Fractured Futures: Chaos and Resistance in Manjula Padmanabhan’s Escape
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.67431/nfxw3576Keywords:
identity; neo-colonial; embodied resistance; power dynamics; chaotic systemAbstract
Located within a dystopian future characterised by the devoid of women population and the power-centric alteration of knowledge, identity and reproductive rights, the text suggests the structures of totalitarian socio-political structures. The study presents a detailed exploration of Manjula Padmanabhan’s novel Escape (2008), based on the tenets of Chaos and Postcolonial theory. Chaos theory, suggests how seemingly minor fluctuations, the very presence of single female in the novel can enhance profound outcomes in complex regime, by uncovering the inner proneness of tyrannical system and parallelly, Postcolonial theory serves to explore the dynamics of neo-colonial power structures and gender violence within the context of a globalised society. Integrating these parallel perspectives, this paper propounds that the selected text operates as a manifestation of embodied resistance, in which chaotic system suggests not only as disorder, but as a resistive force that owns the capacity to aid transformative opportunities. The text visualizes the society’s strict structural rigidity and its leakages as both as faces of same coin.
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