Essay about Women´s Language: A History of Indian-English Women Writers

With the 19th Century writers, one can begin to consider women 's writing in a more expanded manner - as a kind of writing that has its own nature based on what it is to be a woman.

(Meehan, 32-33) He reaches the conclusion that “in view of the dehumanizing iconic functions that woman has been assigned in the male literary and political tradition, such as the ever-beautiful muse, the static national symbol, the woman poet must now strive to put herself as a human being back into the poem, with all its existential consequences. Still, to become a heroine, to carry her mother’s spear, in Paula Meehan’s words, must not mean imitating the strategies of the immortal male hero. It must imply the courage to admit to her own inevitable death, to the ageing of her body” (Sedlmayr, 270). Even though male poets no longer possess complete domination over the poetry genre, female poets still face several challenges related to this past dominance.

As a result of the abuse female characters have faced, it has become an objective for authors to prevent this. There have been clear strides recently, putting women as the protagonists, and not in a manner that has them dealing with persecution. The amount of strong, female characters is a large stride in the right direction to end the conflict regarding women’s roles in literature. However, this sudden influx of women in literature may lead to the reversal of the issue; the absence or abuse of men. While certainly literary equality is the end goal, to flip the issue would be just as bad and lead to sexism on the opposite spectrum. To truly mend the rift between genders, there must be no discrimination, the idea that an author is trying to use sexist undertones by not writing the lead as a female should not have to be an idea that readers think about when analyzing modern books. While even still there are issues of gender inequality in literature, there must be moderation from both ends for a resolution to be possible. The only way for equality to be achieved is with the absence of sexist ideals from all

American Literature has always been about men and for men. In this essay, we are going to analyze the women’s role in the book, as inferior and weaker gender.

Throughout history, it has generally been accepted that women are of a lesser standard than that of their male counterparts. There has always been an opposition to this theory that believes that the reverse is true, or at the very least, that the sexes are equal. While some authors place women within their works solely as a filler character, or as support of their male lead, there are some that have written with the intent of the females offering a distinctive viewpoint than that of what the readers might be used to. The roles of women in literature have never been forced to be monotonous, yet that’s how they’ve been perceived. However, there are examples of female characters who have been written with the express purpose of breaking that

While Dorothy Mermin provides a plethora of examples through the inclusion of verse and detailed analysis of poetic texts, she does not provide a solution for the gendering of poetry that is causing both male and female poets to suffer. Her article focuses on detailing the problems arguing that women struggle to be more than just the object and men “[struggle] against the difficulty of a situation in which poetic structures [are] still framed for male subjects but poetry’s qualities were those associated with women.” (165) Her work, much like Victorian gender ideals, largely ignores the suffering of women in favour of the suffering of others (in this case, men). This perhaps stems from the Victorian notion that one must talk about another’s suffering (men’s) to discuss the point at hand (women’s suffering).

The purpose of the research paper is to examine the role of women in Hinduism and how it impact their lives .This paper will look at how narratives from sacred texts influences women’s role in society in the past and in the present. The role of women in Hinduism is often disputed, and positions range from equal status with men to restrictive. Hinduism is based on numerous texts, some of which date back to 2000 BCE or earlier. They are varied in authority, authenticity, content and theme, with the most authoritative being the Vedas. The position of women in Hinduism is widely dependent on the specific text and the context. Positive references are made to the ideal woman in texts such as the Ramayana and the

In Judith Lorber’s essay, Susan M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar’s essay “The Madwoman in the Attic,” they claim “The poet’s pen is in some sense (even more than figuratively) a penis” (Gilbert 4). Many prominent female authors have spoken to the fact that males are seen at the supremes in the world of femininity, including Virginia Woolf, Alice Walker, and Adrienne Rich. Their commentary seems to point to a historical common sense of males being more skilled at creative work and the male superiority to complex as white, male authors as the standard of authorship, with all other works––by women, by

Just as the British ignored women’s perspective, so did the Indian men from both secular and religious backgrounds. Geraldine Forbes (1996) argues that the female approach is often missing in history and thus, she attempts to privilege women’s own accounts, whether it be through their oral histories, folktales, memoirs, journals, documents, etc. I believe the same could have been done in regards to the sati, primary documents such as the Ramayana reveal that there was female opposition to the sati (in the case of Sita). The introduction of the “woman question” was a significant step in South Asian history in terms of initiating the movement for women’s rights, however, it lacked the necessary voice from Indian women

In literature, the feminist literary criticism has become one of the core concepts. The feminist literary criticism of today is the direct product of the women’s moment of the 1960’s. Even Before the women’s moment, the thought and action of feminism possess in the classical & traditional books. They had diagnosed the problem of women’s inequality and tried for solutions through their writings. These books include Virginia Woolf’s fiction, Jane Austen’s novels and John Stuart Mill’s feminist writings. The women moment in 1960 was basically a literary

Composed ages ago, The Mahabharata still continues to be retold in various literary, graphic and visual media. In the hands of the postcolonial Indian English novelist the mythological past takes different shapes. Unlike retellings of previous centuries, these novels do not view the epic as a mere tussle between dharma and adharma. They re-narrate their past but from a different perspective. They demolish authority, stereotypes, icons and sexist values. This paper seeks to examine how notions of gender are subverted and notions of victimhood and agency are playfully dealt with, in these modern retellings of The Mahabharata. This paper will be dealing with two hyper-masculine characters from The Mahabharata, namely Duryodhana and Bhima. Pushed to the brink of half-existence, both these characters seem to share their frustrations in being misunderstood, half-understood. Beneath all the masculinity, the massive strength, the oozing machismo, we get two marginalised men waiting to be heard. Our reading of these novels reveals how rewriting epics gives voice to the subordinated speaker and also analyses the ways in which individuals of this age resist hegemonic notions of gender and class.

Indian English Literature is defined as the contribution of Indian writers to the Literature in English. With the consolidation of the British power in India, English, the language of rulers also began to exercise its influence on the intellectuals of the country. To the educated people, English language is a gateway to western knowledge. English provided a window for the Indian intellectuals to have a look at the wide world.

Being under the British rule, English language was used as a language of education and a medium of expression among Indians. It is the Indian writing in English which gave the voice of Indian culture to the outside world. India’s Linguistic diversity adds to the richness of Indian culture and every region of India has a highly developed literary tradition with excellent writers of national, and a few of international fame. The regional literature of India since the ancient times has travelled an extensive path to gain the shape that it possesses in present Indian panorama.

“Women have mainly played decorative objects in Hindi cinema for a long time. Or, even in films where they had important roles, they are more victims and martyrs or victimizers of other women” – Dr. Shoma Chatterjee (Award winning author, film scholar and journalist, India). Even though Hindi cinema focused more on Male protagonist centrality but during the 1950’s and 60’s Hindi cinema produced films which highlighted Female characters as orphans, wanderers and even Warriors at times. Despite the fact that those films were not women-centric, they still portrayed women as strong characters having the qualities which were supposed to be associated with the male characters for example: Struggling against society for justice, freedom &

Ismat Chughtai, the Urdu writer of fierce feminist sentiments, has never got the accolades that have been bestowed upon her contemporaries- especially male contemporaries. She is remembered as a controversial writer who did not hide anything in her narratives; and hence irked her contemporary society in all possible manners. I am of the opinion that it is high time to re-evaluate the works of Ismat Chughtai by foregrounding her unflinching anti-hegemonic sentiments. Chughtai was a Feminist who challenged the status-quos and prudery of the Indian culture shaped up during the Victorian era. Her collection of short stories raised such a storm all across the country that she even had to face the court of law. The primary charge labelled against