Jul 2026· International journal of research - granthaalayah· Vol 14, pp. 167-169· 0 citations· 2 references
Abstract
Literature in all languages is an art, expressing and conveying the essence of life it plays a major role in crusading against the evil forces that try to disturb the harmony and balance of society by violating the human rights of liberty equality and fraternity. Post-independence it has emerged as a protest literature or commitment literature with marginalized communities as its core theme. These communities introduced themselves in an outburst of suppressed emotions and passions transforming reactive minds into creative geniuses. Feminist literature is also a part of that reactive literature which expresses in a volcanic vent, women’s anger and anguish over the existing faulty socio-political system wheeling on gender discrimination. It articulates relentlessly its demands of an identity and an equal position not a subservient one for women in this male dominated society. ‘Right to live with dignity’ this is the core of their demands. A host of post-colonial women writers like Arundhati Roy, Anita Nair, Anita Desai, Jhumpa Lahiri, Shashi Deshpande, Nayantara Segal, Rama Mehta, Kamala Das etc. have been using English as a medium to express women’s perspectives and discussions, their silent sufferings, gender, inequality and issues related with violation of women’s rights in this insensitive indifferent, chauvinistic and patriarchal society since long. Their writings reveal repressive forces faced by women like patriarchal mindset, sexual politics in marital relationship, and effacement of their identities, second rate position in society and family and their revolt against these forces.
The study set out to discuss Lola, Tanyi Ntang and Afuh as pro-feminist writers, intended to dismantle patriarchy in The Lock On My Lips. Ewa and Other Plays, and in Born before Her Time. It starts with the assumption that gender is an ideological construction and that the marginal place which society reserves for women on the bases of their sex is not embraced by women wholeheartedly. Feminism is a movement which seeks to liberate women from all forms of exploitation and oppression. This can either be physical, psychological, spiritual, economic or cultural. These moves seek to
give women equal opportunities in deeply patriarchal cultures. The women draw their inner strengths and female networks to create spaces for themselves Based on this premise, the hypothetical contention of this study is that women, equipped with knowledge and economic viability, women can challenged the status quo and moved to the centre. Using insights
drawn from the Feminist Critical Perspective together with critical reading and analysis of the play/text this study found out that development would be greatly enhanced if men and women work together on the basis of ability than on the consideration of their sexes. Hence, equal opportunity should be given to everybody in all the spheres of life.
Evaristus Mbuen Ndong, Erika Ndunela'a, Ndong, Xaverie Mamafombang Ngwana· International journal of re...· 0 citations
Through varied significant and strategic ways male, the patriarch has been able to keep captive not only the physical but also intellectual and psychological potential of a female being.And this hegemonic ideology got strengthened and promoted via social structures. As a consequence, significant ways and means of discrimination and disempowerment of the female race got embedded in the very foundations of these socio-political institutions. In this connection, the Academy embodies a symbolic significance along socio-historical lines. As an important cultural institute, the academy has been pivotal in shaping, generating and disseminating knowledge and other cultural artefacts. Throughout the ages, under the colossal impact of androcentrism, it has been the bastion of masculine power and privilege. Female writers and theoreticians across cultures have attempted a critique of the academy for its biased role in gatekeeping female agency. Adrienne Rich, an acclaimed theoretician, has attempted an exhaustive analysis of this cultural institution in promoting gender discrimination and entrapment of the female gender. Therefore, the present paper is an attempt to critically analyse Rich's radical critique of androcentric knowledge -its structural and operational components. This paper analyses the strategies Rich recommends for a feminist re-evaluation of the academy. Besides feminist theorising, the paper makes judicious use of Rich's own theoretical pronouncements as articulated in her seminal books, “Blood, Bread and Poetry” and “On Lies, Secrets and Silences”
T. Shah· International Journal of Tea...· 0 citations
The aim is to study the sociocultural sufferings and the dilemma of Anita Nair's protagonists who find themselves tattered between social conventions and traditions and their inordinate urge to transgress these boundaries and fulfill their desires. In The Better Man (2000) Nair talks about quest for identity and self realization and portrays women’s aspiration for freedom in marital life through the characters of Paru Kutty ,Anjana and Valsala. Akhila the main protagonist in Ladies Coupe (2002) gives up the conflicts within her by realizing her potentiality and proceeds towards a contended life.Similarly,in Mistress (2003), Nair presents a perplexed married woman named Radha who oscillates between her traditional values and the transferring trends of the modern society.Meera in Lessons in Forgetting (2010) also struggles with the social pressure around her,being abandoned by her husband and by the society at large.The research attempts to bring out how women are subjugated by traditions in a patriarchal society and how they liberate themselves by challenging and transgressing the boundaries .
Shalini Sharma· International Journal For Mu...· 0 citations
The history of women's struggle for self-determination and an authentic identity has been a persistent one. Their autonomous identity has long been threatened by the control exerted by dominant social ideologies. The desire for a free and empowered self-gathered momentum after the birth of Radical Feminism in the first half of the twentieth century. Under the banner of radical philosophy women writer's adopted searching queries and strategic shifts in confronting masculine myths and stereotypes regarding their gender. Poetry became a suitable genre to question the imposed identities. As a result, a reactionary " identity poetics" came into being across Europe. Poets like Audre Lorde, Sylvia Plath, Margaret Atwood and Adrienne Rich undertook a poetics that largely dealt with rediscovering female identity. However, Rich, while moving through different theoretical perspectives, established lesbian identity as the only possible political identity that could release a woman from all patriarchal clutches. Therefore, the paper attempts to analyse Rich's poetic quest and culmination of her search for a radical lesbian identity. The paper foregrounds it's theoretical background in feminist criticism. Besides, Rich, being herself a theorist, provides a foundational basis for her own critical concepts.
T. Shah· International Journal of Eng...· 0 citations
Caste continues to be a disabling material reality in India. It is perpetuated through ‘private’ formations like the ‘family’ as also through other more public “sites of sanskritization” (Rege, 333). Academia plays a foundational role in establishing and perpetuating caste structures. This is achieved through the teacher’s disciplinary authority as well as the syllabi’s disciplinary ‘demands’. This paper attempts to examine how M.M. Vinodini’s “The Parable of the Lost Daughter” claims for itself a space that has either been denied to Dalit writers or been usurped by non-Dalit ‘progressive’ writers. It reminds the reader how caste violence has not abated in a globalized world but has mutated into a treacherous social praxis. The paper also engages with the crucial connection between caste and gender. The paper examines whether the violence of the Brahmin father and the son-in-law towards women of other castes and of their own sparks a feminist continuum or if caste trumps any real or imagined solidarity between victims of Brahmin patriarchy.
The idea of feminism has slowly spread all over the world. The theory which originated in the western world gained its influence in India and its wave has strongly flourished in the north-eastern part of India too. Women race has been dominated by the society's thoughts and feelings. They are suppressed by their opposite sex and are kept distanced from their rights and privileges. To be liberated from such kind of dominance and atrocities, a major uprising by the women gave its birth to feminist thoughts and ideology. So Feminism is an acquisition of equal rights and equal living along with men in social, political, economic, education etc. It is a revolution where in a patriarchal society fights for the cause of women's rights. Feminism theory has brought new thoughts and new ideology in the literature. Feminism is basically about having equal rights in social, political, economic, and educational areas and living on equal terms with men. Feminist theory has introduced fresh ideas and perspectives to literature, inspiring many writers to create works based on feminist concepts. Many writers have created their writings on feminist ideology. Feminism theory has laid its impact on English literature in the 20th century. In the 20th century, feminism had an impact on English literature, and it also made its way into Bodo literature. This theory became a key focus in Bodo literature too. Bodo poets show the real-life experiences of women in their poems. You can clearly see feminist ideas in the works of some women poets, who really get what it’s all about.
Rima Narzary, Rupashree Hazowary· International Journal For Mu...· 0 citations
