Qn. Attempt the thematic analysis of the story 'a strand of cotton '.
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Answer:
The aim of the paper is to interpret the story, „A Strand Cotton‟ by Suneet Chopra in light of postmodernism. The idea is to exploit the observations of Lyotard, Heywood and Carter to interpret the story. Heywood observes that postmodernism came into existence with industrialisation, market-oriented capitalist economies, new social classes, democracy, and the Enlightenment values, like reason and progress. In Carter‟s observation, postmodernism undermines the dominant and central arguments of Western thought, such as language, identity, origin, voice, and mind. In addition, it prefers to use the mechanisms of dispersal, uncertainty, disagreement and westernisation. Lyotard further adds that “Post-Modernism favours seeing the world in more rhetorical terms as a field of contending smaller narratives, where people strive to make their point of view and their interests paramount by making their narratives more convincing”. In my opinion Prabhat‟s rhetorical arguments, questions and answers have strength against the announcement of the established systems of behaviour. He carries on, “You say the Devi will kill me if I break this thread? I have heard this from childhood. See then if she does.” He pulls the string off and breaks it. He rolls up the thread and throws it to an untouchable woman sitting by the wall. “Go and sew your clothes with it, sister. It‟s more useful that way,” he adds defiantly. He feels a new power arise in him. For him, the thread is like a snake, that has died for him and become irrelevant. This is like a rebirth for Prabhat and he is now a casteless being, typically postmodern.