Between Dharma and Desire: Maternal Identity, Ideology, and Cultural Constraint: A Cultural Materialist Reading of Kunti in Koral Dasgupta’s Kunti (2021)

Abstract

This paper analyses the representation of maternal identity, ideological constraint, and social power in Koral Dasgupta’s novel Kunti through the theoretical framework of Cultural Materialism. Raymond Williams defines Cultural Materialism as «a theory of the specificities of material cultural and literary production within historical materialism» (Marxism and Literature 5) and using this framework, the study investigates how the historically and physically conditioned functions of patriarchy, caste hierarchy, and dynasty ideology influence Kunti’s parental decisions rather than personal moral choice. The structure of sensation, Williams’s theories of dominant, residual, and emergent cultural formations, and Gramsci’s definition of hegemony as «domination» combined with «intellectual and moral leadership» (Gramsci 57-58) and the subordination of her maternal identity to dynastic imperatives are all structurally produced outcomes. The paper interprets Dasgupta’s framing of her book as a purposeful Cultural Materialist intervention, as she calls for a reexamination of the patriarchal roots of Mata and the ubiquitous societal image of the selfless Indian mother (Series Introduction). The analysis is based on a thorough reading of Dasgupta’s original work.