Counter-narratives of Crime: Deconstructing the Male Gaze in Investigative Storytelling in “A Jury of Her Peers” and Sooksmadarshini
Adithya P
HSS Senior
Government HSS Velliyode
Kerala, India
Abstract: Domestic noir, a sub genre of crime fiction,
is gaining much appreciation from the part of audience due to its totally
different operational terrain. The setting of this genre fiction, which is
within a domestic space, is what specifically adds to its popularity. So, when
it comes to the question of domestic space many other related topics of
concerns – or be referred as contemporary ‘thorny problems’ – will accompany
along with the crime. Crime isn’t what is discussed in a domestic noir, rather
matters like patriarchal familial system, feminine protest, sexual repression,
gender inequality, social surveillance, class/racial - power dynamics, etc.
will come into play, making this genre a social-critical dimension crime
fiction. “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell is a short story taken from
her collection, Her America: A Jury of Her Peers and Other Stories. It deals
with a crime investigation unofficially carried out by few house-wives when
their male counterparts failed to solve the mystery behind the cause of murder.
Sooksmaarshini, meaning a microscope, is a Malayalam comedy thriller movie
directed by M.C. Jithin which features the adventures of a Malayalee housewife
who solves the mystery regarding the abduction of an aged lady next to her
house. In both these works, housewives take up the role of a private detective
to deconstruct the popular masculine detective figure that feature ‘legitimate’
male gaze. They also help to fashion a counter narrative against the
stereotypical representation of women in popular crime fiction, which will be
either be a victim or villain, carrying the question of gender and genre into a
more diversified terrains of critical enquiry.
Keywords: Domestic
noir, Housewife detectives, Domestic space, Female agency, Counter narrative,
Male gaze, Deconstruction of stereotypes, Gender and genre
Introduction
Crime fiction is considered to be the most popular
genre-fiction that fascinates the imaginary realm of readers all across the
world disregarding gender, culture, and age by solving a mystery puzzle. The
inherent inquisitive nature of mankind is what is considered to be the
foundation of crime fiction. The skeptical attitude of man to know the cause
behind a phenomenon is exploited by crime fiction by feeding him with a totally
unpredictable reason behind a heinous action – often a murder. For a very long
period of time, especially during its golden period – 1913-1930 – crime fiction
was able to retain its seemingly apolitical-innocence stance which repelled
critical enquiry. But with the birth of modernism and especially the roaring
60s (1960s) charged with political-criticism inaugurated a re-reading of many
of these classical detective stories, exposing the hidden ideologies smuggled
by crime fiction. The novel sense of social responsibility and political
criticism, hence, paved way for the birth of ‘hard-boiled’ detective fictions
which often incorporated various thorning problems –like racism, sexism, class
disparity, etc. – into crime fiction. This very initiative can also be
interpreted as an act of blurring the boundary between literary fiction and
genre fiction. Domestic noir thus can be taken as an offshoot of this critical
attitude harbored by modernist crime fiction writers as part of reformatory
act.
Domestic noir is a subgenre of crime fiction which
features the hidden tensions within domestic space, involving family,
neighbourhood, and workspace. It explores the themes like, manipulation,
psychological control, secrets and betrayal. Usually women serve to be the central
character picking up the roles of either victim or sleuth in these narratives.
Domestic noir attains its relevance by incorporating topics such as sexism,
racism, gender, and patriarchy which were often diluted in classical crime
fiction. Hence, it offers space for contemporary cultural issues to be a part
of detective fiction thereby helping the most popular genre fiction – detective
fiction - to elevate much closer to literary fiction. At the same time it
retains its specific generic quality by deriving aesthetic pleasure out from
hermeneutic-cognitive satisfaction or in other words “…preeminence of syntax
over content” (Chernaik, Davies and Gibson 222). Being a conglomeration of
these two features domestic noir facilitates readers to engage critically with
social issues and at the same time derive pleasure from hermeneutic
involvement. The two works that I have selected for study includes a short
story written by Susan Glaspell entitled as ‘A Jury of Her Peers’ (Her America: ‘A Jury of Her Peers’ and Other
Storis, 1995) and a Malayalam movie named Sooksmadarshini (2025) directed by M. C. Jithin. What made me to do
a comparative analysis of these two works is because of the wide critical
acclaim won by these two works belonging to two totally different cultures but
incorporated the theme of housewife sleuth solving a mystery that bear a huge
critical relevance regarding the social institution called marriage.
The image of housewife being represented in popular
literature remains to be a stereotypical one which perpetuates the dominant
patriarchal ideology of male-centeredness. In the case of detective fiction,
the traditional role bestowed over woman is either that of victim or villain.
Studies on gender and genre suggest that women are usually portrayed as a
sidekick to the central male character in detective fiction even if she
exhibits the potentiality of a true detective. Housewives being represented in
the select works for study but detest to be a shadow figure of masculine
detective, rather they carry out their investigation and solves the mystery in
their own style, mocking the intellectual-stereotypical-nonsocial male
detective. There are three elements that distinguishes these two works from a
classical male detective which are going to be explored in detail manner in
this study, they are, one, gendered clues, two, politics of gaze, and three,
spatial accessibility of female sleuth. The stereotypical popular image of a
patriarchal detective is criticized in these select works not only by shifting
the gender of detective but also by incorporating the three mechanisms
mentioned above with a vision to cleanse detective fiction of its ingrained
gender-based biases and political incorrectness.
Gendered Clues: A
Social Criticism
Feminism attained its wide academic acceptance during and
after its second wave, roughly speaking during the period between 1930s to
1970s. Feminism, during this stage, appreciated divergent forms of female
-experiences that which facilitated the expansion and acceptance of feminsion
among the academic circle. Along with civil rights movement, they stood for
social equality, body positivity, abortion rights, sexual freedom and wage
equality. This sense of inevitable demand for personal and political reformation
soon gave shape for the next stage, or the third wave during the 1990s. by
inculcating ideas like sex positivity, LGBTQ+ rights, and intersectional and
transdisciplinary ideas, it started to expand its areas by exposing the
unidentified ‘ab’normalities involved in socio-cultural system. Space as a matter of concern emerges during
and after this time. Spatio-temporal condensation at the wake of modernism soon
paved way for attaining a universal platform for addressing issues of woman but
this never helped them to formulate a all-inclusive structure like that of
Marxism due to the varied cultural intricacies that which produced their
feminine identities. Apart from that, issues of women, as far as the post-third
wave feminism is concerned, is more local involving the ‘everydayness’ rather
than universal, hence there was no point of demanding a universal –
metanaartive theory for addressing their issues. Hence, variety and the
resultant inconsistency is a part of parcel of present day feminism. It’s ever
expanding and ever diverging.
Feminist literature attained wider
acceptability among the academic and public circle as they were able to carry
out topics that presented a counter-cultural narrative against the various
discourses that were seemingly normal among the public. Various patriarchal
institutionalized practices that fell under the radar soon became matters of
critical analysis thereby getting exposed of its underlying hegemonic ideology.
It’s quite difficult to trace out an exact time period when feminism marked its
shift over to the domain of popular literature and genre fiction. Feminist
literature from its point of origin was political in nature, while popular art
(though it had its own style of politics) were seemingly apolitical as it
prioritized pleasure over political expression. Hence, the introduction of a
highly politically charged literary faction called feminist literature into the
domain of popular literature, paved way for the birth of a new literary style
of representation that clubbed elements which offered superficial-sensational
pleasure – through its generic structure- and sublime pleasure – through its
content which carry highly political discourse. Domestic-noir can be assumed as
one such literary style that which guaranteed this ‘unusual’ combination. It is
a relatively new genre that which originated in the 21st century.
The term domestic-noir was coined by British author Julia Crouch. As a foreword
note to Domestic Noir: The New Face of 21st
Century Crime Fiction, she says, “It was over a G&T at the 2013 Crime
Fest that I came up with the term ‘domestic noir”’ (Joyce, Sutton vii). She
described a subgenre of crime fiction focused on domestic settings and female
perspective, ‘Domestic noir puts the female experience at the centre. The main
themes are family, motherhood, children, marriage, love, sex and betrayal.
Setting is important: the home a character inhabits, and the way they inhabit
it, can tell us as much about them as what they say or do’ (Joyce, Sutton vii).
Though is a sub-genre of detective fiction,
in contrary to the classical detective fiction that featured the dominance of
male protagonist solving puzzled-cases, the domestic-noir fixed its focus on a
woman character and around her the whole narrative revolved. Apart from this
ground-breaking gender shift, it also featured to incorporate ‘thorning’ social
issues which weren’t a part of generic fiction like detective fiction. So,
domestic-noir is a pathway that which connected literary works and popular
literature. Domestic-noir thematized control, identity and trauma within a
domestic setting involving betrayal, secrets, violence and infidelity. In the story, “The Jury of Her Peers” by
Susan Glaspell incorporates both the elements of a classical crime thriller and
feminist social criticism. Minnie Wright is put behind the bars for murdering
her husband Mr. Wright. Though she commits her involvement in the crime the
Country Jury demands the police department to collect data regarding her motive
of crime. Mr. Lewis Hale, a friend to Mr. Wright who first informs the police
regarding the murder, along with Mr. Henry Peters – the sheriff, and Mr. George
Henderson – the young country attorney, visits the crime spot for collecting
evidence that would guide them to Minnie Wright’s motive. While they visit the
crime scene, they carry Mrs. Martha Hale – wife to Mr. Hale and Mrs. Peters –
wife to Mr. Henry Peters along with them, as they were childhood friends of
Minnie. Men find several faults with Minnie’s housekeeping, as everything is
left haphazard. They walk through the crime scene discussing Minnie’s failed
housekeeping but leaving them in utter desperation for not able to collect
evidence substantiating the motive. In the meanwhile, the two women saunter
through the house and find certain ‘unnatural’ things that missed the attention
of men. “There is a nice mess” (Glaspel 3), says attorney taking a blank look
at the kitchen, but for women it seemed strange. Mrs. Hale monologues as, “What
had interrupted Minnie Foster? Why had that work been half done?” (Glaspel 5).
They notice rotten fruits, uncleaned kitchen utensils and shabby clothes of
Minnie as quite unnatural. At last they find the broken birdcage and a red box
wrapped up in silk. Inside the box was a dead-bird with wrung neck. They look
at each other upon revelation and Mrs. Peters relates this loss with her
personal experience and says, “I know what stillness is…when we homesteaded in
Dakota, and my first baby dies – after he was two years old – and me with no
other then” (Glaspel 9). This is an instance of carnivalesque reversal, the
voiceless attains voice, deferring and deterring the logic of the dominant.
A seemingly similar observation is made by
the character Priya Antony, in the movie Sooksmadarshini,
when she confirms the presence of a presumably lost person in a house by
counting the number of whistle generated by a cooker in their house. Evidence
gathering and the nature of evidence in these two works operate in direct
contradiction to the ones collected by a classical-male detective. In the 16th
chapter of the work The Art of Detective
Fiction (hereafter ADF), entitled
as “Open Letter to Detectives and Psychoanalysts” Patrick French defines a clue
as, “…a sign which has been diverted from its everyday use and which has as a
result taken on a particular material, textural or textual quality which only
the detective can spot” (Chernaik,
Davies and Gibson 228). An elderly woman named Gracy shifts her
house to an ouskirt area along with her son to spend her old-age life. But all
of a sudden the house served as a setting for a series of mysterious events,
and the incident is the missing and reappearance of Gracy. Her son Manuel
covers up this incident of disappearance by accusing alzheimer’s symptom over
his mother. Priys but finds this quite unacceptable, and she lists out few
incidents to contradict his version of logic. She recollects various acts of
Gracy, like, keeping muddy chapels outside before stepping inside house,
turning the stove off soon after the cooker hits fifth whistle, and disposing
fruits from her courtyard as part of cleanliness all indicated that she had a
sane-rational mind. What makes these two works interesting is regarding the
similar nature of clue and the teamwork they employ to collect it, disregarding
the cultural difference. Gender does play a very crucial role in determining
the nature of clue. A usual male-centered detective fiction demands that a clue
is supposed to be something that is so very-odd and undetectable to the normal
folk and left to be detected only by a highly intelligent, supernatural genius.
It seems like a tool being presented just for exhibiting ‘male logic’ and
rationality and thereby implying the lack of both in the case of woman. This is
well evident especially in the case of detective fiction when analysed from the
standpoint of gender and genre, that traditionally women were allocated with
two roles – that of victim or villain. Shift in gender also gets reflect in
clues as well. Clues collected by Priya and Mrs. Hale are seemingly irrelevant
but does prove its applicability in not only solving the mystery but also showing
the nature of socially constructed female-space. Shabby undergarment, broken
utensils, bird-corpse, and messy house are what avoids the attention of men in
Glaspell’s story. While in M.C. Jithin’s movie, things like whistling sound of
cooker, tidy house, and timely routines of Gracy are the ones that the male
counterpart misses. Hence men are seemingly blind when they enter into a
woman’s world, because it is alien and queer for them. After all, clues do bear
a symbolic signification in the world, thus making it no-free from the
patriarchal discursive involvement over it, and ending up as tools of hegemonic
system.
Another interesting feature of clues in
domestic-noir is that they present truth as not-disappointing as that is in the
case of classical detective fictions. It is partially because classical
detective fiction prioritizes syntax over content. So the cause of crime will
usually be far detached from the existing social and cultural fabric. Hence,
the pleasure offered by such works will be short-living, leaving no space for
the active-critical engagement for the readers. But when it comes to the case
of domestic noir, they ensure the active participation of readers and lasting
aesthetic pleasure by presenting the ‘truth’ as a reflection of existing social
condition. According to Patrick French,
Deconstructive
critics such as Jacques Derrida or Jeffrey Mehlman have argued that the
Freudian recognition of the pre-eminence of syntax over content is invariably
betrayed by an eventual postulation of truth, presence, a semantic principle,
or drive to locate meaning (in one place). From this perspective, the enjoyment
of the fold, of the syntax of detective fiction, is ultimately let down by the
revelation of the crime or the criminal. Truth is disappointment. (Chernaik,
Davies and Gibson 222)
Domestic-noir inverse this style of classical
detective-fiction by balancing syntax and content in such a way that they are
able to guarantee superficial pleasure offered by a sensational-detective fiction
and at the same time helps readers to have a sublime pleasure by engaging
topics that bear serious social relevance. Truth in Glaspell and M.C. Jithin’s
works reflect the dark side of women’s domestic life. It’s not something that
is meant for the sensational exhibition of detective’s superhuman observation
power. The truth in “The Jury of Her Peers” (1995)points towards the marital
oppression experienced by women that often goes unnoticed in popular fiction.
When it comes to the case of Sooksmadarshini,
it talks about the society’s hostile attitude towards lesbian relationship. In
contrary to the detachment retained by its predecessors, truth in these two
works bears a deep rootedness in the existing social condition, adding to its
social relevance and political commitment.
Next feature is the camaraderie of these
female sleuths. What makes female sleuths and their sidekicks different from
its classical forefathers is that, the later is founded on power-hierarchy
while the former is grounded on unranked detecting partnership. According to
Margaret Kinsman,
…for
many decades, the sleuth/sidekick relationship, ostensibly based on friendship,
relied less on principles of mutual benevolence, reciprocity and emotional
involvement, than on a hierarchical model of human interaction based on
acknowledged superiors and inferiors. This inequality further ensured that the
powerful bonds of friendship rarely developed to the point where they might
compromise the detective's legendary heroism and power. (Chernaik, Davies and Gibson 159)
When it comes to the case of classical detective fiction
class, gender, and race play significant role in determining the sidekick,
whereas in domestic-noir it often seems to get no importance at all. Apart from
that, at times, writers often bring these ‘marginal’ members into centre
position by aligning with or being the detective itself, to showcase its
critical attitude towards traditional dictum. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are the
‘peers’ of Minnie. Mrs. Hale was a childhood friend of Minnie and is now
engaged in the investigative duty assigned by their husbands. In contrary to
the band of their husbands – defined by hierarchy – the investigative team of
Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale is based more on unranked partnership. This allows
them to talk freely on their domestic life and social condition, making way for
conducting a cultural - critical approach on the crime scene. The
sleuth-sidekick relation here is more political and personal, thus it works in
contradiction to the popular assumption of a detective fiction. According to
Maragret Kinsman, “…if one of the generic functions of partners such as Watson
and Holmes is to 'help' the detective solve the crime, another function of the
sidekick is to help protect the detective's legendary stance of detachment from
other people” (Chernaik, Davies
and Gibson 153). This obligatory presence of a sidekick but is
often neglected in domestic-noir as it aligns more closely to hard-boiled
detective fictions than to its classical forefathers. Female sleuths aren’t
detached from the society; they bear a very deep rooted relation with the
thorning issues of the society, making them a common subject that can easily be
related to. This attachment with society do makes them more politically active
critical beings. Manuel, a villain in Sooksmadarshini
says that, “I don’t think we could afford any better place than this one for
enacting such feigned alzheimer’s. Those men out there are good for nothings
and will never intervene. They will grin and bear it” (Jithin 2:18:20; self
translated). This very dialogue is meant as a social critique towards the
alienating individualism promoted by bourgeois consciousness. Priya expresses
her doubt regarding the presence of a criminal-caucus behind the intermitted disappearance
of Ammachi (meaning mother in Malayalam, referring to Gracy) which is left
unnoticed by everyone else. Her concern towards a fellow human being, Gracy, is
what makes to undertake an adventurous journey in search of mystery behind
Ammachi’s alzheimer’s. Priya is helped by her friends, Asma – a traditional
Muslim housewife, and a comparatively younger girl named Sulu. They have
nothing to be demanded of to be aligned with the classical male detectives but
just one factor – critical attitude, the very quality that is absent in their
male counterparts.
Politics of Gaze in
Detective Fiction
Classical detective fiction has formulated a
popular assumption that a good detective is someone who has an excellent
observation skill over things that falls within the category of insignificant
or overlooked details. But, still they turn blind when stepped into the ‘world’
of woman. This is because their gaze is gender defined and not critical-based
one. When it comes to the question of critical analysis of this gaze, it is not
its extraordinary observatory skill that is counted but rather the object of gaze
and the sort of pleasure that it imparts. According to Laura Mulvey , in her
essey “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, defines the voyeuristic pleasure
as, “…in their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked
at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic
impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (9). When it
comes to the case of detective movies or fiction, gaze often turns out to be a
justifiable act. Gaze helps to locate the clues and identifies the criminal.
Gaze is good and a quintessential aspect for being a detective. But when
Mulvey’s male gaze and the resultant voyeuristic jouissance is applied to a
detective fiction, the act of detection turns out to be a scopophiliac and male
surveillance act. More than mere vistimization, women in detective movies are
objectified as sexual beings. Naked body, sexual violence, erotic
representation and ‘taboo’ relationship are often aligned to women to
underscore their ‘innate’ sin. Morality is often guided by masculinist logic in
these works and warns that women who defy it will suffer. So, what happens to
gaze if the detective is a woman? Is there a possibility of a ‘female gaze’?
The answer would be no, that is because gaze is not a physical act of mere
looking at things, rather a linguistic act. Language is what completes the
symbolic signification thereby ascribing certain meanings for the ‘object’ that
is being looked at. So, being a subject of social constructivism and systemic interpellation,
a mere shift of detective’s gender doesn’t do any good in repelling the act of
gaze. Another more evident reason for retaining this gaze in detective movies
is the demand from the part of the spectators – of which a vast majority hails
from male community. They watch a detective movie by relating to their
expectations (fantasy) and ‘reality’ – since a brute majority of detective and
police officers belong to male gender, they expect a reflection of this
‘reality’ over the silver screens and paperbacks. So, a women sleuth in
domestic-noir can deconstruct this popular expectation by presenting a
counter-gaze, a gaze that is devoid of sexual orientation and libidinal
investment.
Instead of being objectifying the female-body
for satisfying the sexual thirst of male community, the female sleuths in these
two select works turns their attention to the very sexual-abnormality possessed
by the same male community. Associating and identifying material and immaterial
objects with a feminine sexual undertone is what they deconstruct at first. As
de Beauvoir’s broader point that female inferiority cannot be aligned to the
anatomical lack of penis suggests (The
Second Sex), female sleuths in these works divert their gaze over to the
question of sexuality, power, and gendered subjectivity. When Mrs. Hale and
Mrs. Peters ‘gaze’ at the shabby undergarments of Minnie and the messy kitchen
she left unclean, the gaze becomes more epistemic devoid of visual pleasure.
The same happens in the case of Priya when discovers the lesbian relationship
between Diana and Aditi Thiagarajan. Gaze in this instance is free from
libidinal structure to a cognitive one. It still conveys power, but not through
eroticism. This might be because of the dual positioning of female sleuth who
is both the subject and object of gaze. In the case of Priya and Mrs. Hale gaze
is framed by intuition, relational insight and empathy, challenging the cold,
analytical masculinity of classic noir. When Priya peeps inside the room of
Ammachi by jumping over the wall separating her and Manuel’s house, she sees
nothing because the window was covered by a one way glass. This symbolically
indicates that without sexuality gaze becomes epistemic or political –still
powerful but not libidinal. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters gaze into various
personal belongings of Minnie as a means of introspection. They are also
constantly policed by Mr. Henry Peters and Mr. George Henderson. They usurp the
traditional male investigator by shifting their viewing position from ‘complex’
male logic to feminine ‘trifles’. The young attorney comments that, “women are
used to worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 4), devaluing the female agency
involved in solving the crime. Their gaze falls over things like dirty sink,
shabby towel, pan, bucket of sugar, skirt, rotten fruits, bad stove, unfinished
sewing, and a broken bird cage. When men were busy upstairs, Mrs. Hale and Mrs.
Peters were not merely gazing at things for collecting data but were viewing
their own life, because Mrs. Hale makes a very personal comment relating her
life upon seeing the cage without bird that, “Not having children makes less
work…but it makes a quiet house” (Glaspell 5). There is another instance when
Mrs. Peters confesses her childhood trauma, upon seeing the dead bird, “When I
was a girl…my kitten--there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my
eyes--before I could get there-- [She covered her face an instant]. If they
hadn't held me back I would have [she caught herself, looked upstairs where
footsteps were heard, and finished weakly] hurt him” (Glaspell 9). So, here
female sleuths are not gazing at things in seek of libidinal pleasure, rather
they are find themselves as if like looking into a mirror. According to Sidonie
Smith, “confession is not merely the act of telling cone’s story – it is the
reclaiming of agency through narrative. For woman, especially, the confessional
becomes a space to articulate trauma long silenced by cultural and patriarchal
structure” (A Poetics of Women’s
Autobiography 67). Hence gaze in these two select works operates as a
counter-hegemony reclaiming the voice and agency, especially when triggered by
witnessing violence.
Spatial
Transgression
What makes domestic-noir more interesting and
problematic style of art is its inherent incessant interest for gendered
spatial transgression. Space, in all its sense, is gendered. Gender demarcates
the space into sections that are accessible and inaccessible to women. This
means, the inherent priority enjoyed by male detectives to break-into any spaces
without a second thought may not be possible when the detective turns out to be
a woman. Apart from that, the themes often dealt in a domestic-noir, like,
female subjectivity and voice, violence and control, trauma and memory,
domestic space and sites of danger, all attains a full meaning when it is
analysed from the standpoint of a spatial literary theory. The very term
‘domestic’ in domestic-noir indicates the presence of a centre and margin
within the domestic space. I shall be specifically looking at one interesting
aspect of space that is featured in two of my select works – that is the act of
transgression. Gendered mobility and spatial accessibility is a serious matter
of concern when it comes to the case of domestic-noir. According to Dorean Massey,
“women comprise 50% of world’s population, do two third of the world’s work
hours, receive 10% of world’s income and own’s less than1% of world property
according to Industrial Labour Organization” (Space, Place and Gender 12).
The term ‘marginal’ is assessed both
theoretically and practically for understanding the deteriorated status of
woman in domestic-noir. What makes the act of transgression of space
interesting is that woman loses her socially constructed femininity once they
cross the threshold. Mobility, in addition, enhances their rebellious vision
for attaining a more fluid subjectivity – deterring the patriarchal
impositions. In Sookshmadarshini
Priya conducts transgression of space by crossing the wall that separates her
house with Manuel’s. She sets up Asma and Sulu to have an eye over her move,
who updates her regarding any unknown movement nearby. When Priya is about to
jump over the wall, Sulu upon her fear instructs her not to do, but Priya being
adamant takes the risk and jump over the wall. That very moment she lost her
femininity imposed by the society. It’s not a simple jump, it’s a leap that
inspires innumerous women characters in Malayalam cinema who are detained in
patriarchal dungeons. She aborts her mission as she comes in contact with
Manuel who threatens her by saying, “why are here at this time? Is Antony
[Priya’s husband] aware about your visit. Isn’t it bad to break to someone’s
else house?...you might be an expert in jumping the fence [connotes erotic
tone], but don’t you dare to sneak into my family matters…hope you got it…now
push off” (Jithin 1:20:59; self translation). Manuel’s anger is because he
doesn’t want Priya to know about the mystery behind Ammachi’s disappearance,
but the tone of language he uses is well familiar to all Malayalees as it
underscores the pseudo-moral concern of an average patriarchal Malayalee. So,
from a critical standpoint it isn’t just the fear of getting exposed of his
sinistrous plan what made Manuel to lose his control, but rather it is her gender
what worries him a lot. Priya, being a housewife, dared to jump the fence at
midnight to cross into a neighbouring man’s house - that too a bachelor - is
sufficient enough to capsize the moral-balance of a Malayalee society.
Why does patriarchy fear transgression? A
vast majority of detective fiction is insisting woman to remain in their
pre-allocated space-time configuration, most preferably within home and not to
step-out during dark. If they violate this dictum they will suffer – this is
the moral summary of a classical detective fiction. This explains the reason
why most of the woman victims in detective fiction are female flaneurs. Back to
the question, patriarchy fear transgression because mobility across time-space
configuration, in-contrary to the demands of patriarchy, results in knowledge
acquisition, which will definitely result in the critique of patriarchal
institutions in the society. Martha Hale too had this same feeling combined of
fascination and nausea before stepping inside the crime scene – “Even after she
had her foot on the door-step, her hand on the knob, Martha Hale had a moment
of feeling she could not cross that threshold. And the reason it seemed she
couldn't cross it now was simply because she hadn't crossed it before” (Glaspell
2). What is that repels Martha from entering into a crime scene? It’s nothing
but masculinity and territorial logic, she being a subject of patriarchal
interpellation, a sudden shift in space will definitely confuses her but it
soon revives her as well. Once stepped inside this space – crime scene – they
undergoes a very serious introspection that is powerful enough to defy the
logic of masculinity and they dares to hide the most vital evident that would
reveal the core reason behind the murder. This sense of camaraderie is
something that they have gained soon after stepping inside the space. Doreen
Massey in her work Space, Place and
Gender states that,
identities
of places are inevitably unfixed. They are unfixed part precisely because the
social relations out of which they are constructed are themselves by their very
nature dynamic and changing. They are also unfixed because of the continual
production of further social effects through the very juxtaposition of those
social relations…’places cannot really be characterized by the recourse to some
essential, internalized moment. (Glaspell 178)
This sense of fluid nature of places is often seen
favorable by woman in detective fiction, as it challenges fixed gender
identities, it makes space for marginalized voices and decentralize the
gender-place binaries.
Transgression as an act of rebellion towards
patriarchy occurs in two variant forms in my study, one, reclaiming of public
space as sits of resistance, and two, infiltrating the domestic sphere with
subversive narratives. Starting with the first, a vast majority of public space
is often cordoned off from women to prevent them from engaging in active participation.
Looking more closely Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale finds it so discomfort to join
their male counterparts to visit a space (Minnie’s house) outside their
domestic confinement. Mrs. Hale constantly worries of her ‘half-done’ domestic
works, and Mrs. Peters hated the “lonesome looking place” (Glaspell 2) like
anything. Glaspell calls their entry into the house as “crossing that
threshold” (Glaspell 2) to indicate transgression of gendered space. They were
so hesitant to roam around the house and they were instructed to search the
kitchen while men resorted to upstairs. Mr. Hale expresses his concern of
leaving them alone with a ‘serious’ task as, “But would the women know a clue
if they did come upon it?” (Glaspell 5), indicating the unadaptability of woman
outside their desired domestic space. Kitchen operates as the most
‘comfortable’ space for women and Mrs. Hale confirms this view, “I'd hate to
have men comin' into my kitchen…snoopin' round and criticizing” (Glaspell 5).
But this social-constructivist mentality soon erased and she expresses her
resentment of this spatial disparity which is evident from her statement,
“Wonder how they're finding things upstairs?” (Glaspell 7). This very shift in
attitude is an indication of the attainment of political revelation which is
evident in the sudden shift of their attitude towards Minnie and even making
them ‘dare’ to hush up a vital evidence from noticed by the male detectives.
All this shifts in their attitude takes place once they broke their ‘comfort’ zone
– private space -and get themselves involved in ‘public’ space. So, according
to me, a public space for woman is not defined by its size or infrastructural
configuration but rather any space where cultural production is very high due
to the increased involvement of men and that which is often projected as the
face of society and a space that is ‘hostile’ for woman. Meaning, it can range
from a metropolitan city-centre to a hall within a house. Trespassing to this
space poses a serious threat to their very existence. Dorean Massey quotes
Davidoff’s view of gendered space in her work Space, Place and Gender as, “the period of the mid-nineteenth
century was a crucial one in the development of the notion of ‘seperation of
sphere’ and the confinement of women, ideologically if not for all women in
practice, to the ‘private’ sphere of the suburbs and home” (234). The very
moment when Priya jumped over the fence to demystify the secret behind
Ammachi’s disappearance, she lost her femininity and that’s what worries Manuel
the most. The concept of morality shaped by patriarchy is what operates as an
ideological power that prevents women from conducting such transgressions, and
this is what Manuel indicates through his dialogue, “why are here at this time?
Is Antony [Priya’s husband] aware about your visit” (Jithin 1:20:59; self
translated). Massey stresses that female flaneur is an “… impossibility. In
part this is so because ‘respectable’ women simply could not wander around the
streets” (235). So, Priya, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are representatives of
female sleuths who prove that existence is possible in a male-exclusive
‘public’ space called crime-space. They prove that mobility and spatial
transgression enacted poses a serious threat to the patriarchal institutions
that facilitates the interpellation for producing feminine subjects in the
society. In both these select works female sleuths disrupt the spatial and
ideological boundaries that define femininity, thereby aiding in the
disintegration of systems that interpellate woman as passive, domestic
subjects.
Works
Cited
Chernaik,
Warren, Martin Davies, and Jennifer Gibson, editors. The Art of Detective Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.
De
Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. Translated by Constance Borde and Sheila
Malovany-Chevallier, Vintage Books, 2011. Originally published 1949.
Glaspell,
Susan. Her America: "A Jury of Her Peers" and Other Stories. U
of Iowa P, 1995.
Jithin,
M. C., director. Sookshmadarshini. Happy Hours Production, 2025.
Joyce,
Laura, and Henry Sutton, editors. Domestic Noir: The New Face of 21st
Century Crime Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
Massey,
Doreen. Space, Place, and Gender. Polity Press, 1994.
Mulvey,
Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen, vol.
16, no. 3, 1975, pp. 6–18.
Smith,
Sidonie. A Poetics of Women's Autobiography: Marginality and the Fictions of
Self-Representation. Indiana UP, 1987.