'Death-worlds' and 'care of the self' – Re-invoking Foucault in mapping the literary reflection of Mbembe's necropolitical 'death-worlds' and resistance in Neel Mukherjee's Choice

This paper is an attempt to read Neel Mukherjee’s latest novel, Choice, in the light of Achille Mbembe’s concept of ‘death-worlds’ developed in the essay Necropolitics. Mbembe opines that Foucault’s notion of biopower cannot adequately explain the contemporary ‘power of death’. A close textual analysis of Mukherjee’s novel reveals that the incorporation of another important concept of Foucault- ‘care of the self’ – may be considered to be an important factor shaping and influencing the lives of the marginalized characters like the illegal immigrant Salim, or poor villagers like Pulak and Sabita who are all forever dwindling in the ‘death-worlds’ in this novel. The textual analysis also reveals that the ‘logic of survival’ that Mbembe explains in relation to ‘death of the other’ may often be oriented towards self, family and community (as reflected in Ayush’s emphasis on empathy and understanding in a world dominated by economics or in Emily’s donation of kidney to Karim), thereby unveiling the possibility of an ethical and of resistant mode of living, however futile these may seem to be. The intervention of Foucauldian ‘care of the self’ with its extended signification of embracing the care of the ‘other’ in understanding the aspirations and struggle of ‘death-worlds’ in this novel thus turns out to be a validation of Mbembe’s concluding observation about the blurring of boundaries between ‘resistance and suicide, sacrifice and redemption, martyrdom and freedom’.