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NAAS Journal 2026

International Journal Of Language, Literature And Culture(IJLLC)

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  3. Vol-6,Issue-1, January - February 2026
  4. The Autobiographical (P)Act: Agency, Acceptance and the Politics of Remembrance in the Lives of Kanan Devi and P.K. Rosy

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The Autobiographical (P)Act: Agency, Acceptance and the Politics of Remembrance in the Lives of Kanan Devi and P.K. Rosy

Dr. Arunlal K


International Journal of Language, Literature and Culture (IJLLC), Vol-6,Issue-1, January - February 2026, Pages 47-53, 10.22161/ijllc.6.1.7

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Article Info: Received: 28 Jan 2026, Received in revised form: 23 Feb 2026, Accepted: 24 Feb 2026, Available online: 28 Feb 2026

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Philippe Lejeune theorised the "autobiographical pact": an implicit contract of trust between the author and the reader. This paper will argue that while Kanan Devi, a celebrity actress of early Bengali cinema, could successfully forge this pact with her audience, the social order violently prevented P.K. Rosy, the heroine of the first Malayalam cinema, from even entering into such an agreement. It positions Kanan Devi's autobiography, Sabaray Ami Nomi (Homage to All), as a strategic act of self-fashioning. She navigated the complex terrain of gender, class, and respectability in mid-20th century India. Juxtaposing her narrative of success with the violent erasure of P.K. Rosy, whose story exists only as a reconstructed counter-memory, the paper draws on feminist life-writing theory, performance studies, and subaltern studies. It argues that the ability of an actress to author her own life (Agency in this context) was contingent on important variables such as her social location, the position of cinematic art in the cultural milieu and the roles they get to bring to life on screen. While Kanan Devi could leverage the autobiographical form to cement her legacy and claim agency, P.K. Rosy's story exemplifies the silencing of a subaltern voice, revealing how caste hierarchies dictated not only who could appear on screen but who was permitted to have a story at all.

Agency, autobiography, subaltern, casteism, Hierarchy, cinema, actress, Bengali Cinema, Kanan Devi, Malayalam Cinema, PK Rosy

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