Using discourse analysis, critically evaluate the portrayal of gender,
specifically of the politically violent women, in The Terrorist.
Abstract
This essay uses discourse analysis to evaluate the way in which women are portrayed in
Santosh Sivan's film, 'The Terrorist'. Adopting discourse analysis as a methodological
technique brings to the fore the subvertion of gendered norms and the fluid and
dynamic nature of gender discourse. Moreover, this essay has sought to contextualise
the portrayal of politically violent women in 'The Terrorist' within dominant theoretical
insights and real-life situations, including the assassination of Indian Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi, upon which the film is loosely based. Malli, the politically violent female
character, is 'masculinised' through various techniques throughout the film. However, a
discourse analysis reveals that 'masculinisation' in a male-oriented system does not lead
to gender equality. The portrayal of gender within the film demonstrates the way in
which conventional, stereotypical understandings of gender are initially challenged,
only to be reinforced later in the film. Ultimately, discourse analysis as a theoretical tool
can be used to provide invaluable insight into the denial of agency to politically violent
actors, particularly in analyses of politically violent women.
“[I] tried to simply tell the story of a girl fighting for a cause, being brainwashed
about the future of the country and ending up screwing up her own future”
(Sivan as told to Walsh, 1998).
A discourse analysis of the 1998 film The Terrorist by Santosh Sivan brings to the
fore many discussions on gender. In order to contextualise these discussions, we
must accept gender to be “an intersubjective social construction that constantly
evolves with changing societal perceptions and intentional manipulation”
(Sjoberg and Gentry, 2007: 5). Simply put, discourse analysis is “a general
inquiry into how people make meaning, and make out meaning, in texts”. These
meanings “represent particular beliefs and values that define ways of thinking
about the world” (Widdowson, 2007: xv). Discourse analysis as a method may be
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applied outwith text, to both imagery and film. Critical discourse, according to
Lazar, is “known for its overtly political stance and is concerned with all forms of
social inequality and injustice” (2005: 2). It is with the acknowledgement of such
concerns that this essay will proceed.
The film parallels the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by
female suicide bomber Thenmozhi Rajaratnam in 1991. 19-year-old Malli is
chosen to assassinate a politician referred to only as the ‘VIP’. Throughout her
weeklong journey, we see a shift in the portrayal of Malli as a politically violent
woman. This is due in part to the gendered portrayal of individuals surrounding
her. Whilst recognising the complexities involved in utilising such an approach,
this essay will use discourse analysis to identify the portrayal of Malli in two
distinct ways as her character progresses throughout the film. This essay will
demonstrate that as a woman with politically violent intentions, Malli possess no
agency, and is an atypical figure within the ‘monster’ narrative (Sjoberg and
Gentry, 2007). Later developments within the narrative and shifting gendered
dynamics show conformity to a stereotypically ‘feminised’ position.
Why do discourse analysis?
“Discourse is not simply an entity we can define independently: we can only arrive
at an understanding of it by analysing sets of relations”
(Fairclough, 2010: 3).
In order to proceed with a discourse analysis of The Terrorist, one must first
identify its purpose. According to Jackson (2009), discourse analysis is used to
identify the relationship between the unit of analysis and the wider sociopolitical context. This essay begins by acknowledging the breadth of
interdisciplinary research that has developed over the last 40 years. The
international system “remains a world of stark gender inequalities” (Steans,
2006: 4), and a discourse analysis of The Terrorist allows insight into both the
construction and re-production of such gendered inequalities. This essay will
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subject The Terrorist to Jackson’s (2009) first and second order critique –
identifying contradictions within the film to undermine principal conceptions,
and further utilising the discourse to reflect upon the wider significance of the
gendered portrayals within the film.
The application of an intersectional analysis allows for concepts to be
understood in a wider context. Davis understands intersectionality to be “the
interaction
of
multiple
identities
and
experiences
of
exclusion
and
subordination” (2008: 67). Whilst a notoriously ambiguous concept, oftentimes
it is this flexibility that has led to its successes as a methodological approach
(Davis, 2008). The intersections between gender, age, and education provide
insight into the portrayal of Malli as a politically violent woman. Finally,
attention must be paid to aspects seemingly absent within the film. Discourse
analysts are primarily interested in “studying the process of construction itself,
how ‘truths’ emerge, how social realities and identities are built and the
consequences of these, [rather] than working out what ‘really happened’”
(Wetherell, 2001: 16). In The Terrorist, Malli’s identity as a ‘masculinised’ female
is constructed in a number of ways, which will be explored further in this essay,
including her willingness to engage in violent behaviour.
Subverted gender norms and the ‘monster’ narrative
“Women are not supposed to be violent”
(Sjoberg and Gentry, 2007: 2).
In the opening sequence of the film, only male voices are heard. ‘Masculine’
prefixes are used until Malli is spoken of, at which point gender-neutral language
is adopted. By concealing Malli’s identity as a woman and surrounding her with
male voices and faces, the opening sequence perpetuates the sentiment
articulated in the above quote. Discourse analysis reveals Malli to be a
‘masculinised’ figure – possessing traits stereotypically associated with the
‘ideal’ male: bravery, courage, and strength (Sjoberg Cooke and Neal, 2011: 4).
For instance, after Malli kills the traitor in the opening scene, her female friend
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tells Malli that she is ‘hero-worshipped’, further stating, ‘If you were a man, I’d
marry you’. The ‘masculinisation’ of Malli subverts the norm that whilst “war and
combat have been conventionally viewed as ‘masculine’ activities, peace has
been associated with the feminine’” (Steans, 2006: 4). Malli becomes the ‘antifeminine’ woman. Thus, we are able to identify discourse to be “an active
construction” (Wetherell, 2001: 17) which, in this instance, subverts gendered
conventions. Within The Terrorist, women are not only both victims and
perpetrators of political violence; there is also a deconstruction of the
masculine/feminine and peace/violence binaries (Ahall, 2011).
Malli is portrayed as a ‘masculinised’ distortion, possessing character traits that
“the ideal types of womanhood in gender norms exclude” (Sjoberg and Gentry,
2007: 41) – as an individual who fits within the ‘monster’ narrative. According to
Morrissey, such “monsterization denies agency by insisting upon the evil nature
of the murderess, thus causing her to lose humanity” (Morrissey, 2003: 25). With
such a loss of agency, “neither they nor their gender are responsible for their
actions” (Sjoberg and Gentry, 2007: 41). Thus, politically violent women seen as
‘monsters’ are regarded as irrational and possess no agency. In such instances,
causal factors lead to a loss of humanity. Analysing Malli’s experiences in
conjunction with academic literature (e.g. Sjoberg and Gentry, 2007), we arrive
at the narrative suggestion that grief leads to insanity.
Whilst Malli has been ‘masculinised’, this is not to say that she is presented as
equal to her male counterparts. Despite the honour and privilege of sacrificing
her life for the greater cause, Malli is still within a position of inferiority. She is
not consulted on any decision-making; her involvement is limited to fittings and
rehearsals of the assassination. Discourse analysis in this instance reveals the
way in which gendering has maintained notions of power distribution. The
camera pans up whenever Malli is listening to the Leader, and looks down upon
Malli when she is being spoken to. What’s more, the leader of the organisation is
never named; nor is the father of Malli’s potential child, or the faceless ‘VIP’
chosen as the assassination target. The anonymity of several key male figures
within the film warrants further investigation. This may serve to suggest that
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Malli’s private life is truly private; in this sense, she is conforming to
conventional notions of ‘femininity’ and its association with the private sphere.
Additionally, this may serve as a further example of gendered distributions of
power.
As Van Dijk remarks, a primary purposes of critical discourse analysis is to
reveal inequalities in power (1993: 249). As such, the intersections between
gender, education and age constrain Malli’s agency and perpetuate structural
inequality. According to Hancock, within an intersectional analysis, “the
categories matter equally … the categories are fluid not stable; and mutually
constitute each other” (in Walby and Strid, 2012: 227). Malli’s gender predetermined her involvement, as the Leader specified ‘a girl from camp 14’ be
chosen. The film is produced in Tamil and set in the South Asian Jungle. The
LTTE organisation has a history of female involvement, within which girls
typically join between the ages of 14 and 16 (Alison, 2009: 50). This
subsequently affects access to education. Contextualising real-life events both
geographically and socio-politically, discourse analysis of The Terrorist reveals a
subversion of gender norms and widespread stereotypical assumptions, which
constrict her agency as a politically violent woman, thus affecting her
representation in the film. According to Elshtain, “the woman fighter is, for us, an
identity in extremis, not an expectation” (1987: 173). Despite the considerations
unearthed within the discourse, we must acknowledge that the only other female
character given significant consideration on screen is Vasudevan’s wife.
Presented as a loving mother overcome by grief, she is in a coma and has no
voice of her own. Thus, it is the representation not only of politically violent
women, but the characterisation of all women as lacking agency in The Terrorist.
A (re)-feminised discourse
“What has been militarized can be remilitarized. What has been demilitarized can
be remilitarized”
(Enloe, 2000: 291).
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Within the ‘mother’ narrative, notions of motherhood may be both an
explanation and a justification of violence (Sjoberg and Gentry, 2007). Intense
maternal feelings toward an individual can seemingly be applied to a desire to
mother the state, which in itself is ‘masculinised’ through notions of sovereignty
(Steans, 2006: 34). It is this desire, or inability to mother, that drives women to
violent behaviour. However, within the narrative of The Terrorist, Malli’s
suspected pregnancy acts to suppress her violent intentions. Of note is the
paralleled ‘masculinity’ in contrast to notions of motherhood; the sovereign state
is ‘masculinised’, as is Malli’s child. When Malli speaks to Vasudevan’s wife, she
says, ‘we are the same. You lost your son, and I am about to lose mine’. Protecting
the ‘masculine’ things dear to her, Malli adopts a maternal role. Within Sjoberg
and Gentry’s (2007) mother narrative, we see an internal conflict arising, as Malli
must sacrifice one ‘masculinised’ object under her care to protect the other.
We arrive at a turning point in the narrative when Malli meets Surya, nicknamed
Lotus by the Leader; a young boy tasked with taking Malli through the jungle to
transport her to the assassination location. The infantilisation of Lotus
undoubtedly consolidates Malli’s transformation into a re-feminised, maternal
woman. Examples of this infantilisation include Lotus referring to bombs as
‘apples’, and needing Malli to console him after having a nightmare. According to
Sjoberg and Gentry, the mother narrative “carries with it the weight of gendered
assumptions about what is appropriate female behaviour” (2007: 33). As such,
we see the shifting portrayal of Malli as an attempt to fit within these
‘appropriate’ feminine norms. Whilst the transformation begins with Malli’s
interaction with Lotus, it is cemented following the development of Malli’s
relationship with Vasudevan, the eccentric farmer. As Blommaert remarks,
discourse can be seen to include “meaningful symbolic behaviour” (2005: 2).
Perhaps then, Vasudevan’s story of the optimistic and pessimistic seeds may be
seen as symbolically planting the seed of change in Malli’s mind. According to
director Santosh Sivan, Malli is never truly pregnant (as told to Warrier, 1997) –
but it is the prospect of carrying a child that leads to a turning point both in the
narrative and in the portrayal of Malli as a politically violent woman.
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Whilst Sivan reaffirms and re-establishes conventional gender norms, the
transition from ‘monster’ to ‘mother’ is not a smooth one; Malli murders a
soldier in front of Lotus, changing his construction of her as a nurturing figure.
This emphasises the fragmentation of discourse, demonstrating the way in which
no one discourse is ever wholly applicable. Thus, we accept claims made by poststructural feminists on the fluidity of socially constructed terms including
‘feminism’, as “the discursive gendering of women’s violence … is changeable
rather than static” (Sjoberg and Gentry, 2007: 55). As Moser and Clark remark,
“stereotypical essentializing of women as ‘victims’ and men as ‘perpetrators’ of
political violence and armed conflict assumes universal, simplified definitions of
such phenomena” (2001: 4). An analysis of Malli as a politically violent woman
demonstrates how such phenomena are never truly simple.
The deficiencies of discourse
Stump and Dixit elaborate on Michel Foucault’s interpretation of discourse,
remarking that discourse is indeed “not natural and self-evident. It is something
that the researcher herself determines based on empirical study” (2013: 105). As
such, one must acknowledge the limitations of discourse analysis and the biases
inherent within such a methodological approach, both within the subject of
analysis and the analysis in itself. Using a method so “unabashedly normative”
(van Dijk, 1993: 253), the identified meaning will always be constructed. The
film is undoubtedly constructed for the viewing of an international audience –
Sivan deliberately chose an English title, despite the fact that the film is in Tamil
(Warrier, 1997). The only motivations behind Malli’s political violence the
audience is made aware of are the deaths of her father, the nationalist poet, and
her brother, the martyr – both male. Malli’s mother is never mentioned other
than telling Vasudevan that both her parents are dead. The guiding figure in the
five days the film is set is Vasudevan – another male. All the men in Malli’s life
are in positions of authority. Thus, we may conclude that a discourse analysis of
The Terrorist reaffirms the role gendering plays in subordinating Malli and
maintaining structural inequality.
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Whilst thus far, this essay has demonstrated what discourse analysis has
revealed about the portrayal of Malli as a politically violent woman, attention
must now be turned to what discourse analysis is unable to reveal. Of vital
importance is what is missing from the narrative, and what implications this may
have for the broader discourse of terrorism studies. Neo-Orientalism asserts
that terrorists and politically violent actors predominantly justify their actions
on religious grounds – where violence is the product of ‘less developed’ cultures
(Tuastad, 2003). Within the narrative of The Terrorist, there is no mention of
religion except for the scene where Malli is eating with Vasudevan – we see her
eating with her right hand and using three fingers, traits demonstrating good
manners in Islamic faith. Malli herself never alludes to her political motivations
or ideology. Sivan is not implicitly making religion the causal factor behind
Malli’s political violence, or the reasoning behind the scheduled assassination of
the ‘VIP’. This demonstrates how the film is working outwith assumptions of
political violence and terrorism. It is evident that utilising an intersectional
analysis, and incorporating aspects seemingly missing from the narrative
contributes to understandings of gender in a broader sense.
Conclusion
Discourse analysis of The Terrorist reveals how director Santosh Sivan has
overturned conventional gender assumptions, only to re-introduce them at a
later point in the narrative. We may conclude that this serves to emphasise the
positive representation and the normality of conventional ‘femininity’. For
instance, the notion that “women’s innate peacefulness is as mythical as men’s
natural proclivity towards violence” (Steans, 2006: 48) is initially employed, and
then undermined with Malli’s maternal, nurturing character emphasised with
her decision not to partake in the final act of violence. Sivan clearly has his own
biases which have impacted the portrayal of Malli as a politically violent
character; admitting that Malli only really starts ‘thinking’ when she questions
her readiness to sacrifice her life for a political cause (as told to Warrier, 1995).
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As Sunderland and Litosseliti remark, “a discourse approach to gender and
language aims to accommodate ideas of individual agency, and of gender … as
multiple, fluctuating and shaped in part by language” (2002: 6). Thus, we are
able to recognise the need for two separate narratives when analysing the
portrayal of Malli as a politically violent woman, and identify the difficulties
associated with such an approach. Locating a consistently changing narrative
presents its difficulties, especially when locating concepts that themselves are
social constructions. However, perhaps, as with intersectionality, it is precisely
this complexity that is required to understand gendered representations within
the discourse.
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Filmography
1998. The Terrorist. Santosh Sivan.
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