Resilience in Resisting Spaces: Cross-Cultural Gender Identity in “Before We Visit the Goddess”

Abstract

“Before We Visit the Goddess” by Chitra Divakaruni is a culmination of multidimensional aspects of identity, including social, cultural, gendered, and psychological. The novel examines the cultural and sociological aspects of Indian estrangement and exile. The novel depicts the involvement of the migratory and the host in a cultural encounter that distinguishes them from one another. The paper attempts to capture how different cultures and ideologies clash to assert power, with each front trying to maintain its hegemonic stance. It further attempts to study how the literary piece stands in the oeuvre of a post-colonial discourse by analyzing narrative- a recurrent tool employed by writers to incarnate the situation of clashing powers between migrant people and their counterparts in their host country. In addition to exploring the dynamics of displaced identity, the research would further investigate the nuances of gender identity. The novel emerges as a tool to dissect the orthodox mental image of Indian women, who have frequently been correlated with obedience and submission. The current research paper applies the notion of feminine and othering as an analytical framework to highlight female characters’ struggles against subjection to patriarchal discourses. The research findings indicate that the central female characters, Tara, Bela, and Sabitri, confront masculine discourses by empowering themselves uniquely. Sabitri, for example, launches a business, Bela divorces, and Tara has an abortion. The protagonists exhibit the willpower of both a mother and a woman and a strong sense of affection, which is essential in their resilience to patriarchy and the reshaping of post-colonial feminine identity relations.