The Construction of the Mythical Subject in Post Colonial Context A Study of Select Indian Plays

Abstract

The dramatic foundations of postcolonial Indian dramatists are based on the newlineassimilation of colonial dramaturgical practices into the native dramaturgical newlinetraditions which have created a new hybrid space. Earlier the native cultural newlinenarratives were used to propagate the hegemonic dominance, but now they have newlinebeen decentered in such a way that they have paved a way to a unique newlineconstruction of postcolonial subjectivity. The postcolonial writers translate the newlinenative myths and incorporate them in the texts through hybridised language and newlinean entirely new perspective and hence, shift the marginalised colonial newlinesubjectivities with the unique postcolonial hybrid subjectivities. The postcolonial newlineplaywrights incorporate themes such as the existential interrogations and newlineencounters of postcolonial human, fragmentation, hybridity, disillusionment, newlineisolation, the quest for identity, gender issues, philosophical dualism, and newlineconstruction of subjectivity. The introduction of pre-colonial past in the forms of newlineaboriginal presentation like rituals, myths, folktales, history, music, songs, dance, newlinelocal settings, and oral style of storytelling, prove to be effective strategies in newlinerestructuring the leading practices of western dramaturgy. They have also newlineassimilated in their works the traditions of some of the famous proponents of newlinemodern theatres, such as Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, and Jerzy Growtowski, newlineetc. The translation of the native texts is also used as a technique to construct a newlinenew postcolonial subjectivity and the language used for the translation of native newlinetexts is an exclusive new form of nativised language, which is neither a western newlinemimetic form nor a completely native one, but an amalgam of both. Thus, the newlineiv newlinepostcolonial playwrights have neither applauded nor judged the native myths, but newlinethey have explored the consequences of unyielding codes imposed by culture. newlineThus, an original, hybrid postcolonial subjectivity, based on the interplay of gender, newlinemyth, language, and culture emerges through an exploration of the sele