Dissecting the Intersections of Breast Stories: An Intersectional Analysis of the Nature of Oppression in Mahasweta Devi's Narratives

Abstract

Mahasweta Devi’s Breast Stories portrays Jashoda, Draupadi, and Gangor by presenting their social realities of oppression. Critical works have been done on these characters from the perspectives of marginalization, subaltern theory, and feminism but no research has explored their intersectional positions to analyze the oppression that they face through Kimberlé Crenshaw's legal theory of Intersectionality which is well applicable in this context. Also, the male characters have been left out from existing research. This paper's intention is to explore such unexplored areas by analyzing the intersections or junctions of both the oppressed and their respective oppressors through Crenshaw's theory of 'Intersectionality'. Such analyses will engender further insight on the influence of intersections in forming the oppressor-oppressed pairings. The theoretical framework has been provided by Kimberlé Crenshaw’s theory of Intersectionality and some comprehension of intersectional feminism. This paper's intersectional investigation of the oppression observable in Mahasweta Devi's Breast Stories shows that - various systems imbue Jashoda, Draupadi and Gangor as well as their oppressors with various modes of identities that work together to create their respective intersections based on which they are either subjugated or empowered and consequently, these intersections themselves inform the binary relationships between oppressed and the oppressors.