View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Etheses - A Saurashtra University Library Service Saurashtra University Re – Accredited Grade ‘B’ by NAAC (CGPA 2.93) Thakore, Sheetal Y., 2010, Select Women's Autobiographies: A Study, thesis PhD, Saurashtra University http://etheses.saurashtrauniversity.edu/id/eprint/136 Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Saurashtra University Theses Service http://etheses.saurashtrauniversity.edu [email protected] © The Author SELECT WOMEN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: A STUDY A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO SAURASHTRA UNIVERSITY, RAJKOT FOR THE AWARD OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH SUPERVISED BY: SUBMITTED BY: DR. JAYDIPSINH DODIYA SHEETAL Y.THAKORE Associate Professor, Head, Department of English Smt. S. H. Gardi Institute of English M. N. Kampani Arts & A. K. & Comparative Literary Studies, Shah Commerce College Saurashtra University, MANGROL(Gujarat) RAJKOT(Gujarat) Registration No: 3844 2010 CERTIFICATE I here by declare that the work embodied in my thesis entitled as “SELECT WOMEN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: A STUDY’’, prepared for Ph.D. Degree has not been submitted for any other degree of this University or any other University on any previous occasion. And to the best of my knowledge, no work has been reported on the above subject. And the work presented in this thesis is original and whenever references have been made to the work of others, they have been clearly indicated as such and the source of information is included in the bibliography. SUPERVISED BY: SUBMITTED BY: DR. JAYDIPSINH DODIYA SHEETAL Y.THAKORE Associate Professor, Head, Department of English Smt. S. H. Gardi Institute of English M. N. Kampani Arts & A. K. Shah & Comparative Literary Studies, Commerce College Saurashtra University, MANGROL(Gujarat) RAJKOT(Gujarat) Date: Place: Rajkot ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Human being has always attempted to understand the meaning of life. Autobiography as a literary genre has always been a passion to me. It exposes life to its full. It cultivates a kind of intimacy with the writer. The four women autobiographers included in this study are a proof of remarkable capacity of Indian women. I shall always remain indebted to my guide Dr. Jaydipsinh Dodia for his zealous support in the area. He has been a selfless mentor and a beacon guide through out this endeavour. He has always given a patient listening to my queries and helped me at every stage of my research work. How can I forget to extend my thanks to Dr. Kamal Mehta for recommending various texts on the genre? I am also equally thankful to Dr. Ravesinh Zala and Dr. Sanjay Mukheraji. I am also thankful to Prof. A. K. Singh, Former Vice Chancellor, Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar Open University, for his help. I take an opportunity to express my sense of gratitude to my teacher Dr. Ranjana Harish, who had hosted a two days seminar on ‘Kamala Das: A Tribute’ on January 11, 12 2010 at ‘School of Languages’, Gujarat University. Her special lecture on the genre helped me a lot. I also had a short discourse with her. I am proud to be a daughter of retired Principal Mr. Yagneshbhai J. Thakore and Principal Mrs. Bhanuben Y. Thakore. I shall remain indebted to them for having instilled in me a remarkable sense of freedom and literary thirst. I shall always remain indebted to my hubby, Yogesh R. Chhantbar for carefully tending the same sense of freedom and fostering my literary pursuits. I owe much to my elder sister Prof. Shilpa Jani and my brother Dr. Ashish Thakore for respecting and appreciating my literary aptitude right i from my childhood. I also express my sense of gratitude to my elder sister in laws Anitaben anb Bhavanaben. I owe much to my two kids Dharitri and Yuvraj. I also extend my thanks to the president of Shardagram Institute Shree Dipchandbhai Gardi and the Director Dr. J.G.Bhuva and the academic advisor of the institute Dr. Kanubhai Mavani. I am thankful to the Principal, M. N. Kampani Arts & A. K. Shah Commerce College, Dr. Hamirsinh Zankat, Dr Ramesh Mehta, Head Department of Gujarati of our college and all my colleagues who have always boosted the process of my research work. I am also thankful to the librarian M.N.Kampani arts and A.K.Shah Commerce College, Mangrol. I am also thankful to Mr. Nilesh Soni, Librarian, Saurashtra University Library for helping me with the relevant material for my Dissertation. Sheetal Y. Thakore ii CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i CHAPTER: I AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NATURE, ELEMENTS & HISTORY 1 CHAPTER: II INDIAN WOMEN AUTOBIOGRAPHIES: AN OVERVIEW 39 CHAPTER: III PART (I) NAYANTARA SAHGAL’S ‘PRISON & CHOCOLATE CAKE’: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SAGA 75 PART (II) NAYANTARA SAHGAL’S ‘FROM FEAR SET FREE’ ‘A TRUE TASTE OF FREEDOM’ 106 CHAPTER: IV AMRITA PRITAM'S 'THE REVENUE STAMP': A CANDID EVIDENCE OF INDIVIDUALITY 130 CHAPTER: V KAMALA DAS'S 'MY STORY': A BOLD ASSERTION OF THE SELF 169 CHAPTER: VI SHOBHA DE’S SELECTIVE MEMORY: - ‘STORIES FROM MY LIFE’: ‘INDIAN WOMAN IN NEW AVATAR’ 193 CHAPTER: VII CONCLUSION 229 SELECT BIBILIOGRAPHY 238 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CHAPTER: I AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NATURE, ELEMENTS & HISTORY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 CHAPTER: I AUTOBIOGRAPHY: NATURE, ELEMENTS & HISTORY In this rapidly developing world we get a regular access to various media. We get updated and well informed through computers and internet. Computer has turned the world into a global village. All the technical resources provide us with all the information about the world. This information is incomplete without a human touch. As a matter of fact, we don’t get much time to stand and share the problems of others. In this technical era man has turned out to be a machine. In such a scenario literature is the only key to human understanding. Life – writing is the best medium to unlock human heart. The great critic Thomas De Quincy has distinguished literature in two broad categories 1 Literature of knowledge. 2 Literature of power. “All that is literature seeks to communicate power, all that is not literature to communicate knowledge”1 Autobiography is a record of a person’s life. It informs us about the various incidents of a person’s life. However, autobiography is not only ‘Literature of knowledge’. It also moves us. It portrays life in a very aesthetic manner. In order to understand the moving as well as informative function of autobiography one has to understand its nature and elements thoroughly. 2 1.1 Definitions: According to Oxford English Dictionary: An autobiography is # “An Individual’s account of his own life”2 # “It is a biography of yourself”3 # “It is biography, life-history, life story, life-an account of the series of events making up a person’s life” 4 According to Collier’s Encyclopaedia: “Autobiography, a form of biography in which the subject is also the author; it is generally written in the first person and covers most or an important phase of the author’s life” 5 In his grand work, ‘English biography’ Mr. W. H. Donne remarks; “Autobiography, which is worth the name, is serious and truthful self study”.6 All the above definitions suggest that autobiography is life-history. It is a biography of the individual written by himself. It covers an important phase of a person’s life. It is necessarily truthful and serious attempt of self-study. While biography is defined as ‘an account of a person’s life” or as “literature which consists of the histories of individuals”, autobiography is called: “the story of a person”.7 The coinage of the term ‘autobiography’ is quite modern. Murray’s New English Dictionary notes “…the first recorded use of the term occurred in 1809. Before this date, the autobiographical form passed under various names: life narratives written by the author him self, memoirs, journal, diary, biography by self, history by self etc”.8 James Olney breaks the word “autobiography into three different parts: “autos”, the self, the “I” stated or implied, without which the work would become meaningless. The 'bios' or the 'life', which is the entire life of the individual unto the time of writing. Lastly the 'graphe' or the act of 3 writing. It is through writing the self that the life takes a specific dimension and image. There are three main types of autobiography 1) Informal autobiography 2) Formal autobiography 3) Specialized forms of autobiography. Informal autobiography includes extremely intimate writings not necessarily for publication. Letters, diaries and journals for instance reveal the personal life of the author very consciously. Publication of collected letters of some eminent persons such as the volumes of W. S. Louis’s correspondence with Horace Walpole, an 18th century man of letters (34 Vol, 1937-65) can enlighten the reader about different ways in which a person can reveal himself or herself. Similarly, Mozart and Byron have revealed themselves in an uninhibited fashion in their letters. In the 20th century, the young Jewish girl Anne Frank wrote her diary in such a manner that a script was prepared for a drama and a film. Records of the personal experiences in journals have offered a confidential history of their writers. Leonardo de Vinci’s notebooks reveal his teeming and ardent brain.