Structuring the Voices of Activism in Farzana Doctor’s Seven: The Dialectics of Damage and Disclosure

Abstract

Recent interventionist actions around the world have dented the essentialist construct of ‘the nation’ with its rigid emphasis on the rhetoric of ‘domestic affairs’. Be it Greta Thunberg’s sustained protest about climate change or Robert Malley’s warning about global peace and security, overt and covert global activism has opposed the abiding formulation of the nation and its functioning like never before. Speaking up, sharing resources, utilizing networks, showing support, and so on have inspired citizens to show solidarity for the ‘marginalized other’ in oppressive systems, cutting across their power and privilege. The role of literature has become more potent, as compelling, cogent fictions have allowed greater room for bargaining, wielding power, and welding resistances against systems of tyranny. This article proposes to understand the shifts in diasporic practices of Indo-Canadian writers by focusing on Farzana Doctor’s recent novel Seven (2020) as an aesthetic-cum-resistant enterprise. Taking biographical experiences and exposure as a social worker, Farzana Doctor teases out the complexities of the community practice of Khatna or Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), by dialectically balancing the feminist uproar on female circumcision and the oppressive control exercised by the community.