A STUDY OF GENDER CONFLICT AND STRUGGLE TOWARDS MAINSTREAM IDENTITY IN SELECTED NOVELS OF MARGARET DRABBLE Lalrimawii Zadeng Department of English Submitted in fulfillment of the requirement of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English of Mizoram University, Aizawl. A STUDY OF GENDER CONFLICT AND STRUGGLE TOWARDS MAINSTREAM IDENTITY IN SELECTED NOVELS OF MARGARET DRABBLE LALRIMAWII ZADENG DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH MIZORAM UNIVERSITY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I express my deepest gratitude to God for having blessed me with good health, verve and the indispensable vision while working on this thesis. This thesis has been written under the consistent guidance and supervision of Dr. Lalrindiki T. Fanai to whom I remain genuinely grateful for her constant guidance and encouragement without which this thesis would remain incomplete. I express my heartfelt gratitude to the Department of English, Mizoram University for giving me the opportunity to pursue research in the area of my interest. I remain indebted to my late parents Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Lalnghaka, for having nurtured in me the quest for further educational pursuance. Their loving memory remains a source of inspiration and motivation throughout the writing of this thesis. I express my gratitude to the Principal and my colleagues, especially, the Department of English, Government Johnson College, Aizawl, for their encouragement and moral support. I have been granted Study Leave by the Higher and Technical Department of the Government of Mizoram and I am truly grateful for the generous grant. It has enabled me to visit various libraries and centers of research including: Kolkata; British Council, American Centre, Hyderabad; University of Hyderabad (HCU), EFLU, Shillong; NEHU, TEFLU. I have sourced immense academic matter from them that have enriched this thesis. The Study Leave has also provided me the time to present seminar papers in both state level and national seminars, and the valuable discussions have further enhanced this thesis in significant ways. (LALRIMAWII ZADENG) DECLARATION I, Lalrimawii Zadeng, hereby declare that the subject matter of this thesis is the document of the work that I have completed. The contents of this thesis does not relate to any award of my previous degrees, and to the best of my knowledge to anybody else. Further, I have not submitted this thesis to any other University/Institute for any research degree. This is being submitted to the Mizoram University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English. (LALRIMAWII ZADENG) Candidate (Prof. MARGARET L. PACHUAU) (Dr. LALRINDIKI T. FANAI) Head Supervisor Department of English Associate Professor Mizoram University Department of English Aizawl. Mizoram University Aizawl. APPENDICES NAME OF CANDIDATE : Lalrimawii Zadeng DEGREE : Ph.D. DEPARTMENT : English TITLE OF THESIS : A Study of Gender Conflict and Struggle Toward Mainstream Identity in Selected Novels of Margaret Drabble. DATE OF PAYMENT OF ADMISSION FEE : No. 4481, Dt. 24.9.2007. APPROVAL OF RESEARCH PROPOSAL BPGS : 31st October 2008 SCHOOL BOARD : 25th November 2008 REGRISTRATION NO. : MZU/Ph.D./259 of 25.11.2008. Head Department of English Other Relevant Information: i) Attended and presented papers in state level seminar entitled “Framework on Quality Management in Higher Education; the Mizoram Context”, jointly organised by Mizoram College Teachers’ Association in collaboration with Quality Assuarance Cell, Higher and Technical Education Department, Govt. of Mizoram, and State Higher Education Council Mizoram (RUSA), 9th December2014. ii) a) Attended national seminar cum workshop on “Mizo Novel Platinum Jubilee” sponsored by CIIL, Mysore and ICSSR-Nerc, Shillong and Mizo Literature and Language Teachers’ Academy MILLTA and Department of Mizo, Mizoram University on 9th, 10th and 11th November 2011. Presented Paper entitled “Psychological Effect of Social and Economic Changes in Lalrammawia Ngente’s Rinteii Zingleng. b) Attended national seminar entitled “Social Justice, Development and Secularism: Philosophical Reflection on Contemporary National and North East Indian Scenario”, sponsored by The Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Delhi and the Department of Philosophy, Pachhunga University on 29th and 30th November 2012. Presented paper entitled “Specific Socio Cultural Problems of Cultural and Linguistic Communities of North East India: The Mizo Cultural Change”. iii) Published an article entitled “Social Taboo and the Female Gender: Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone and Shashi Deshpande’s The Binding Vine in Labyrinth An International Refreed Journal of Postmodern Studies in July 2014. iv) Attended Ph.D. Course Work (August – December 2011). MIZORAM UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CERTIFICATE This is to certify that “A Study of Gender Conflict and Struggle Towards Mainstream Identity in Selected Novels of Margaret Drabble” written by Lalrimawii Zadeng has been written under my supervision. She has fulfilled all the required norms laid down under the Ph.D. regulations of Mizoram University. The thesis is the result of her own investigation. Neither the dissertation as a whole or any part of it was ever submitted to any other university for any research degree. (Dr. LALRINDIKI T. FANAI) Supervisor Department of English Mizoram University CONTENTS PAGE Declaration Certificate Acknowledgements Chapter I: Feminist Discourse and Margaret Drabble 1 - 40 Chapter II: Mainstream Gender Conflict 41 - 86 Chapter III: Women and the Male Absence 87 - 126 Chapter IV: Emergence of the New Woman in the Mainstream 127 - 177 Chapter V: Conclusion 178 – 203 Bibliography 204 - 216 Appendices Bio-data BIO-DATA Name: Lalrimawii Zadeng Father’s Name: Dr Lalnghaka (L) Address: TN-234, Tlangnuam, Aizawl, Mizoram. Phone No.: (91)9436143429. Educational Qualification Class Board/University Year of Passing Division Percentage X MBSE 1980 II 59.29% XII WBCHSE 1986 II 45.7% B.A. NEHU 1889 II 51.5% M.A. HCU 1991 II 54.5% B.Ed. NEHU 2000 I 60.42% Ph.D. Registration Date: MZU/Ph.D./259 of 25.11.2008. CHAPTER – I FEMINIST DISCOURSE AND MARGARET DRABBLE 1 Margaret Drabble as a literary figure is noted for her subtle, strong, witty and passionate writings among the female contemporary writers. Her first novel A Summer Bird Cage was published in 1963 and in the following year in 1964, The Garrick Year a novel with theatrical background was published. Her third novel The Millstone (1965) was the winner of the Mail on Sunday/John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1966. Jerusalem the Golden (1967), won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1967. Drabble was awarded the Yorkshire Post Book Award for the finest fiction in 1972 for The Needle’s Eye (1972). In 1973, Drabble was awarded the E. M. Foster Award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has published eighteen novels to date and she has also written several screenplays, plays and short stories. Her non- fiction works include A Writer’s Britain: Landscape and Literature (1979) and biographies. As a biographer she is highly regarded for her works; Arnold Bennett: A Biography (1974) and Agnus Wilson: A Biography (1995). Drabble has also edited the 5th and 6th editions of The Oxford Companion to English Literature in 1985 and 2000 respectively. Margaret Drabble holds honorary doctorates from the Universities of Sheffield (1976), Manchester (1987), Keele (1988), Hull (1992), East Anglia (1994), York (1995) and the University of Cambridge awarded her an honorary Doctorate in Letters in 2006. Margaret Drabble is the former Chairman of the National Book League (presently known as Booktrust) from 1980-1982 and she is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL). She was appointed as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1980 and in 2008 Drabble was promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). Though her works are inspired by her life, yet her works are not entirely autobiographical. Her latest work The Pure Gold Baby that centers on a young single mother who has to give up her ambition to be 2 an anthropologist in order to raise her special child was published in 2013. Margaret Drabble presently lives in London with her husband Michael Holroyd the biographer. This thesis attempts to study aspects related to gender conflict and struggle in order to attain and acquire the English middle class identity; the mainstream identity which is the underlying theme in the select novels namely, i) The Garrick Year (1964), ii) The Millstone (1965), iii) The Ice Age (1977), iv) The Radiant Way (1987), v) The Witch of Exmoor (1996), vi) The Peppered Moth (2001), and vii) The Sea Lady (2006). Even though the protagonists of the select texts belong to the middle class that is the mainstream of the English social class structure, yet each protagonist has to struggle in order to overcome her conflicts since the female gender is considered to belong to the working class due to her unpaid work in the area of domestication, child care and reproduction. In Freedom Socialist: Voice of Revolutionary Feminism, Helen Gilbert in “The Revolutionary Harmony of Marxism and feminism” states: Mainstream, middle-class feminism concerns itself with legal reforms and overcoming barriers to success within the capitalist system. (Gilbert). Although the female may belong to the middle class or the bourgeois class by virtue of her birth or her marriage, Marxist feminists opine that the female belongs to the working class due to the nature of the work that she performs. In Feminist Theory and Literary Practice, Deborah L. Madsen in “Gender and Work: Marxist Feminism and Charlotte Perkins Gilman”, remarks of Michele Barrett: Barrett cites the example of the divorced wife of a bourgeois man; this woman is a member of the bourgeoisie only by virtue of her marriage, in effect she is an honorary member of the middle class. But outside the relation of marriage, this woman must earn her own living and take her 3 place in the working class to which she has essentially belonged all along.