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Females in 20th century literature
The role of the woman in literature
Gender roles 20th century literature
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Literature is the analytical, critical, emotional and psychological expression of human life which is nothing but a bouquet of multi-coloured relationships like filial relationship, conjugal relationship and sibling relationship. Though all the relationships are important part of life yet man-woman relationship is considered the most pervading human relationship. Emphasizing the importance and value of the man-woman relationship, D.H. Lawrence, a great English novelist, points out in ‘Morality and the Novel’, “The great relationship for humanity will always be the relation between man and woman. The relation between man and man, woman and woman, parent and child will always be subsidiary.” (1972: l30) Right from the ancient epics and legends to modern fiction, the most characteristic and powerful form of literary expression in modern time, literary endeavour has been to portray this relationship along with its concomitants. Twentieth century novelists treat this subject in a different manner from those of earlier writers. They portray the relationship between man and woman as it is, whereas earlier writers concentrated on as it should be. Now-a-days this theme is developing more important due to rapid industrialization and growing awareness among women of their rights to individuality, empowerment, employment and marriage by choice etc. The contemporary Indian novelists in English like Anita Desai, Sashi Deshpande, Sashi Tharoor, Salman Rusdie, Shobha De, Manju Kapoor, Amitav Ghosh etc. deal with this theme minutely in Indian social milieu. Amitav Ghosh, an anthropologist-cum-novelist possesses a deep knowledge of human psyche regarding man-woman relationships. He is concerned with the inner world of his characters. He tries to lo... ... middle of paper ... ...ndation Books, 2005. …….…, “Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide and the Blurring of National Boundaries”. Conference issue of South Asian Review 25.3; 2004. Lawrence, D.H. ‘Morality and the Novel’, Tweenth Century Literature Criticism, Ed. David Lodge, London: Longman, 1972. Mishra, A.K. “Man-woman Relationship in Sashi Tharoor’s Riot.” Indian English Literature. Ed. Basavaraj Naikar, New Delhi: Atlantic, Vol.III, 2007, p.p. 174-181. Nara, Rakhi and G. A. Ghanshyam. “Multiple Facets of Contrasting Strands of Emotions in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide.” Seva Bharati Journal of English Studies. Vol- 4, 2008, pp.90-99. Ramamoorthy, P. “My Life is My Own: A Study of Shashi Deshpande’s Women” Feminism and Recent Fiction in English Ed. Sushila Singh. New Delhi: Prestige, 1991. Sandhu, Sarbjit K. The Image of Woman in the Novels of Shashi Deshpande. New Delhi: Prestige, 1991.
Be that as it may, Deshpande makes gender central to her writings. Her works deal not only with ordinary women in ordinary, urban situations but stem from a firm belief that our lives are to a great extent governed by gender. Women she feels, have not participated in the process of word-making; the stories myths and legends in our Puranas, epics and kathsa have been written by men. Deshpande feels that women never start with a picture of themselves on a clean slate, their self-image honed by the hegemonic influences of myths, movies and current-day soap operas. She sees herself as a writer whose writing comes Deshpande’s real concern is to explore the root cause of the fragmentation and dichotomy of her characters and to observe what happens
Some people believe that opposites attract. Others believe that people who are more similar will have a better relationship. Some prefer relationships with older people, and some prefer them with younger people. Jhumpa Lahiri, author of the short story collection Interpreter of Maladies, explores the dynamic of relationships in her works. In her short story “Interpreter of Maladies” a married woman confesses a secret to a man she barely knows. In her story “This Blessed House” a couple fights over the religious relics they find in their new home. While one reads Lahiri’s stories, a theme begin to emerge that shows the woman of the relationship behaving like an adolescent and the man behaving like her father due to the internalized idea of
In Kamala Markandaya’s novel, Nectar in a Sieve, the woman of great courage, Rukmani, is forced onto the commencement of a fast changing India caused by an increase in economic activity, urbanization and centralization of power. Rukmani resists and then is forced to conform to changes in her environment. Unlike those around her who threw their past away with both hands that they “might be the readier to grasp the present,” Rukmani “stood by in pain, envying such easy reconciliation” (Markandaya 29). Markandaya writes about Rukmani’s attempt to recover the aspects of her rural life that she cares most about, revealing her adoration for a traditional rural life and her belief that all women enjoy amicable, personal relationships with their outer
At the one level the women writing in India are a joyous retrieval of artifacts that signify women’s achievement. At another, they represent a difficult and inventive movement in the theory and practice of feminist criticism. We have reread established writers and are introducing several comparatively little known ones. They will be surprises even for, say Telugu readers in our collection of Telugu literature. In English translation, what we have is a stupendous body of new work. Judge by conventional standards, many of the pieces col...
Krishnaswamy, Shantha. The Woman in Indian Fiction in English 1950–1980.New Delhi : Ashish Publishing House, 1984.
Recent years have witnessed a large number of Indian English fiction writers who have stunned the literary world with their works. The topics dealt with are contemporary and populist and the English is functional, communicative and unpretentious. Novels have always served as a guide, a beacon in a conflicting, chaotic world and continue to do so. A careful study of Indian English fiction writers show that there are two kinds of writers who contribute to the genre of novels: The first group of writers include those who are global Indians, the diasporic writers, who are Indians by birth but have lived abroad, so they see Indian problems and reality objectively. The second group of writers are those born and brought up in India, exposed to the attitudes, morale and values of the society. Hence their works focus on the various social problems of India like the plight of women, unemployment, poverty, class discrimination, social dogmas, rigid religious norms, inter caste marriages, breakdown of relationships etc.
In order to achieve these goals, Indian feminist writers have exerted their energies to deconstruct the past, reconstruct a more meaningful present. They have unravelled the thick tapestries of male hegemony and analysed the reasons for the persistent reproduction of conscious and unconscious presumptions about women and they have knitted up a woman’s tradition.
Gur Pyari Jandial, 'Evolving a Feminist Tradition: The Novels of Shashi Deshpande and Manju Kapur' (awaiting publication in Atlantic Literary Review [Delhi], 4.3).
Posting the novel Riot amidst the morbid sectarian clashes in 1989 in North India, Shashi Tharoor explores the cultural diversity in Native India. Tharoor voices his assertive views on how culture is broken up due
History in Amitav Ghosh’s works is not only a narrative of historical events but also a means of establishing an interconnection between the historical events and the ordinary individuals living during the times. The individual is hit by a historical impact and his story needs narration as much as to the country he belongs. Amitav Ghosh tries to reject the traditional mode of writing history and presents largely a re-visiting and a re-examination of history. Therefore it becomes necessary to understand how Ghosh uses facts and fiction in his writings. He presents the past of the nation as a subject matter that belongs to one and all – the aristocratic and the common people, the rulers and the ruled alike. Ghosh therefore displays the traumatic
In keeping with the trend set up in this field by the pioneer, namely Margaret Atwood and Shashi Deshpande weave their narratives around female protagonists and delineate their struggle as neutral observers. These novelists write in a context of increased activity and new possibility. Even though preoccupied with the personal life of their protagonists, these writers also address social and intellectual
Indian Writing in English has a special status in English Literature owing to its treatment of women characters. Short stories help the writers to project select characters in an impressive way to the readers. In Indian context the status of woman in a society and her treatment is very different from those of her European or American counterparts. Women are depicted both as a good and evil in literature by various writers. However, in no literature is a women stereotyped as was done in Indian literature. Away from the mythical stereotyping of women, Ruskin Bond portrayed his women in a different way. The female characters of his short stories range from a small child to a grandmother. These characters are as powerful as men and have left a strong impression on the readers. I have chosen following eight short stories for the critical analysis of Ruskin Bond’s Women in this paper.
Ayemenem is the town in the state of Kerala in India. Kerala is the cultural, religious and political hybrid state. To explain the word “hybrid”, I am taking the term “hybridization” from Chemistry as an example. This process occurs during bond formation and defined as “process of mixing of atomic orbitals of different shapes and energies to form hybrid orbitals of same shapes and energies is called hybridization”. The same concept can be applied to the peoples living in colonial India. Peoples living in Kerala belongs to different cultures, traditions and religion, therefore persons living there lose their individual personality and their personalities are shaped to form hybrid personality. This process develop negative impact in their behavior, their creativity is lost, and they are just copies of one another and have no individual identity. I have chosen Feminist Literary theory, because this theory can also applied to post-colonialism. My analysis is based on four women characters belongs to three women generations of the family presented in the novel. I have discussed changes in the personalities, ideas and behavior of women generations in post-colonial India. My focus is to observe “thirst for liberation” in women characters. The colonial period is from 1757 to 1947, when the subcontinent was part of the British Empire; and the postcolonial period, is from 1947 onward, when the subcontinent was partitioned into several new
Garg in ‘Hari Bindi’ discusses the story of a common woman and made it extraordinary by the active force she was experiencing in herself to live her life. The husband of the protagonist symbolises the power and control of patriarchy that had restricted her life in such a way
Indian English Literature is a genre deep rooted in the cultural scenario of the Indian soil. As a literary genre, it has contributed towards the formation and the reformation of the processed identity of the nation as a whole. Special mention should also be made about the contribution of Indian women writers in English towards the identity formation of India with regard to their poignant novels. In the realm of fiction, Indian women novelists have heralded a new era and have earned many laurels both at home and abroad. They have shown their worth in the field of literature both qualitatively and quantitatively and are showing it even today without any hurdle. What they have accomplished in their fiction is the narration of the nation in all its colours and social contours. As Mitra has stated, “…relation between the nation and the novel is more acute in the case of women’s writings” (185). Several talented women novelists like Kamala Markandaya, Nayantara Sahgal, Anita Desai, Geetha Hariharan, Shashi Deshpande, Kiran Desai and Manju Kapur and many more have left an indelible imprint on the readers of Indian fiction in English and are popularly known as the Goddess of Eros!. Now-a-days people enjoy reading the anglicized novels presented by these new age women writers. Thanks to their efforts, classification of feministic or male writings hardly makes any sense today unlike the past that undervalued and less prioritized women’s writings.