Engendered subjectiveness: Construction of queer idenity in vijay tendulkar's a friend's story and mahesh dattani's on a muggy night in mumbai

Abstract

The present study deals with comparative analysis of Vijay Tendulkar's A Friend's Story and Mahesh Dattani's On a Muggy Night in Mumbai with respect to treatment of queer issues, their repression and social stigma faced by queer individuals. The focus is to find out how various social, economic and political discourses work towards repression of queer identities and reaffirming the oppressive discourse of heteronormative sexuality. Both Vijay Tendulkar and Mahesh Dattani have employed the fundamental themes of queer identity, oppressive attitude of society and psychological dilemma of queer individuals in their respective plays. In both the plays under study i.e . A Friend's Story by Vijay Tendulkar and On a Muggy Night in Mumbai by Dattani, there runs the unconventional theme of alternate sexuality which has been dealt with compassion and understanding. This study takes into account various unexplored issues related to queer identity. This study explores how these plays raise the issue of the emancipation of rights of queers and undertakes a comparative analysis of the two plays in order to discover varying attitudes towards this issue in Indian drama corresponding to the periods of the two playwrights.