scholarly journals Portrayal of Women Protagonists in the Selected Novels of Bharati Mukherjee

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-81
Author(s):  
Mrs Sarika

Bharati Mukherjee is a famous Indian born American non-fiction writer, short story writer and journalist. She is one of the well-known novelists of Indian Diaspora. Within a really short creative time, she has achieved enviable position in the field of English literature. In her works, she has very well depicted the Indian immigrant experience of her women characters both in her novels and short stories. In her works, she talks about the lives of Indian women immigrants in the U.S.A and their journey of transformation and adjustment of their lives and personalities. She tries to explore the themes of immigration as well as transformation. She portrays the various phases of her characters such as the phase of expatriation, the phase of transition and phase of immigration. She very well depicts how the cultural clash or cultural conflict between the west and the east leads to the psychological crisis in the minds of her women characters. In her novels, she has given importance to the feministic perspective of her women characters. Her women characters are the protagonist and hero of the novels. She has tried to portray how her female characters sacrifice their dreams, hopes, desires, wishes, what the various problems, fear, torture they face, and how they finally do their best to overcome from all the hurdles. She has drawn her female characters in various situations and circumstances.

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. e45888
Author(s):  
Cielo Griselda Festino

This article brings a reading of the short-story collection Monção [Monsoon] ( 2003) by the Goan writer Vimala Devi (1932-). The collection can be read as a short-story cycle, a group of stories related by locality, Goa, character, Goans, from all walks of life, and theme, in particular women´s milieu, among other literary categories. In her book, written from her self-imposed exile in Portugal, Devi recreates Goa, former Portuguese colony, in the 1950s, before its annexation to India. A member of the Catholic gentry, Devi portrays the four hundred years of conflictive intimacy between Catholics and Hindus. Our main argument is that Devi´s empathy for her culture becomes even more explicit in Monção when her voice becomes one with that of all her women characters. Though they might be at odds, due to differences of caste, class and religion, Devi makes a point of showing that they are all part of the same cultural identity constantly remade through their own acts of refusal and recognition. This discussion will be framed in terms of Sidonie Smith and Julia Watson’s theory of autobiography (2001) as well as the studies on Goan women by the Goan critics Propércia Correia Afonso (1928-1931), Maria Aurora Couto (2005) and Fátima da Silva Gracias (2007).


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 08
Author(s):  
Sultana Jahan

<p>The present paper is a sincere effort to explore the image of Indian women in the early 19th century social context as depicted in Sharat Chandra’s  novel S<em>rikanta</em>. In this novel Sharat Chandra’s  portrayal  of  women  characters-  Rajlaksmii,  Annada,    Abhaya  ,  and  Kamal Lata  assert    their  individuality, self-worth  and    deliverances  boldly  in  the  then  male-controlled  and traditional society. These characters are unwavering and resolute enough to cast around an emancipated futuristic outlook. They are all precursors to the later day women characters depicted by the feminist writers. Sharat chandra is not a feminist in the traditional sense nor does he take the side of forceful assertion of women rights but he shows    a  significant  understanding  of  woman  psyche  and  to  a  great  extent, protests against  social  and  religious  double  standard  that  ultimately  results  in  gender nonconformity.  He  values humanity more than chastity  and raises his voice against traditional  morality  and religious dogmatism  in depicting  illicit  love relationship  and in disclosing  the deceptions  underlying  the established  marriage  custom. To all  female  characters, Rajlaksmi,  Annada,Kamal  Lata,  and  Abhay,  marriage  fails  to provide  congenial atmosphere  to love and value each other;  rather to them, marriage is nothing but  religious  and social yolk that come up with patriarchal applaud   but result in self-deception. This paper is an attempt to elucidate Sharat Chandra’s unconventional idea of chastity and reversed roles of women going deep into the female characters of this novel who fearlessly look down on the patriarchal impediments.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Banurekaa S

Margaret Atwood is one of the most talented, powerful and intelligent writers in the west today. She articulates the dilemmas, contradictions and ambiguities of the late twentieth century with all its complexities and extremities. Casting her vision of life in myriad forms her techniques and themes know no limit. Known widely as a poet and a novelist, Atwood is also a critic, a short story writer, an essayist, a caricaturist and a writer of children’s books. A versatile genius, Atwood through her novel explores the various inter-related social, physical and psychological anxieties of the people. Portrayal of women characters in literature are as varied as the authors who create them. Female protagonists have represented an interminable array of roles throughout literature. Whether women are represented as angels or metaphorical monsters, it is obvious that female characters have been pigeonholed and stereo typed for centuries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 125
Author(s):  
Dr. Mausumi Roychoudhary

The present paper searches to present a modest study of the novel of Namita Gokhale. It can be truly said that Namita Gokhale introduced herself to the world of English Literature through the novel Paro: dreams of passion and got recognition and appreciation as the best seller, as she realistically projected the elite class of Delhi. Her novel made her the talk of the town. It also aims at the exploration of the versatile personality of the author. Namita Gokhale is a world renowned Indian author and novelist known for her works in English language. She is a founder-director of the Jaipur Literature Festival along with the author, William Dalrymple, which started in 2006. Her writings often show a mixture of cultures expressed through the use of various languages. She has received numerous awards for her works. She is the author of several acclaimed novels like Paro - Dreams of Passion, Priya: In Incredible Indyaa, Gods, Graves and Grandmother, A Himalayan Love Story and Shakuntala: The Play of Memory. Her works of non-fiction include Mountain Echoes and The Book of Shiva.  Her writings are unique and contributed a lot to Indian writing in English. The novel Paro: Dreams of Passion, created a stir by its frankness in the early 80s, and pioneered the sexually frank genre, which made her famous. It deals with the satire of Delhi’s upper class. Gokhale through her bold women characters talks about such society where woman is not free to lead her life in her own style. She depicts the double standard treatment for male and female, upper and lower class and the hypocrisy of the society. Therefore, Gokhale is known as woman activist and feminine writer. Her novel Paro: Dreams of Passion also deals with the same issues as it talks about the discriminations and identity crisis faced by women in society. She believes in frank narration of incidents and open heartedness. Particularly, the novel has portrayed the urge, necessity and consequences of freedom if not taken care. In a nutshell the novel is about women’s dream, emancipation and their struggle for existence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
K. Srividya Lakshmi

Alice Walker is a Black American novelist, essayist, short story writer, poetic, critic, biographer, editor and Pulitzer Prize laureate. Alice Walker captures the experience of Black women in her works as a series of movements from women who are victimized by the society to women who have taken control of their lives consciously. She has explored the lives of Black women in depth even questions their fate. She has courage to see through the seeds of time and declares that in future black women would no longer live in suspension. “The Third Life of Grange Copeland” (1970) was the first novel of Alice Walker. The focus is on Black women characters in The Third Life who empower themselves through education and economic independence. This novel introduces the domination of powerless women by equally powerless men. The novel challenges African Americans to take a scrutinizing look at them. Mary Margaret Richards observes that “The Oldest generation represented by Grange finds itself trapped in a share cropper system… a form of slavery (African –American Writers, p.744). The novel introduces many of her prevalent themes, particularly the domination of powerless women by equally powerless men.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 37-41
Author(s):  
Jai Shankar Tiwari

The study has been able to ascertain and prove beyond doubt that Das’s prose works are of no less ranking than her poems and that she has effectively employed the short story form to present the predicaments of Indian womanhood and their quest for identity and self-assertion. The exhaustive evaluation and thorough scrutiny taking up various aspects of he stories right from her themes, structure and style, narrative techniques to her portrayal of Indian women, their status in society, and identity crisis have finally led to the emergence of the New Indian woman. Das’s feminist approach and overt outlook, along with the quest for a self-determined and self-affirmed identity for Indian women, have been well established through a methodical and exhaustive contemplation of the diverse women characters. The conclusion that emerges from this study undoubtedly corroborates and attests that Kamala Das’s name stands at par with the pioneer Indian woman short story writers. Das has efficiently and effectively used the short story genre as a document of social criticism and has established herself as a feminist crusader, campaigning to acquire for the Indian womanhood an independent identity and self-dignity. Das’s short story, with its innovative style and techniques, simple language, and concise form, has been brilliantly explored in discussing the problems facing Indian womanhood, especially her search for selfhood. Das has adeptly highlighted and presented her outlooks with the help of her characters. The fact that her English fictional work has remained obscure and un-honored is a sad story and a loss to literature.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Dr Mayurkumar Mukund Bhai Solanki

Ernest Hemingway, an American writer, produced considerable novels in the history of English literature. Hemingway’s The Oldman and the Sea is a story of an old man's struggle and his helplessness against destiny. Like Greek tragedians, Hemingway accepts the harshness of destiny in man’s life. It is very well said “Man proposes and God disposes" that denotes the role of destiny in man's life. The story of The Oldman and the Sea is universal because it reveals how human beings struggle to get something in life but sometimes crushed under the wheels of destiny. The old man has an indomitable spirit and sea experience yet he is unable to catch the fish for a few days. One day, he caught the big fish called the Marlin but it was too big for him to drag to the shore. The Old man tried to drag the Marlin to the shore but in a midway, its blood attracted the Sharks and he brought only its skeleton on the shore. So Hemingway talks about the helplessness of man against destiny through the character of an old man. This paper is a sincere effort to display man's helplessness against destiny through the character of an old man.  Ernest Miller Hemingway is known as Ernest Hemingway in English literature, was an American journalist, novelist, short story writer and sportsman. Hemingway wrote seven novels during his lifetime and among them, the popular novels are The Sun Also Rises, Farewell to Arms, and The Old man and the Sea. The Old man and the Sea brought him a good name and fame in literature. Hemingway’s works mainly deal with the themes of love, war, wilderness, and loss. Farewell to Arms deals with the theme of the futility of war. In A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway says, "The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong in broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.” (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest _ Hemingway) It seems that there is always conflict between good and evil in this world but some people remain strong in broken places. The greater power called destiny crushes everyone under its wheels impartially. In this connection, Omar Khayyam writes:


This research article highlights the temperament, inference, scope, and motives of code-mixing in Pakistani English works. One novel from Pakistani English novels namely, An American Brat by Bapsi Sidhwa, and one short story namely, The Escape by Qaisra Shehraz are being selected as an illustration of this reading. In this novel and short story, the writers have already dealt with the characteristics of postcolonialism. English language and literature pierced into the privileged civilizations of the sub-continent, after the end of British Imperialism. Pakistani writers in English are the best interpreter of the post-colonial communal language. In this study, I have hit upon code-mixing in English works written by Pakistani authors to a bigger echelon. These works are paragons of arts and the unbelievable mixture of rhetorical and fictitious study. In these works, the writers have not abased the confined diversities. They have tinted the value of Pakistani English in order to achieve the chatty desires of native people. These borrowings from the native languages are used to fill the lexical fissures of ideological thoughts. The reason of these borrowings is not to represent the English as a substandard assortment. Through the utilization of native words, we conclude that the significance of native languages has been tinted to question mark the dialect as well. The words of daily use also have an area of research for English people without having any substitute in English. That’s why in English literature innovative practices and ideas of code-mixing have been employed.


This research article highlights the temperament, inference, scope, and motives of code-mixing in Pakistani English works. One novel from Pakistani English novels namely, An American Brat by Bapsi Sidhwa, and one short story namely, The Escape by Qaisra Shehraz are being selected as an illustration of this reading. In this novel and short story, the writers have already dealt with the characteristics of postcolonialism. English language and literature pierced into the privileged civilizations of the sub-continent, after the end of British Imperialism. Pakistani writers in English are the best interpreter of the post-colonial communal language. In this study, I have hit upon code-mixing in English works written by Pakistani authors to a bigger echelon. These works are paragons of arts and the unbelievable mixture of rhetorical and fictitious study. In these works, the writers have not abased the confined diversities. They have tinted the value of Pakistani English in order to achieve the chatty desires of native people. These borrowings from the native languages are used to fill the lexical fissures of ideological thoughts. The reason for these borrowings is not to represent the English as a substandard assortment. Through the utilization of native words, we conclude that the significance of native languages has been tinted to question mark the dialect as well. The words of daily use also have an area of research for English people without having any substitute in English. That’s why in English literature innovative practices and ideas of code-mixing have been employed.


1976 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-47
Author(s):  
Donald D. Stone
Keyword(s):  

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