Proceedings of The 2nd International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality
Year: 2022
DOI:
[PDF]
Influenced Gender Identities: Analysis of Gender through the Spectacle of Culture in the Carpet Weaver
Sanjana Chakraborty , Dr. Dhananjay Tripathi
ABSTRACT:
With the perpetual shift in the connotations correlated with identity and the significant associates like gender and culture, it is imperative to understand the incessant interplay between the two and how advertently they influence each other in the creation of a social being. However, the problem that needs to be investigated is to look into the role of men in a patriarchal societal power dynamic which accentuates their vulnerability and its overall effect on identity construction. The article explores the idea of how gender and religion are two cultural conceits that are always changeable. To analyze this, we would examine the work of Nemat Sadat, The Carpet Weaver (2019), the story of a homosexual boy’s journey in a wartorn Afghanistan and migration to America, and how ‘the journey’ shapes his identity, an endless search. It will further discuss an individual’s relation with gender and culture through the spectacle of existential crisis and ‘double vulnerability’. Further, it will explore the practice of hegemonic (toxic) masculinity portrayed in the novel as ‘correcting the wrong’. The paper will analyze the duality of belief systems in relation to contemporary times.
keywords: Masculinity, Hegemony, Homophobia, Identity Politics, Cultural Studies.