Double exposure in "new Nepal":rural, illiterate women constructed as "leg-less" in "two worlds"

Abstract

This paper will focus on the discourse of New Nepal and how it is both empowering and disempowering for the rural, illiterate women I interviewed. How can one capture the lived experience of rural, illiterate women as they face the hegemonic discourses of New Nepal? How do they position themselves, and get positioned by these discourses which define the nation building of the New Nepal? I will show that the discourse of New Nepal entails a cultural politic that allows" contestation of traditional yet prevailing sources for distinction and discrimination, while at the same time introducing new ideals and new sources for distinction, as the discourse of New Nepal creates a new telos for citizens and country. The new ideals introduces new significant Others and the symbolic power of the educated.