Abstract:
Sri Lankan theatre productions featuring war rarely place importance on the
suicide bomber. As such, Visakesa Chandrasekan’s play Forbidden Area is unique as it
revolves round a female LTTE suicide bomber who is on a mission. Thus, investigating
the representation of female militancy is important with relevance to cultural studies as
well as security studies given the pervasive presence of ‘wars on terror’. Consequently,
this paper attempts to discuss whether Chandrasekaran subverts majoritarian discourse
which dehumanizes the female suicide bomber, and for this analysis I use the concept
of masking.
Masking, as viewed by Elaine Savory (1999), is a series of codes signifying
multiple levels of personality, indicated by ritual ways. While Urmila dons a ‘mask of
courage and defiance’, as the time for the mission dawns she unveils mixed emotions.
The complexity of Urmila’s character is heightened as she subverts gender politics and
‘femininity’; she also draws divine inspiration from the Hindu goddess Kali. Although
Urmila’s character doesn’t fall short of being “human” her final action is far from being
dialectical. In this text, masking functions as a protective and subversive strategy given
her precarious situation.
