Redefining Traditional Masculinity in Parijat's Blue Mimosa and Bisheshwor Prasad Koirala’s Sumnima

Abstract

This research explores how masculinity is projected in both male and female characters in Parijat’s Blue Mimosa and Bisheshwor Prasad Koirala’s Sumnima. The construction and representation of plural masculinity on the basis of sex, race, and religion becomes a prominent interrogation. It identifies how hegemonic masculinity is represented and constructed in the protagonists of the novels who represent ethos of significant epoch of Nepali society during 1970s. The paper deploys R. W. Connel’s concept of hegemonic masculinity and Judith Halberstam’s concept of female masculinity as the core theories to bring out the representation of plural masculinities in these Nepali novels. This research identifies the concept of hegemonic masculinity, female resistance against patriarchy, and the female masculinity on the basis of historicity of Nepali masculinity. It deeply critiques notion of plural masculinity and its multifarious articulations like ethnicity, religion, sex, and age in Parijat’s Blue Mimosa and Bisheshwor Prasad Koirala’s Sumnima. In Nepal, the studies of men and masculinity remains rare compared with the studies of women and femininity. The critiquing of masculinity and depiction of masculine female characters serves to change the negative attitudes towards females and to create gender equality in Nepal.