“Stories that go on and on”: Transformative Resilience against Gender Violence in Tishani Doshi’s Girls Are Coming out of the Woods

Abstract

Tishani Doshi’s Girls Are Coming out of the Woods (2017) details the gender violences inflicted against women in India and the world to promote consciousness-raising, resistance, and subversion against interlocking systems of patriarchal power based on economy, ethnicity and gender. In this paper I firstly propose that Doshi promotes a transformative mode of resilience that guarantees socio-politic change rather than acceptance and submission. Secondly, I reflect on how Doshi’s description of the fear and gender violences systemically inflicted on women unveil counter-stories that exceed the portrayal of women as victims. Finally, I propose that Doshi’s presentation of resilient bodies embraces the interplanetary possibilities of creating constellations of co-resistance that allow the world to go forward instead of leaning back.