| The aim of this study is to place Gud&dotbelow;ipat&dotbelow;i Ven˙kat&dotbelow;a Calam's Maidanam (1927, Telugu) among the major pan-Indian domestic novels of the reform period, which focused on heroines who reworked ideals of female sexual discourse in the context of colonial modernity. The "man-woman relationship" at the center of such novels, which include works by Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali) and Premchand (Hindi), was potentially a modern site of greater exclusivity and intimacy, yet often 'resolved' illegitimate desire in the form of a lament for socially unacceptable love, or through a cycle of transgression and punishment. Domestic novels, such as Tagore's Binodini and Premchand's Nirmala, are shown to repeatedly explore and test reform versions of the dutiful and faithful wife (pativrata) within the contexts of brahminical Hindu models, practices, and mythologies, and as a part of major reform movements that took up campaigns on the behalf of women. Calam's Maidanam stands apart, as an unparalleled experimental feminist text, in its representation of its middle-class, brahmin housewife heroine, Rajesvari, and her open quest for sexual experience as a rasika---both as a lover and a person with a heightened sensual sensibility.; Calam's use of vyavaharika (spoken-style) written vernacular, and his development of a novelistic discourse was effective in creating female narrators with complex subjectivities, including the psychologically convincing "I" of Maidanam's heroine. The Telugu novel as a new genre is considered in the colonial context, in terms of the specifics of Calam's Telugu environment, particularly with regard to language debates. Comparisons between D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928, English) and Maidanam clarify the extent of Calam's contribution to a modern discourse on female sexuality in narrative fiction. Lawrence's phallic imagination, dependent on female receptivity, is juxtaposed to Calam's creation of a female-centered discourse and a language of female sexuality (with an emphasis on touch and flow). Calam's recuperation of elements of an pre-colonial erotic aesthetic is a significant component of this study. Finally, the reception of Calam's work and Calam's impact on readers and writers in Telugu society are discussed. |
