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Women empowerment and feminism essay
Women empowerment essay abstract
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Kamala Markandaya was a pen name used by Kamala Purnaiya Taylor. She moved to England in 1948 and settled there after marrying an Englishman. However she still considered herself a true Indian. Her first published novel, Nectar in a Sieve (1954) was a bestseller and cited as an American Library Association Notable Book in 1955. Her other novels include, Some Inner Fury(1955), A Silence of Desire(1960), Possession(1963), A Handful of Rice(1966), The Nowhere Man(1972), Two Virgins(1973), The Golden Honeycomb(1977), and Pleasure City (1982). The works of Markandaya abound in the themes featuring a clash between traditional and modern, East and West, agriculture and Industrialization. Markandaya's feministic stance in her works is unique and distinctive. The female characters in Nectar in a Sieve are portrayed as independent minded confronting and enduring all odds meted out to them. Rukmani, the protagonist, comes across as a woman whose strength, courage, perseverance and resilience is a fitting reply to all those patriarchal institutions promoting the stereotypical images of women. The writer places her female characters in different circumstances and the same is to be analyzed in the Paper. Markandaya doesn’t portray her female characters in Nectar in a Sieve as victims rather they are shown as an epitome of will and patience standing upright against all onslaughts. Rukmani throughout the novel, succeeds in asserting and affirming her independent identity that celebrates her womanhood. Markandaya deconstructs the gender ideologies that propagate the dominance of male over female. The Paper is an attempt at scrutinizing the different female characters of the novel through feministic perspective.
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Women repr...
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...Kamala Markandaya in the form of a recurrent female ‘quest for autonomy’. It is Rukmani’s faith and belief in her own Self that makes her a unique woman protagonist. Thrity Umrigar in her “Afterword” to the novel regards Rukmani as a true “everywoman”. The novel is thus a saga of a triumphant womanhood in India.
Primary Sources
Markandaya, Kamala. Nectar in a Sieve (1954). New York : Signet Classics, 1982.
Secondary Sources
Arora, Neena. Nayantara Sahgal and Doris Lessing : A Feminist Study in Comparism. New Delhi : Prestige Books, 1991.
Krishnaswamy, Shantha. The Woman in Indian Fiction in English 1950–1980.New Delhi : Ashish Publishing House, 1984.
Pathak, R.S. Quest For Identity in Indian English Writing,Vol. I Fiction (ed). New Delhi : Bahri Publications, 1992.
Shirdwadkar, Meena. Image of Woman in the Indo-Anglian Novel. New Delhi: Sterling,1979.
Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental feminism and literature's ancestral house: Another look at The Yellow Wallpaper". Women's Studies. 12:2 (1986): 113-128.
Haney-Peritz, Janice. “Monumental Feminism and Literature’s Ancestral House: Another Look at ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” Women’s Studies. 12.2 (1986)113-128. EBSCOHost. Web. 10 Mar. 2011.
If Hosseini aims to convey a message that women are tantalizing and provide warmth to society but are hidden and masked, evidently there must be an issue causing this suppression of women in society; thus the political and cultural backdrop plays in to the impression the reader takes away from the novel. Hosseini conveys his message of enduring and optimism profoundly through these two characters. If not for the political and cultural backdrop of the novel, the story could not have been developed with the significance and comprehensiveness that it currently has, which essentially are the backbone of the impact this novel has on the reader through a striking presentation of reality that has never been seen in this light, sending a motivational message to fight for the right cause and endure when necessary to achieve the ultimate target.
As things go worse the women have enormous changes, they are fightilng only with the law but also with the laws of the nature. They discover the strenght and their abilities to run their own lives, to take a stand against the men’s world.
In this chapter Mahasweta Devi’s anthology of short stories entitled Breast Stories to analyze representations of violence and oppression against women in name of gender. In her Breast Stories, Devi twice evokes female characters from ancient Hindu mythology, envisions them as subalterns in the imagined historical context and, creates a link with the female protagonists of her short stories. As the title suggests, Breast Stories is a trilogy of short stories; it has been translated and analyzed by Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak and, in Spivak’s view, the ‘breast’ of a woman in these stories becomes the instrument of a brutal condemnation of patriarchy. Indeed, breast can be construed as the motif for violence in the three short stories “Draupadi,” “Breast-Giver,” and “Behind the Bodice,”
The aim of this study is to explore and scrutinize the feminist perspectives in the selected novels of Doris Lessing with reference to her professed ideology and philosophy and in the light of the various schools of feminism. This research is basically expanded comparatively and endeavors to flesh out and determines the feministic essence and points of divergence of Lessing’s selected works by probing into her feminine concerns.
In summary, Rukmani learns early on in her adult life that she has the power to control certain circumstances and the outcome of any change that comes her way. She lets go of the attitude of full acceptance, learns to tolerate change, and takes action to make sure her future includes what she desires. The overall theme of this story is that knowledge is power. Rukmani is a perfect example of the novel’s message because it is through her learning to take action and control that she has power over change. Rukmani’s change in attitude changes her life.
Through these two novels, we’re able to see the quandaries that women must face when modernity and old customs come head to head. Both of these women remain brave and to try to sustain their new found freedoms, despite any difficult encounters. It is these women with their fierce ideals that would make them pioneers for all women liberation movements.
The argument behind whether or not Kate O’Brien can be described as a feminist writer has long been discussed. Through examination of ‘The Land of Spices’, which has been “steadily increasing its credence as a politically subversive text” (Mentxaka, 38), characteristics of a feminist novel will be considered in determining whether this particular text can be considered a feminist novel. During the twentieth century there was a clear indication of the pressures that the Irish culture placed upon women. “The foundations of Irish culture – state control of women’s reproduction, and the nationalist and religious mythologies, Virgin Mary and Mother Ireland – that have framed and, therefore, limited Irish Women” (Moloney 2003: 198). The years following
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.
Prasad, Amar Nath. “Identity Crisis in V.S.Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas”. Critical Response to V. S. Naipaul and Mulk Raj Anand. Edited by Prasad, Amar Nath. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2003. Print.
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.
This total idea of challenging and creating a new identity may seem quite a utopian concept, but it is not so impossible. The present paper will illustrate the writings of Mridula Garg and Arundhati Roy. The characters in their work are not extraordinary and utopian, but ordinary people like us whom we can come across in our day to day life. Here for the purpose of analysis, Garg’s three short stories have been chosen. They are: Hari Bindi, Sath Saal, Ki Aurat and Wo Dusri.
Uniyal, Ranu. Women In Indian Writing: From Difference to Diversity. New Delhi: Prestige, 2009. Print.
On this metaphorical quest of the protagonist Jasmine, start she is first born with the name Jyoti in India where begins to stand up against the traditional path that has been prepared for her by the male-controlled system. Like the other women of her homeland, she under the constant control of her brothers and father. In the Indian tradition, a female is to be married young that includes a dowry. After marriage, it would see...