A comparative literature approach to gender and narrative in Indian television

This article examines television in India as a case to argue for the role of comparative literature in analysing visual media within the context of the alternative humanities. It seeks to redefine the role of comparative literature as a reflective practice within the alternative humanities. Through the lens of gender representation, it explores how Indian television negotiates cultural narratives and offers a non-western perspective to comparative media studies. Since the 1960s, scholars have positioned comparative literature in relation to adjacent and competing disciplines to define its role within the alternative humanities. These debates highlight how comparative literature materializes in fields such as cultural studies, world literature, media studies and the digital humanities. In the context of visual media, comparative literature establishes a cultural framework for analysis and criticism. It bridges the study of television as both a communication medium essential to contemporary society and an aesthetic object that, through its narrative structures, engages with and interrogates the alternative humanities. This study challenges the view that comparative literature abruptly replaced traditional criticism and produced a revolutionary societal impact. Instead, its development is examined alongside that of television, which evolved gradually by integrating tradition with innovation. Television has served as a platform where the alternative humanities converge, particularly through representations of gender in advertising, news interpretations, political activism and discourse of justice. This process has contributed to the expansion of comparative literature. Comparative literature fosters plurality and social justice, while media studies, particularly visual media, offer a critical perspective on television.