Author: Saheb Kaur
Author Affiliation: Comparative Indian Literature, University of Delhi
Abstract: This paper shall investigate how the body politic elaborates in the texts, as a site of lineage and identity, which is eventually dismantled as a site of socio-political and legal victimization. The purpose to choose Leroi Jones’ The Slave and Dutchman, and Mannu Bhandari’s Mahabhoj is to mark the latter as a continuation of the former where the black body’s subjugation and subsequent killing can be traced in Saroha Village in the body of the murdered protagonist, Bisu. The plots of the plays ‘Dutchman’, and ‘The Slave’ negotiate with the narrative of Mahabhoj, which not only makes them relative cross culturally and gives a site of east-west relations, but also conveniently unfolds the functioning of power as unspecific to locale and omnipresent.
Keywords: Power relations, Legitimized oppressions, Justice, Identity.