Breaking Bones, Building Voice: The Politics of Expression in Trying to Grow

Abstract

Aims: This paper seeks to explore Trying to Grow by Firdaus Kanga as an intricate literary work, examining the constructs of disability, sexuality, and cultural identity in postcolonial India, while challenging the systems of a disablism framework. In doing so, the study aims to situate the novel as both a compelling piece of life writing and a significant intervention in South Asian studies of ableism, queerness, and hybrid identity.

Methodology and Approaches: The investigation relies on a close reading of the text of the novel alongside its analytical comparison with other related Indian and international texts. The research is grounded in the theoretical frameworks of Disability Studies, Queer Theory, and Postcolonial Theory, particularly the medical versus social model of disability, intersectionality of multiple identities, and postcolonial civic national identity politics.

Outcome: The research demonstrates Brit Kotwal, Kanga’s protagonist, undermines the expected literary representation of a queer or disabled character. Through her wit, agency, and self-resistance, Brit dismantles dominant models of hetero-masculinity and heterosexual normativity as well as bodily normativity. This article also shows how disability, queerness, and the marginalized Parsi culture intersectionally shapes the identity Trying to Grow seeks to express.

Conclusion and Suggestions: In attempting to wind up the argument, the paper attempts to defend Trying to Grow as the first English fiction from India which fundamentally and distinctively alters an archetypal coming of age story through the lens of marginalization. Further studies might examine approximate analyses in Indian literature focusing on the critique and reception of queer- disabled identities in the broader cultural frameworks of South Asia.