살만 러쉬디의 ꡔ수치ꡕ에서 나타난 내부식민주의와 젠더 양상

Abstract

The Internal Colonialism and Aspects of Gendered Women in Salman Rushdie's Shame Lee, Seongjin (Chonnam National University) In Shame(1983), Ahmed Salman Rushdie retells the history of Pakistan since its independence in 1947. The story covers three generations and focuses on the lives and families of two men, Raza Hyder and Iskander Harappa. Rushdie bases these characters on real-life Pakistanis, former President Zia-ul-Haq, and former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. In Shame, Rushdie uncovers and exposes the illegitimacy and brutal authoritarianism of internal colonial regimes in Pakistan. Pakistani ruling elites, which replaced the colonial rulers but retained their exploitative power-relations within forms of patriarchal control, deny women the right to speak. Rushdie wishes to record the sufferings of women when patriarchal ruling power is exercised on their bodies. To achieve that goal, he relates the experiences of Pakistani women in the form of a fantasy-history where he imaginatively re-creates the recent political regimes of Pakistan. How is gender negotiated in the novel? The concepts of shame and honour are irreversibly intertwined in the image of gender. The first girl represents the shame that brings dishonour upon her family. In this case, shame is something that springs from the gender. Regarding the second girl, shame is not rooted in her consciousness. It is rather the circumstances that cause her to feel shame. The third persona, the boy who died from self-combustion when he realized the truth that shame will outlive him, indicates that shame is fundamental. It is embedded in the gender structures and therefore unavoidable. Shame evokes the violence that would occur if women are kept in their marginal position. In this novel, Sufiya symbolizes the effectiveness of historical determinations on individuals. Yet her violence also speaks to the limits of such determination. Sufiya transgresses the historical determinants of her circumstances. The significance of her existence, therefore, lies in the excessive gestures of her violence. Moreover, Sufiya's lethal aggressiveness may be interpreted not as destructive violence, but as resistance to the oppressive conventions imposed on her by society and especially by male authority.