Narrating the Repressed Self: Freudian Psychoanalysis, Gender Identity, and Narrative Agency in Laxmi Narayan Tripathi's Red Lipstick: The Men in My Life

Abstract

In this paper, the article about Red Lipstick: The Men in My Life written by the Indian transgender activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi is analyzed with the help of the psychoanalytical concepts introduced by Freud, such as repressions. The analysis of the intersections between gender identities, exclusion, trauma, and self-expression is done on the basis of an autobiographical story of one of the most influential activists fighting for the rights of transgender people in India. Repression was defined by Freud as a process when people unconsciously exclude from their consciousness certain undesirable or socially unacceptable thoughts or desires. The paper aims to show that the story of Tripathi is both the result of constant repressions and the creation of a self-narrative that helps to get rid of them and become a more authentic person that does not follow heteronormative and patriarchal constructions. The memoir discloses psychic conflicts created by the pressures of society related to ideas of masculinity and femininity, while being the source of catharsis and identity reconstruction.