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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 socio-

political 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 ‘anti-

feminine’ 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 pre-

determined 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 post-

structural 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.