Assertion of Feminine Self: A Critique of Shashi Deshpande's A Matter of Time

"Women on the Edge of Time" by Marge Piercy, is a novel that illustrates some problems of today’s society and compares them to a possible future time. The other world that is presented in the book is called Mattapoisett. Mattapoisett is described as an utopian science fiction place because is much different from the place that Connie lived. Even thought Mattapoisett might be the world that Connie’s culture needed it is not a perfect world. Some of the problems that Marge Piercy presents in the book are poverty, women’s role, and problems of government, the environment, and prejudices that our society is facing today. However, how is the society different from the two cultures presented in the book? Connie, the

Anita Desai and Shashi Deshpande both are the feminist authors. The word Feminism means getting the same rights for women as enjoyed by men. This word originated from the latin word ‘femina’ meaning ‘woman’ that’s mainly focused on women’s rights, status and power at par with men on the grounds of equality of sexes. Feminism was a great movement fights for women’s equal rights. However, there is a difference between Indian feminism and Western feminism in terms of traditions and norms, culture and society, life and living styles. Indian Feminism never tried to change the overall system and never denies religion. It only demands social reformation, the equal treatment and respect,

This paper attempts to examine the fictional projections of Indian girls, to see how they emerge in ideological terms. Their journeys from self-alienation to self-adjustment, their childhood struggles against the hypocrisies and monstrosities of the grown-up world, eventually demolishing the unjust male constructed citadels of power that hinder their progress- are the highlighted issues. The point of comparison between the two novels focused on here is the journey of Rahel in The God of Small Things and Sai in The Inheritance from a lonely childhood to a tragic adulthood passing through a struggle with the complex forces of patriarchal society. Both the novels portray the imaginativeness, inventiveness, independence, rebelliousness, wide-eyed wonder and innocence associated with these young girls.

In the novels of Shashi Despande , Silence is the theme which can easily be felt by the readers throughout her novels. Breaking of silence by her protagonists in different ways makes their voice heard by everyone. So far as women’s work, speech,

Shashi Deshpande is one of the famous contemporary Indian novelists in English. She writes about the conflict between tradition and modernity in relation to women in middle class society. Shashi Deshpande’s novel deals with the theme of the quest for a female identity. The complexities of man-woman relationship especially in the context of marriage, the trauma of a disturbed adolescence. The Indian woman has for years been a silent sufferer. While she has played different roles-as a wife, mother, sister and daughter, she has never been able to claim her own individuality. Shashi Deshpande has emerged as a writer possessing deep insight into the female psyche. Focusing on the marital relation she seeks to expose the tradition

Deshpande's concern and sympathy are primarily for the woman in whatever circumstances she might be placed or whatever role in the society she might be playing. While revealing the woman's struggle to secure self-respect and self-identity for herself through her protagonists, the author subtly unravels the multiple levels of oppression, including sexual oppression experienced by women in our society thus creating a new social awareness. This stance of Deshpande makes her a potential feminist writer creating a woman's world with loving, care and a soothing touch depicting the nuances of her consciousness while advocating her liberation from the meticulously concocted web of imposed socio-cultural orders that have existed over centuries. From

At last the Deshpande's women decide to act naturally, accepting themselves in whatever situation they are. When the 'exit plan' comes to be fail for them, then the 'way in' – their digging deep into their selves - gives the fundamental sustenance and strength to confront their issues. Their determination to confront the circumstance and their reliance just on the self demonstrate to them the best approach to stand up to the crisis in their lives. Despite the fact that their issues stay unsolved, their state of mind towards the issue change with their comprehension of the "self." Once they begin stand on their own legs, the heroines choose to quit fleeing starting with one shelter then onto the next. They acknowledge all that is cracked in

Naomi Weisstein and Susan Brownmiller were powerful voices for women during the second wave of feminism in America. Their writings, “Kinder, Kuche, Kirche as Scientific Law: Psychology Constructs the Female” and “Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape”, found in the anthology ‘Feminism in Our Time’, reflected how throughout the 20th century, popular medical and psychological models were centered around men which resulted in women receiving inaccurate and inappropriate treatments. They argued that the oppression of women was perpetuated through false narratives under the guise of science but with no empirical evidence.

Her heroines are sensitive, intelligent and career-oriented. Study of her novels reveals how poignantly, she expresses the frustration and disappointments of women who experience social and cultural oppression in the male-dominated society. Shashi Deshpande started her writing career all of a sudden. In her own terms: “There was really nothing. It was very strange. May be it was there waiting inside and suddenly at one moment, it came out. Until then, I was looking around to see what I could do. I was very unhappy not doing anything, just looking after the home and children. It was perhaps a kind of claustrophobic existence. I could feel something building up in me and that caused the outburst. Otherwise, it would have perhaps led to a breakdown.”(“Denying the otherness” II) Her novels are autobiographical in nature depicting her own experiences of the educated middle class Indian women’s predicament and they tend to be gender specific. That Long Silence is a saga of suppressed women prisoned in the room of silence. It is Jaya’s journey in search of one’s true self who confronts the gender oriented traditional

In this novel, what the reader learns about the culture of the society is that men are the most important in the family. From an early age, little girls are taught to be submissive to men. Arranged marriages are common, as in Lakshmi’s case, she was promised to marry a boy whom she has never met before, whom she refers to as “the boy with the sleepy cat eyes”. The uncertainty of Lakshmi’s future is common for many girls as poverty often drives the mother or father of the young Nepali girls to sell them to wealthy families as a last resort. The girls are sold to wealthy families in urban India work as “maids,” but the actuality is that the young girls are sold unwittingly into prostitution. The girls are told they will work until they pay

Kamala Markandaya has occupied a prominent place among Indian English writers as one of the leading woman writers in English. All her ten novels deal with the themes of East-West encounter, rootlessness, human relationships, poverty, hunger and exploitation. The character of Rukumani in Nectar in A Sieve is stronger than other characters in her novels. Her life is full of hopes and frustrations, pleasures and pains, rise and fall. An awakened-woman is completely different from the woman who thinks of seeking equality with man, asserting her own personality and emphasizing on her own rights as a woman. She is gifted with depth and rationale thinking.

The Indian society believes that men have the facility and cultural hegemony in the group. A odd feature of the Indian action is that men defend maleness and deem women not manly which is not basically human. Women are marginalised through cultural institutions and religious rituals. Feminist movements have been maddening for removal of this marginalisation. The hermetic salutation of feminism in the 1960s and 1970s helped theorize a girl's discourse. A feministically right to use text can gain to a better covenant of the woman's condition Feminism in Indian English literature is focused so many years back. Feminism refers to the support of women’s right. This right is to remove gender discrimination and gives equal status to female in society. From the early period to modern period women writers presents the theme to highlight women issues in society. It goes on developing its content time to time. It starts with suppression of women and slowly comes to revolt of women. Feminism in India is a set of movements bearing in mind the direct of defining establishing and defending diplomatic and socio-economical rights and equal opportunities for Indian women. Like the feminists of new countries in India too the women be lacklustre for gender equality, the right to sham for equal wages the right to equal entry to health, education and politics too and I should make known for

She is never after contrivances. There is an ernest voice, intense about the story being told and its way. She is one of the scholars with little posturing.Her books more often are about female protagonists. This has driven perusers to call her a feminst essayist. She has frequently grumbled against this title. Shashi Deshpande is of the view that in calling her books feminst, one straitjackets the works; detains them with the mark. She feels that while she is women's activist, her books are books. She has not composed the books as a debating voice, to build up a theory in a verbal confrontation. She feels her books are open examinations of the encounters of individuals in particular setting. Her plots shape into insistent pictures of women's activist perspectives. A large portion of us are blinded by this optics to such a degree, to the point that we neglect to perceive whatever other legitimacy in her. For instance, I was thinking about her novel That Long Silence. I think in this novel the utilization of the pioneer figure of speech is extremely fascinating. The way in which Shashi Deshpande in this novel weaves together two sorts of intertextuality is likewise exceptionally

Bhagyalakshmi writes straight forward and thought-provoking poetry with strong feelings of unhappiness about the sufferings and invalidation of women. She has written many first-person poems unfolding her thoughts and analyzing her own unique thought structure. In some poems, women’s condition and horrors of ill-treatment are in the poet’s mind and she makes the reader think deep. She presents silent sufferings- women’s silent sufferings and agony through a ‘bird’ in ‘A bird’s eye view’. In this poem, her speaker is a woman who finds herself an ‘odd bird’, asks questions and summarizes her own conclusion:

R.K.Narayan is a well-known Indian writer whose literary works bring many new ideas and much new character in Indian English literature that stands as a model to many writers as well as many readers also. My paper represents the importance of women characters in R.K.Narayan’s ‘The Dark Room’. R.K.Narayan in his novel portrays the condition of the women in the contemporary social context. He portrays the suffering of them in daily life. He feels sympathy for them. He also shows how important their role in every man’s daily life and for their family. As R.K.Narayan is a great story teller, he uses his greatest method to create awareness between the readers, so that they can change their thought about the women and also the women can rise