Fifth Study

Abstract

The fifth and last chapter gathers together the threads of the previous chapters’ meditations on subjectivity—a subjectivity that may first be triggered by a sense of injustice, subjectivity that is often sharpened by powerful negative affects such as humiliation, or developed over the course of a lifetime as it navigates difficult life experiences. The oeuvre of Krishna Sobti is an apt summation of the themes of the previous chapters. Sobti’s characters too negotiate subjectivity vis a vis difficult family relationships (especially mothers and daughters), the legitimate wife vis-à-vis extramarital establishments and children, or again, the self vis-à-vis the darkness of depression. Few people round off the theme of subjectivity, affect, and meaningful moral action in an anguished and confusing world than Sobti’s protagonists, so it is fitting that the book ends with her.