Negotiating Masculine Identity: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Tendulkar’s Male Characters

Abstract

This paper reviews the complex negotiation of the masculine identity in the dramatic oeuvre of Vijay Tendulkar, emphasizing the psychological tensions that shape his male protagonists. A close analysis in psychoanalytic terms demonstrates how Tendulkar's male protagonists, entwined in cultural paradigms of masculinity, are confronted with their own conflicting internal instincts about power, sex, violence, and vulnerability in a post-colonial India. To examine the poignancy of certain characters from Ghashiram Kotwal, Sakharam Binder, and Kamala among others, the paper shows how Tendulkar's dramatic structure represents an intrinsic tension within "performative masculinity." This paper concludes with the contention that through the turmoil of conflict embodied in the male psychodrama, Tendulkar infers insight into the fantastically complex psychological reality of masculinity as very much both a political and personal construction in contemporary life. This brings into question essentialist understandings of gender by revealing the difficult experience of forming an identity under competing psychosocial imperatives.