Abjected Masculinities and Abhuman Bodies in Select Malayalam Short Fiction

Abstract

This paper makes an attempt at extending the valences of the concept of Abjection as posited by Georges Bataille, Julia Kristeva and Judith Butler into equating queer masculinities to abjected masculinities, in the light of two Malayalam short stories titled “Pied Piper” and “Ente laingikanweshana pareekshangal” (My Experiments with Sexuality), written by S. Hareesh and Abin Joseph respectively. The paper highlights how certain male bodies are deprioritized as ‘abjected bodies’ and how they are expelled, repelled and cast away from the society as materials causing repulsion, horror and disgust. The paper proposes to discuss the abject both as an intimate interior experience and as an exterior public expression. Instead of drawing on the social constructionist theories of gender and sexuality propounded by theorists like Michel Foucult and Judith Butler, the paper uses the analytical framework provided by New Materialist theories to substantiate how certain bodies assume agency as an entangled form of matter while some others do not. The corporeality of the body is seen in this paper as sheer matter and hence is subjected to the contingencies of matter, which lie beyond the confines of linguistic and discursive mediation. The paper argues that queer masculinities can confront and contest social ostracism by ‘embracing the abject’ instead of retreating shamefully from it. The paper also explores concepts like the abhuman, morphic plasticity, and permeability to substantiate its argument.