Synopsis Womanhood, Individuality and Human Relationships
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Synopsis Womanhood, Individuality and Human Relationships: A Cultural Feminist By R. Margaret Karunya Reg. No: P 4858 Literature is the reflection of life and reality. It does not simply describe the life. It enriches its readers with the essential skills and abilities that are required to face the daily life requirements. Literature records life and society’s response to it. It expresses and conveys thoughts, feelings and attitudes towards life. Fiction and drama present men and women reacting to each other in the way that is closer to real life. Indian writing in English literature has attracted readers of India and abroad. Indian Writing in English has proved that it is not inferior to English Literature in any way. Indian English literature was enriched with the literary works of Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833), Krishna Mohan Banerjee (1813-85), Ram Gopal Ghose (1815-68), Rajendralal Mitra (1824-91) and Harish Mukherjee (1824-60) who are strong social activists who worked hard to abolish the social evils like sati, untouchability and superstitious beliefs. The present research is going to be on the novels and so it is highly essential to discuss the origin of novel. The novel is a loose form of art that leads us to get a complete and varied representation of real life and character than any other form of literature. The novel has various elements. First, it should have a plot. Plot can be defined as the way in which the novel deals with the events and actions that are presented. Secondly the men and women who took part in these events and actions are the characters. The third element is the dialogue, the means of interaction among the characters. The fourth element is the scene and time of action. The fifth element is style in which the narration is done. The sixth element is the view of life presented by the novelist. Novel can be broadly classified into four types. They are the Psychological Novel, Social Novel, Historical Novel and Detective Novel. Psychological Novel was a vehicle for most of the women novelists through which they spurt out their feelings and emotions. The origin of the novel can be traced back to the Italian ‘Novella’ around the eighteenth century. Like the other literary genres like drama, poem, monologue etc., the novel does not have a rigid frame work and the novelist can enjoy full freedom in the attempt of writing a novel. The expression of human experience, ideologies and life are in the novel at various situations. The main aim of the novel is to deal with the human condition at various environments. Novel can be called as the powerful form of literary expression. In the past, the novels focused on social and political evils. The Indian English Novels were an imitative form in its origin and gradually it developed and acquired an independent form and set the Indian tradition in the hands of the talented and skilled writers. The history of Indian novels in English dates back to the nineteenth century. It began with the publication of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Raj Mohan’s wife (1864) and Lal Behari Day’s Govind Samanta (1874). The history of Indian English Novel has faced many ups and downs and has achieved some success through a variety of themes and linguistic variety. These two writes have attempted to analyse the contemporary Indian social context in their works. But most of the early novels in English were not original because they were imitated from the early works and also were faulty. It is right to conclude that the Indian English novels have its deep and strong roots of origin in the nineteenth century novels which were proved to be realistic in the portrayal of tradition and culture. In the beginning, the sole reason for the rise and development of the Indian English novels were the influence of English education, awareness and awakening of the people, influence of the western European culture and models. Later, the Indian English novels are transformed into a realistic independent and non-imitated form with an excellent reflection on the themes, plots, narrative techniques and human values based on the Indian context. Though there are some other divisions on the history of Indian English Novels, it has its own limitations because of the focus on any one individual writer of a particular era which might create a certain issue. Hence the whole corpus of the Indian English novel can be divided into three broad divisions. The first one is the traditional novel (of social realism before independence) the modern novel and the new novel. The traditional novel focuses on the social reality before independence. The modern novel concentrates on the experimentation after independence. The new novel reflects on the contemporary social, political, economic and cultural issues since 1981. The prolific predecessors and pioneers of the Indian English novels in the nineteenth century belong to the upper class Bengali community and they were Rabindranath Tagore, Ramesh Chandra Dutt, Chaterjee etc., who have dealt with the social context in their works. Their writings have aimed at awakening the colonized people of India in a socially realistic way. The Indian writers have written the novels in their regional languages like Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam etc., but they were greatly influenced by the style of story-telling of Leo Tolstoy, Balzac, and Dostoevsky in English translations. Though the Indian writers have a great impact and influence of the western European models, they have not attempted to imitate their foreign tradition merely or blindly. Rather the Indian English writers have kept the western tradition and style of writing as the model and tried to write in their own rich Indian tradition according to our own style of story- telling. It is in this area one can find that the Indian writers in English have made the most significant contribution. So, of all genres, the novel is the most popular form today. The pioneer novelist, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Raj Mohan’s Wife has set the model for the first period novelists to record the rich culture and tradition, social changes that take place in India. In the beginning stage, the men and women novelist have laid importance on their own personal and private experiences to be recorded in the novels. So the early novels concentrate on the domestic life and it is filled with many superstitious beliefs and religious values, social ills, evils and morals existing in the society. The focus on domestic life has led to the failure of the novelist in presenting the national awakening in the colonial India and the human values. Early women novelists in India followed the western novelist in the plot construction, characterization and narrative technique. Based on this aspect, the scholars cannot compare the Indian and western novelist due to the wide difference in the socio political condition of the nations. Three eminent novelists of pre independence era like K.S. Venkataramani, A.S.P. Ayyar, Ahmed Ali, Humayun Kabir and K.A. Abbas who have written novels on rural social and political life of India. From the above discussion on the history of Indian English Novels, the scholars can understand that the contribution of men novelists are much and not of the women novelists. The form of novel was developed and nurtured due to the contribution of above mentioned three stalwarts in the pre independence era. Thoughts, emotions, feelings, ambitions and freedom of Indian women were once suppressed. But after independence, a new kind of novel dealing with the concurrent issues appeared on the literary scene. Women writers started to write for the women’s welfare by projecting light on the women’s issues. This has provided women an opportunity to express their real self freely without any obstacles or hesitation as ever before. Freedom is not a gift, it is an achievement and every generation has to do its job well in order to continue and present the tradition of freedom. Later the novel form was further evolved and developed in the hands of the Indian women novelists who have engraved an ideal position for themselves. The first generation women writers started to publish their works in the 1950’s. Kamala Markandeya, Santha Rama Rao, R.P. Jhabvala have proved themselves prolific and talented in the literary scene. During this period, Nayantara Sahgal emerged as one of the significant writers in the domain of Indian English novels. Indian English Novel was male dominated for some time. After independence, some of the women novelist have given their significant contribution and enriched their thoughts in feminist writing. Thus the Indian women novelists have engraved an ideal position for themselves. Indian women writers not only describe the lives of women as they have been living but also how women can live afresh with their own identity. Woman with high feelings and aspirations makes her appearance in the novel after novel. This appearance of the new, fully awakened woman, ready to fight against the patriarchal norms in order to live a meaningful life, is a recent phenomenon. The female characters created by these novelists do not accept the low or secondary status in a male-dominated Indian society, that is, conservative. Their works are unrivalled and matchless due to the in depth study of women done by the women novelists. The novels have also offered abundant insight to understand and gain knowledge to solve various troubles and struggles we face in life. The women novelists have hold a prestigious position as stars in the gallery of literature. Some of the women novelists’ worth to be mentioned are Ruth Prawer Jhabwala, Kamala Markandaya, Anita Desai, Shasi Deshpande, Arundati Roy, Shoba De, Bharati Mukherjee, Nayantara Sahgal, Jhumpa Lahiri, Rama Mehta, Manju Kapur, Gita Mehta and Kiran Desai.