JAC : A Journal Of Composition Theory ISSN : 0731-6755 A Study of Female Characters in Nalini Sharma’s The Strange Equations Dr. S. Barathi Assistant Professor Department of English Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre SASTRA Deemed to be University Kumbakonam-612001.
[email protected] Abstract: Women are portrayed from various perspectives in literature since time immemorial. Generally, in the past few centuries, the Indian writers have portrayed women as stereotypical characters. But this trend has slowly withered and there emerged modern and Post-modern writers who had created female characters as multifaceted women. There is a difference between a male writer‟s perspective and a female writer‟s perspective of a woman character in their work. Thus, it is quite interesting to note that the female characters created by female writers stand apart as mouth pieces of the society, as well as a model or ideal woman from the view of a female writer. The present paper is an attempt to bring out the significance of the portrayal of female characters by Nalini Sharma in her novel The Strange Equations. The novel deals with the lives of two main characters Anu and Priya, through which the writer tries to represent the trials and tribulations undergone by women at present. Key Words: Female empowerment, Gender mainstreaming, Female-incompatibility, Female Psyche Introduction: From the past to the present, Indian Writing in English has varied themes ranging from romantic to confessional writing. Among these, women‟s writing is just a drop in the ocean as there were only fewer women writers. In a patriarchal society like India, women writers did not gain prominence in the past, and most of them were mere imitators of their male counterparts.