Amma, disobbedire alla Storia, disobbedire al genere: riflessioni dal romanzo Ret Samādhi di Geetanjali Shree

This paper aims to shed light on the forms of disobedience and subversion enacted by Amma, a central character in the Hindi novel Ret Samādhi (2018) by Geetanjali Shree. Amma, a recently widowed octoge- narian, after experiencing a period of depression, defies all the limits and boundaries set by conventional social roles and mainstream history. With the support of Rosy, a flamboyant hijra with whom she shares a close bond, the elderly woman recovers and appears to flourish once more, rediscovering her own body and a sense of new youthfulness. Amma embarks then on a jour- ney that will carry her beyond all kinds of frontiers, be they physical, mental, or social. She no longer conforms to the conventional archetype of the de- vout mother, wholly devoted to familial obligations, and instead prioritizes her own needs and desires, and rediscovers her true identity. Accompanied by her unsuspecting daughter Amma traverses one of the world’s most critical borders, the India-Pakistan frontier, in pursuit of her lost love and to reclaim a past her family is unaware of.