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The female body in K.S. Maniam's play "The Sandpit: Womensis"


Citation

Wan Yahya, Wan Roselezam (2005) The female body in K.S. Maniam's play "The Sandpit: Womensis". Pertanika Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities, 13 (1). pp. 9-22. ISSN 0128-7702; ESSN: 2231-8534

Abstract

This is a psychoanalytic reading of K.S. Maniam's play "The Sandpit: Womensis" through Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze. The findings point to the fact that 'woman' on stage has most often been constructed by men, to be viewed by other men and other women as an object, not a subject. The female character Santha may be seen as taking up the position of the masculine protagonist in expressing her fetishisation of another female character Sumathi as an object of sexual desire. While Santha is represented as older, traditional and asexual, Sumathi's behaviour and appearance are coded as sexually confident and provocative. In this play the female characters enter a discourse in the male subject position and they occupy this constructed space 'docilely'. Thus, the women are able to expose the oppressive representation of the female body as ideological, but are unable to affirm a more adequate one. As a consequence the women are still constructed by male hegemony, lacking a speaking voice. This psychoanalytic reading provides us with a sophisticated understanding of women's present cultural condition. However, it also seems to confine women forever to the status of one who is seen, spoken about, and analysed.


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Additional Metadata

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Faculty of Modern Language and Communication
Publisher: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press
Keywords: Feminist theory; KS. Maniam; Indian women; Female body; Male gaze; Laura Mulvey; Fetishism; Malaysian playwright
Depositing User: Nur Izyan Mohd Zaki
Date Deposited: 30 Nov 2009 01:27
Last Modified: 14 Sep 2015 03:01
URI: http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/3522
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