Marginalization and Narrative Resistance: An Intersectional Study of Karukku

Abstract

This paper reflects Crenshaw’s idea that marginalized subjects can be debarred from manifold political agendas at once and tries to distinguish between the structural and political intersectionality. In Karukku, the writer, Bama unveils the scenario of Dalit women who experiences structural repression that varies from the women belonging to the upper caste and men in Dalit community. Crenshaw’s construction of structural and political intersectionality offers a perilous vision to look into the existence of power in terms of caste, gender, religion, and class that can operate the system together in order to mould the existed practice of the Dalit Christian woman. This paper focuses on the delivery of Bama’s narratives in an alternative intersectional Dalit feminist consciousness. Caste is not a secluded individuality sign but the strong base determining each and every domain of life like education, labor, religion, and social interaction. Besides, the tale’s split form and use of colloquial Tamil function as acts of epistemological struggle, challenging both upper-caste fictional rules and conventional feminist discourse. Eventually, this paper copes with an interpretation of Karukku in par with Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality which helps to understand comprehensively on the subjectivity of Dalit women and as well expands the theory beyond its racial origins. The text puts forth the urge for the subaltern to have a liberation from the clutches of interconnected systems of the society.