Analyzing the Protagonist’s Identity in Roy's The Ministry of Utmost Happiness: Gender Performativity

Abstract

Debate of gender has traditionally been viewed as interconnected concepts in certain historical perspectives. The distinction between sex and gender is crucial, as Kate Millet's work Sexual Politics (1969) argues that sex is biologically determined but gender is socially constructed. In her influential work Gender Trouble (1990), Judith Butler posited the concept that identity is constructed through performance. The present research paper discusses Roy’s The Ministry of the Utmost Happiness in relation to the identity of the protagonist, Anjum. The issue of gender discrimination in The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is depicted by Roy through the character of Anjum. This research has employed Butler’s Gender Performativity along with textual analysis by Catherine Belsey in the course of the selected novel’s analysis. The study demonstrates identity of Anjum, a transgender, in motion. The protagonist keeps on changing gender identity ranging from transgender to cisgender.