Gendered Lives: A Study of Two Biographies of Indira Gandhi

Abstract

Post-modern biographical perspective holds that biographies neither ‘reveal’ a ‘truth’ about a unified, coherent entity, nor are biographical representations untainted by politico- ideological positions. Rather identities are multiple, decentred and fluid, and subjects are constructed and (re)presented through language and shaped by the positions of those who define them. The representation of women is doubly problematized because the politics of gender also reconfigures the narration. A comparative study of two biographies of Indira Gandhi, Indira Gandhi: A Biography by Pupul Jayakar and Indira: The Life of Indira Nehru Gandhi by Katherine Frank demonstrates the importance of gender to female experience and representation. This paper borrows from Judith Butler’s ideas of performing gender and Norman Fairclough’s views on power/discourse. It interrogates the representational strategies that forge contrasting images of the gendered subject through an analysis of lexical fields used to interpret specific events and participants.