Psychosexual revelation in Kamala Das’ My Story

Abstract

The thesis entitled "Psychosexual Revelation in Kamala Das’ My Story" concerns with the emotional and behavioral aspect of sexuality of the narrator. The unfulfilled inner biological sexual need remains in the latent level as the society takes it as a taboo. But that unfulfilled desire determines the behavior of narrator in the performance level. Kamala Das, a woman of forty two years is suffering from both mental as well as physical problems in her life. The main reason for it, is the repression of her sexual desire. The society of post-independence India is patriarchal rule based where the exploration of sexual desire is obscene and is a crime. She fights against the canonical rules of patriarchal society and openly speaks her sexual needs and desires, though it is restricted in contemporary society. She presents herself as a representative of all women in patriarchal society. As a victim of patriarchal society, she faces many problems in her life. Through My Story, she expresses her sexual desires and her attempt to fulfill it. Her struggle to fulfill the unfulfilled sexual desire shows her awareness of sexuality. Das confesses her pre-marital and post marital love affairs, homosexual and heterosexual relationship, unsuccessful married life and her quest for love and sex. By revealing her dark desires, she wants to go against of the society where such sexual revelation is not taken as a matter of discussion. These all events provide background for the psychosexual development of the autobiographer in this thesis work. This paper is conducted, particularly on the basis of Freudian psychoanalysis where Das’s emotional and behavioral aspect is studied minutely.