GENDER FLUIDITY: A CRITICAL STUDY OF JEET THAYIL’S NARCOPOLI

The major aim of present study has to explore gender fluidity in Jeet Thayil’s Narcopolis. The gender fluidity is postmodern term that shows the psychological, physical, and physiological changes in an individual with the passage of time. It challenges the traditional binary gender system that shows the mental and physical transformations in the individual in identity, desire, and selfperception. Set in the late 1970s Bombay, the novel Narcopolis represents the city of Mumbai as an urban landscape dominated by crime, drug trade, and the sex industry. The novel unfolds dark sides of the city of Mumbai and its chaotic environment in which the individual’s identity, gender, morality and religion are constantly changing with the passage of time. Moreover, the novel exposes societal and economic diversities on the basis of issues unemployment and illiteracy, child abuse and violence both in domestic and public workplaces. The novel has a multilayer narrative that captures the complexities of life in an evolving and morally ambiguous urban space.