Of Men, Machines and Apocalypses: Masculine Anxieties in Indian Speculative Fiction
Exploding bombs embedded with catastrophic potential have remained central to our eschatological conceptualizations for more than a century. Future war fiction—a key sub-genre of speculative fiction—in building upon this obsession introduces us to unforeseen apocalyptic settings, which are brought f...
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:71434b5ec6554146b9a3a7ba78ef8ea2 2023-05-15T18:12:25+02:00 Of Men, Machines and Apocalypses: Masculine Anxieties in Indian Speculative Fiction Dibyadyuti Roy 2015-07-01 https://doaj.org/article/71434b5ec6554146b9a3a7ba78ef8ea2 en eng Boibhashik 2349-8064 https://doaj.org/article/71434b5ec6554146b9a3a7ba78ef8ea2 undefined Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry, Vol 2, Iss 1 (2015) hisphilso litt Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2015 fttriple 2023-01-22T19:24:56Z Exploding bombs embedded with catastrophic potential have remained central to our eschatological conceptualizations for more than a century. Future war fiction—a key sub-genre of speculative fiction—in building upon this obsession introduces us to unforeseen apocalyptic settings, which are brought forth through a nexus between gendered bodies and destructive military machinery. In underscoring the decidedly masculine nature of future war fiction, this article explores depictions of anxious postcolonial masculinity within the little-explored terrain of Indian speculative fiction. Apocalyptic settings in these texts, I argue, provide a topos for enacting postcolonial masculine anxieties, which are subsequently countered through making male bodies contingent on the volatile performances of destructive military technology. In utilizing R.W Connell’s conceptualization of “hegemonic masculinity,” I explore the reasons behind the emergence of postcolonial masculine insecurities, which, I argue, results from India’s colonial history and its continued legacy within the subcontinent. Finally, my examination of representative Indian speculative texts, namely Mainak Dhar’s Line of Control (2009) and Sami Ahmad Khan’s Red Jihad (2012) emphasizes that making hegemonic postcolonial masculinity contingent on the destructive capabilities of military technology results in unstable and threatening masculine performances; much like the unpredictable nature of war machinery highlighted in these texts. Article in Journal/Newspaper sami Unknown Indian |
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hisphilso litt Dibyadyuti Roy Of Men, Machines and Apocalypses: Masculine Anxieties in Indian Speculative Fiction |
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hisphilso litt |
description |
Exploding bombs embedded with catastrophic potential have remained central to our eschatological conceptualizations for more than a century. Future war fiction—a key sub-genre of speculative fiction—in building upon this obsession introduces us to unforeseen apocalyptic settings, which are brought forth through a nexus between gendered bodies and destructive military machinery. In underscoring the decidedly masculine nature of future war fiction, this article explores depictions of anxious postcolonial masculinity within the little-explored terrain of Indian speculative fiction. Apocalyptic settings in these texts, I argue, provide a topos for enacting postcolonial masculine anxieties, which are subsequently countered through making male bodies contingent on the volatile performances of destructive military technology. In utilizing R.W Connell’s conceptualization of “hegemonic masculinity,” I explore the reasons behind the emergence of postcolonial masculine insecurities, which, I argue, results from India’s colonial history and its continued legacy within the subcontinent. Finally, my examination of representative Indian speculative texts, namely Mainak Dhar’s Line of Control (2009) and Sami Ahmad Khan’s Red Jihad (2012) emphasizes that making hegemonic postcolonial masculinity contingent on the destructive capabilities of military technology results in unstable and threatening masculine performances; much like the unpredictable nature of war machinery highlighted in these texts. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Dibyadyuti Roy |
author_facet |
Dibyadyuti Roy |
author_sort |
Dibyadyuti Roy |
title |
Of Men, Machines and Apocalypses: Masculine Anxieties in Indian Speculative Fiction |
title_short |
Of Men, Machines and Apocalypses: Masculine Anxieties in Indian Speculative Fiction |
title_full |
Of Men, Machines and Apocalypses: Masculine Anxieties in Indian Speculative Fiction |
title_fullStr |
Of Men, Machines and Apocalypses: Masculine Anxieties in Indian Speculative Fiction |
title_full_unstemmed |
Of Men, Machines and Apocalypses: Masculine Anxieties in Indian Speculative Fiction |
title_sort |
of men, machines and apocalypses: masculine anxieties in indian speculative fiction |
publisher |
Boibhashik |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://doaj.org/article/71434b5ec6554146b9a3a7ba78ef8ea2 |
geographic |
Indian |
geographic_facet |
Indian |
genre |
sami |
genre_facet |
sami |
op_source |
Sanglap: Journal of Literary and Cultural Inquiry, Vol 2, Iss 1 (2015) |
op_relation |
2349-8064 https://doaj.org/article/71434b5ec6554146b9a3a7ba78ef8ea2 |
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