Published Online:March 2025
Product Name:The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJES030325
DOI:10.71329/IUPJES/2025.20.1.39-44
Author Name:Suraj Das
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:39-44
Androgyny is the highest creative power of the mind, as depicted in the myths of some parts of the world. This is the hidden and unknown consciousness that is deep inside the psyche of every human being— a composite sense of unity between masculinity and femininity. In a heteronormative society, if a man finds himself able to present himself as an androgynous being, then the society terms it ‘troubled’ masculinity. This paper analyzes Mahesh Dattani’s play Dance Like a Man to find out how the removal of the feminine traits of a man by his heteronormative family destroys his androgynous psyche as well as his artistic abilities. This paper also observes the creation of aporia and stagnation in the psyche of Jairaj as a result of the removal of his feminine qualities through the process of heteronormative gendering. In the paper, androgyny is assessed as a psychological union of masculinity and femininity, which is completely different from hermaphrodism and bisexuality. The paper is based on a critical interpretation of the play Dance Like a Man in the light of the works of Carl Jung, Judith Butler, June Singer, and Virginia Woolf, among others.
Butler (1990, p. 16), in her book Gender Trouble, says, “Gender is a complexity whose totality is permanently deferred, never fully what it is at any given juncture in time”.