Mother, I want to marry her, but only if you wish”: A Case of Visual Analysis to Understand Families in Contemporary Kerala

Mother, I want to marry her, but only if you wish”: A Case of Visual Analysis to Understand Families in Contemporary Kerala

Family

Enmeshment

Identity

Individuation

Film

Kerala

Visual analysis

The study suggests looking into culturally sensitive data sources like popular films that open a window into the social psyche. As an illustrative case, the climax sequence of a popular Malayalam film Aniyathipravu is analyzed using the method of visual analysis. The analysis is guided by the hermeneutic approach of psychoanalysis and by inputs from evolutionary psychology. The analysis attempts to explore the aspects of individuation of the son, female identity formation and the familial consequences of these aspects in the contemporary society. It reveals how the son is caught in the ambivalence of wanting to be separate from his mother and to be dependent on her, and how the mother is evolved into the cultural stereotype of mother-in-law. The study also shows that motherhood overshadows all other aspects of the female identity in the contemporary society. Study has demonstrated the use of visual analysis to interpret data from popular culture. It indicates the need to psychologically analyze family structure in the contemporary society.

Joseph, Shiju

Sasidharan, T

Menon, Maya

Artha Journal of Social Sciences; Vol. 12 No. 1 (2013): Artha Journal of Social Sciences; 33-48

0000-0000

0975-329X

Centre for Publications, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bangalore

2013-01-01

Copyright (c) 2016 Artha - Journal of Social Sciences

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0

application/pdf

eng

info:eu-repo/semantics/article

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Peer-reviewed Article

Text