A courtesan dependent on no single man may be society’s only free woman

Evidence

The scandal of Rusva’s early-twentieth-century text is its proposition that since such a woman depends upon no one man, and because many men depend on her, she is the only relatively free woman in our society. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 198

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the Urdu category of ‘women of the upper chamber’ — courtesans as instructors in erotic play and manners, not simply prostitutes.
• FICTION: The ironic inversion — freedom found outside proper social place — is a rich narrative premise about choice and constraint.
• XREF: connects to: Marriage was the only available path for a woman to become a free being — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1356; Society conflates the free woman with the promiscuous woman; The courtesan’s physical freedom masks a total economic dependence on masculine desire — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1687 (+1 more)

Related

• Rusva’s courtesan novel located women’s freedom outside proper domestic place without Western influence (similarity 0.92)
• Society conflates the free woman with the promiscuous woman (similarity 0.91)
• The courtesan’s physical freedom masks a total economic dependence on masculine desire (similarity 0.84)