Gender and Communication in Manjula Padmanabhan’s Lights Out

Abstract

It is a well-known fact that gender differentiation is all pervasive. It permeates all spheres of life. The domain of language is no exception to it. In the early 1970’s, linguists and psychologists began to give great attention to dominance and differences in male and female communication. Robin Lakoff, a well-known linguist, finds link between language and gender in her book Language and Woman’s Place (1975) in which her theory affirms that there is a distinct male and a female language. Her theory was supported as well as challenged by other known theoretical approaches. This paper aims at addressing major theories of language along with gender and tracing its applicability in Manjula Padmanabhan’s play, Lights Out. The study of expressions in language spoken by male and female characters in Lights Out will search linguistic features which can be used to redress gender traits.