“East West, Home’s Best”: Feminist Politics of Sue Townsend in Bazaar and Rummage

This paper discusses the social reasons for agoraphobia as a psychological disorder as observed in the women characters of British playwright Sue Townsend’s issue-based play Bazaar and Rummage (1982). The depiction of three agoraphobic women in a context characterised by patriarchal dominion constitutes the core of Townsend’s play. Although their problematic condition is presented rather comically, from their accounts, it seems apt to argue that societal oppression is the reason for their longlasting seclusion and constant fear of the outside world. The play offers a rummage sale as an opportunity for women to step outside and conquer their fear. Accordingly, in terms of presenting the psychological condition of women characters and associating the possible solution to their problem with a market occasion, Townsend’s play illustrates an example of feminist criticism. In this study, the play’s analysis is based on the 1980s context dominated by Thatcher politics, and Townsend’s portrayal of agoraphobia is discussed as a criticism of her society in which patriarchal hegemony plays a central role in women’s forced confinement.

A critical study on female roles in television commercials of Bangladesh

Media representation of female gender roles in advertising are relentlessly contested themes in a traditional society. Stereotypical representation not only limits the socially accepted traditional roles of gender, but also has an impact on how people perceive women. This study has focused on how women characters are constructed in order to understand reflection of stereotypical gender norms in Bangladeshi television commercials. Stuart Hall’s representation theory has adapted as the framework for conceptualizing the context of this study and scrutinizing the data. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, this paper has explored how such representations constitute unequal gender identities, traditional norms and perpetuate subtle forms of colorism towards women. This study found that dominant patriarchal ideology is deeply embedded in television commercials of Bangladesh; there is a discrimination towards the construction of women's image. Moreover, such media representations generate the ideology of beauty in a negative way and push the concept of colorism towards women.

The Portrayal of Women: Feminist Analysis of A Hologram for The King

This research paper attempts to investigate the representation of women, their character and their rights in Dave Eggers’ novel A Hologram for the King (2012), according to the feministic approach to literary works. Gender bias has been reflected in many literary works from classical canonical works to contemporary literary ones and has been dealt with in many critical pieces. The theme of self-objectification, which is closely tied to gender bias to some extent, has not been analyzed, independently and fully, especially in the literature of the post-colonial era. The current study scrutinizes the writer’s portrayal of women characters in order to uncover the replication of the same stereotypes and gender bias categories against women, dominant in the literary works before the post-colonial era. Based on the feminist approach, A Hologram for the King is identified as a misogynist work although it is written in postmodern era. The author of the novel, is inspired by men’s superiority, creates a completely distorted image of women by introducing them as people who turn themselves into objects of pleasure for men. The novelist further deprives women of their rights and misrepresents them as unprincipled humans, disparaging them as naïve and sexually licentious creatures. After all, this study becomes a means of writing back against marginalization of women, in their picturization and their subordination to men.

The women of N. K. Jemisin: Representations of women and gender roles in the science-fantasy The Fifth Season

The following paper deals with representations of women and gender roles in science-fiction and fantasy. It briefly discusses the issue in these genres in general, but it is primarily concerned with one specific example, i.e. N. K. Jemisin’s science-fantasy novel The Fifth Season. The paper’s main aim is to highlight the changing nature of representations of women in science fiction and fantasy and pay tribute to a literary work depicting women from a modern perspective. Thus, it presents the analysis of said novel from the perspective of feminist criticism and gender studies, focusing on how the novel explores through its main and side women characters, ideas of representation, biological sex versus “gendering”, and related notions of femininity, gender roles and gender stereotypes and myths.

Portrayal of Women Protagonists in the Selected Novels of Bharati Mukherjee

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.

Slivers of Hope: Women in Dystopian Trilogy

This paper explores the struggles, goals, and motivations of the women characters in The Hunger Games Trilogy. In detail, the study employs Elaine Showalter’s Feminist theory to reveal the women characters’ categories in terms of three stages: feminine, feminist and female. In the study, some of the women characters living in the dehumanized society of Panem have attained the last stage of feminism which is the female stage. However, other women characters are not able to fulfill their goals. Still, due to the women characters’ demand to change the system, they start an uprising. For example, the main character, Katniss Everdeen, contributes to the collapse of the ruling government in power as she accepts being the Mockingjay, the symbol of revolution. Another woman character to exemplify such a noble act is Johanna Mason who becomes part of the rebellion and survives the war against the unjust ruling of the Capitol. These women characters are slivers of light amidst the chaos. In conclusion, it is discovered that women characters play pivotal roles in society. This suggests that women characters recognize their power to accelerate societal advancement. For this dystopian trilogy, in particular, women become symbols of hope.

Feminist Criticism in Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Ibrahim Ahmed’s Janî Gel

This paper investigates the concepts of Feminism and Feminist Criticisms to identify their features in two novels; Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and Ibrahim Ahmed’s Janî Gel. The theoretical and historical backgrounds of Feminism and the other Feminist Criticisms are presented according to their importance. The paper then introduces the two novels by presenting their plot summary. This paper tries to answer how two prominent writers, one British and one Kurdish, discuss women issues. The author wants to investigate whether both writers’ cultural upbringing and social background affect the way they present women in their respective novels. Through quotations taken from the novels, one learns about the writers’ ideas regarding women’s issues; economic, social, psychological, and political. In conclusion, the present study argues that women’s experiences in English society and Kurdish society have many similarities; however, despite the many similarities, there lay differences regarding the attitudes of both writers towards women issues and representation. For instance, Wood presents an ideal female character to oppose women’s traditional roles in society in her novel. On the other hand, Ahmed paints vivid imagery of what women go through without solid women characters. Thus, this paper hopes to provide future students and researchers with helpful material on Feminism, Feminist Criticisms, and the analysis of both novels, especially the Kurdish one, since research is scarce on it.

A Study of Cultural conflict and trauma of the protagonist in Amitav Ghose’s The Glass Palace

Amitav Ghosh is one of the most popular novelists of the period, with an amazing intelligence of place, history and politics. Ghosh has joined the ranks of notable novelists such as Monohar Malgonkar, Shashi Tharoor, Khushwant Singh, Salman Rushdie, Chaman Nahal, and others. In Ghosh’s novels, one may detect a feeling of historical realism. Ghosh’s writings are characterised by a strong desire for strong identifications and race relations. Amitav Ghosh recognises that society must be reformed from problems such as caste system, gender discrimination, ill-treatment of women, child marriages, poverty, exploitation, and demonic tradition, among others. Ghosh’s humanistic approach provides voice to the forgotten and lowly women characters in his works. He wants to free the entire world from the squabbles of caste, race, gender, religion, untouchability, and geographical dislocation that obstruct human development. It is also demonstrated how the sacrifices of marginalised and female characters have gone unnoticed in the pages of history. This paper examines the Cultural conflict and trauma of the protagonist in AmitavGhose’s The Glass Palace.

The Theme of Protest and Freedom in Cry, the Peacock

The conflict between social institutions and individuals is a complex and perplexing issue for many scholars. While reflecting on this issue, some scholars propagate the privilege to individuality, the others to the social institutions. Many scholars consider it as a matter of mutual coordination and interest. The need for a relative space for an individual and the requirement of the social institutions for regulating control over an individual’s uncensored wills are equally important. However, safeguarding or maintaining the margins of both entities is complex work. Regulating uncensored wills or reducing excessive encroachment of institutional authorities is a difficult task; it needs to be addressed with a scientific approach. The Indian social system is conservative and has been maintaining its dominance over the women’s class from the time unknown. The society, after allotting all the privileges to male members, refuses to consider women as individuals, having space and freedom. It expects women to be timid, docile, submissive and obedient. As a result, they feel tyrannized and experience untold sufferings. When the patriarchal system becomes over oppressive, it leads women to absolute confinement; the life of complete closure is highly disappointing and frustrating. The forces that obliterate their rights include gender discrimination, marriage-system, orthodox traditions, customs, rituals and class status. A woman is born with a destitute to experience a collision with the subjugating elements in her life and while wrestling against it she has little success. She goes through a perpetual war against the controlling institution while creating a space for her individuality and freedom. The factors like these rob women characters of happiness and advantages and lead women to live an insignificant life, full of suffering.

Cultural Identity and Identity Crisis in the Selected Novels of Githa Hariharan

Githa Hariharan is a successful feminist writer. Her first novel The Thousand Faces of Night (1992) won the prestigious Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the best first novel in 1993. Her novels portray the struggle of female characters for their identities which are challenged by caste, religion, violence and nationality. The present paper is an attempt to examine and review the way Hariharan’s women characters encounter the orthodox roles and identity forced on them by the male-dominated social order as they try to rebuild a modern self-identity for them. For this purpose, her novels The Thousand Faces of Night, The Ghost of Vasu Master and Fugitive Histories are thoroughly studied in this paper.