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Gender and roles of women in literature
Essay on gender roles in literature
Gender role in literature
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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
In “Building the Third Wave” Laurie Ouellette addresses her stance on feminism by passing the audience a question as to “why so many young women have shunned feminism”. Ouellette states her response of feminism by giving reasons as to why young women are not supporting feminism. Ouellette states that one reason is because they do not have role models to reach out to young people. Another aspect of the feminism movement that struggled involved a lack of support from the economically disadvantaged and women of color due to the silence of the upper middle class white females. Also, Ouellette mentions that women do not like hearing about the past because they feel as if have been lied to in regards to feminism. Ouellette concludes the article by explaining that it is responsibility of generations past to fight to get more young women into the feminism movement.
In her article, “Lecture Me. Really”, Molly Worthen addresses the issue college students know all too well: how to lecture properly. Published in the New York Times, Worthen writes a passionate article about lecturing but from the perspective of a professor. Worthen presents the idea that lecturing, although some may think ineffective in the classroom, is a way to truly challenge and engage students into critically thinking. Worth dictates this idea with an excellent build up logical argument but lacks the proper evidence to support her claims creating a faulty argument.
Furthermore, there are several occurrences of the harm against women in regards to Mrs. Dempster. She undergoes a stark change in personality after being hit with the snowball, described by the denizens of Deptford as having “gone simple”. One of Mary Dempster’s most shocking acts after the fact is when she is found having sex with a tramp (later revealed to have been done in order to restore his faith). Her husband, Amasa, decides that Mary is too much of a burden to him and ties her to chair, making her unable to leave her home. Despite this, the young Dunny does not think of Mary as a burden, in fact referring to her as his “greatest friend”. He keeps her up to date on the goings-on in Deptford, he prides her on her fearlessness. He knows
In “Where the World Began” by Margaret Laurence, the author describes her hometown, a small prairie in Canada called Neepawa. She paints a vivid picture of Neepawa; its nature, its buildings, its inhabitants, both alive and dead. For Laurence, her hometown is not “uninteresting”, or “dull”, as the stereotype about small towns goes. In fact, even after having explored many different locations such as England and Africa, this little town is the place she is most drawn to. She provides the reason for this strong attraction herself: "Because that settlement and that land were my first and for many years my only real knowledge of this planet, in some profound way they remain my world, my way of viewing. My eyes were formed there". Laurence draws a strong bond between home and personality throughout the essay, giving immense importance to the influence of her childhood home on her adult outlook. She concludes by telling the reader: "This is where my world began … A world which formed me, and continues to do so, even while I fought it in some of its aspects, and continue to do so. A world which gave me my own lifework to do, because it was here that I learned the
There is no doubt that the literary written by men and women is different. One source of difference is the sex. A woman is born a woman in the same sense as a man is born a man. Certainly one source of difference is biological, by virtue of which we are male and female. “A woman´s writing is always femenine” says Virginia Woolf
Often in literature authors, particularly men, are criticized for falsely or inaccurately portraying or "writing" women. This debate has been historically confined to male authors, but is on occasion reversed and female authors are criticized for inaccurately writing men. Although it may sound like a fair trade—or at least the beginnings of one in the world of critics—these situations are limited to primarily European and predominately North American literature. Examining the portrayal of men and the male sex as a whole, by women, is an important if not essential undertaking in this modern world, but where is comes to a point of being absolutely crucial is when it is the women authors of a world where they are second class citizens only because of their gender. If the writing of men in Arab women’s novels can be understood at even the most basic level it may allow some insight into what these women think and assume consciously and subconsciously, about themselves and their position in society and about the inherent oppression that they deal with and resign themselves to—no matter how weak or extreme the degree of the oppression, ranging from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.
To men women exist in a world in which they are to be seen and not heard. The author analyzes and makes a connection between the women as not only women in general but as wives, mothers, and daughters also. This is to show that they all have something in common in their life. In addition, the author explores the relationships between these women in order to show how they all connect from their own personal experiences. In the novel, women are viewed mainly as child bearers and help mates for their husbands. Men believed that women are not capable of as much as men are. Reading the text from a female perspective shows that the women experiences from deal...
...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).
“Gender is one of those big themes that is a little difficult to nail down, in part because it often informs a text without being explicitly addressed. Of course, there are instances in Sula in which we do get direct commentary on gender and gender roles, particularly as they relate to the limits placed on women. But more often than not, we have to dig a little deeper to understand the gender dynamics. And it 's not just men who are invested in upholding certain gender roles while dismantling others. Some women are just as invested in maintaining these societal roles, no matter how restrictive they seem.”
When Rape of Sita was first published it was immediately attacked because of the title linking the Hindu goddess Sita, who symbolized chastity, to the word “rape.” Even though Collen’s novel does focus around political struggles, literature is not politics. However, literature is able to be a form of social action. What is literature is it doesn’t post those crucial questions that get humans thinking? Collen believes in reflecting on concrete situations and posing moral dilemmas in literature. For her it is a way to share experiences towards the “other” (Williams 201). The Rape of Sita is a part of a postmodern turn to ethics. Where it uses language to make political comments suggesting a new perspective on history. Williams examines how The Rape of Sita calls for that change in attitudes through its narrative structure and symbolism. Which in turns allows for the story of rape to be told differently.
In contemporary society, feminism is emerging as a theory of social construct. In literature it is often challenging to discover female characters that go beyond the limits of marginalized female stereotypes and roles as a means to transgress beyond societal norms. Women are characterized as subordinate objects, amid the dominant patriarchal nature entrenched amid the epic. In The Ramayana, women are portrayed as powerless objects that succumb to the manipulation of men as the text portrays a false empowerment of women, which ultimately succumb to common archetypes accustomed to women in literature; implementing a hierarchy of gender that institutionalizes male dominance amid female inferiority. The women of The Ramayana struggle to oppose the systemic patriarchy and pursue a pathway towards attaining dynamic elements of power, that enable their ability to embody autonomous authority. In Valmiki’s The Ramayana, while women appear to be empowered, ultimately they are feeble instruments utilized to fulfill the desires of men.
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.
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.
Gender inequality refers to different analysis or perceptions of individuals based on their gender. It arises from differences in socially complete gender roles. Gender systems are generally angled and hierarchical; gender binary systems may reflect the inequalities that apparent in abundant ambit of circadian life. Gender inequality stems from distinctions, whether empirically ashore or socially constructed. Shashi Despande’s A Matter of Time revolves about four women Manorama, Kalyani, Sumi and Aru who are victims of animosity adapted by patriarchal society where the measure of woman’s successful her married life, without which her all other accomplishments are considered worthless warm association area the admeasurement of woman’s acknowledged her affiliated life, after which her all added accomplishments are advised worthless. The accomplished atypical portrays the silent, absorption women, black yet accomplished adhering to tradition, admitting alive in the present. Admitting men do not play an active role they are the basis could cause of a lot of the adversity of women.
Most of socio-cultural and religious traditions in their original form regarded a comparatively low position to woman. Controlled by patriarchy, woman has suffered discrimination, subjugation, otherness either as a lesser being or as a super being. A number of social and literary movements have helped women attain equality and independence. 20th century has witnessed an increasing awareness amongst women about their sexuality, desires, discovery of self-identity and existence. The contemporary writers are striving to provide the desired liberation to women from the socio-cultural confines and the dictatorial myths. In order to achieve gender-equal epics, there has been a resurge in countless revisits/ re-tellings of The Ramayana and Mahabharata. Amish Tripathi, Devdutt Pattanaik, Volga, Kumaran Asan, Vijaya Dabbe, Vayu Naidu and Kavita Kane are some of such authors who have attempted to re-visit/re-tell Ramayana from Sita’s perspective. These writers have emphasized on her humanity, they have perceived her indulging in day-to-day activities, highlighting her involvement in the ordinary works. Sita is portrayed as someone with agency. She is a resourceful woman and an inspiration to other women. She chooses her own actions instead of blindly following someone’s commands. Instead of being a passive character, she actively learns things from different situations and continues to find herself at different phases in her life. The study, for the detailed explication of its hypothesis, would focus on the following as primary