Tradition and Modernity. Changing the Images of Women in Selected Fiction by Manju Kapur and Anita Nair

Along with a range of socio-cultural, political and economic concerns, the focus on 'self' has been an inevitable assertion of writers during the last quarter of the twentieth century. Individualistic in tone, the contemporary women novelists are trying to portray realistically the predicament of modern women torn between the forces of tradition and modernity, their sense of frustration and alienation, the emotional and psychological turmoil and complexities of man-women relationships and subtleties of feminine consciousness against the persistent patriarchal social set-up. Cognizant of the evils originating from patriarchy, a positive sense of feminine identity has been recognized by them and the result is the emergence of a new woman in Indian society and its concept in the Indian English novel which has assumed a strident posture in the contemporary writings by women. The shift from submission to assertion, acquiescence to resistance and obedience to rebellion, however, has not been abrupt and effortless. Women are still in the process of negotiation with different limiting factors and thresholds of patriarchy to claim their due space and affirm their identity.
The present study is an attempt to critically investigate the negotiations with cultural norms by the women characters in the selected novels by the contemporary novelists, namely Manju Kapur and Anita Nair. Almost all the women characters, major and minor, from the selected novels have been considered and positioned as per their ideological leanings and convictions under two thematic chapters namely "Women in the Clutches of Traditional Norms," and "Tradition to Modernity." The major issues around which the novels move - education, marriage, gendered space and mother-daughter relationships - are taken up to put them within the contemporary social conditions in which women characters live. The present book is divided into five chapters to make a critical and analytical study of the select novels of these contemporary Indian women writers in English. The present work is focused on five selected novels: Manju Kapur's "Difficult Daughters", "Home" and "Custody" and Anita Nair's "Ladies Coupé" and "Mistress".

Auteur

Dr. A. Sasikala works as an Assistant Professor of English at S.B.R.T.M Law College, Kadapa. She obtained her Doctoral Degree from Yogi Vemana University, Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh, India. She has served as Academic Counselor for Dr. BR Ambedkar Open University, Hyderabad, Telangana State. She presented many research papers in National as well as International Seminars on English Literature, English Language Teaching and Communicative English. Her areas of interest include Indian English Literature, Common Wealth Literature, Comparative Literature, and Literary Criticism. She has widely published in referred and reputed Journals such as The Common Wealth Review, Research Journal of English Language and Literature, and Contemporary Research in India etc.

Échantillon de lecture
Text Sample:
CHAPTER III WOMEN IN THE CLUTCHES OF TRADITIONAL NORMS
The age-old patriarchal ethos operating through social environment, familial traditions, myths and lore invariably become an integral part of the collective psyche of a society and an index of its evolution. These social patterns are not immutable entities, but are susceptible to historic transformation that opens up new areas of struggle and negotiation of relationship between gender and classes. It is basically through the ambivalence and paradoxes of these relationships and failure to resolve element of hostility that the protest finds an expression. It is, however, distressing that women remain the most vulnerable section, who quite often is seen to accept the socially imposed constructs blindly and wriggle under the weight of redundant and regressive tendencies.
Across the centuries, women in India have silently maintained the permanence and stability of society's cultural institutions and the continuities and consistencies of its ethos. In this context, women have been treated as value-holders of society, living a life of roles and doing their duty as daughters, wives and mothers. But, the fullness of their persons has never been allowed to break through these bounded roles. Many women have kept it alive by dignifying their roles rather than transcending them. They have sacrificed their personal social aspirations and, for fulfillment, surrendered their beings to religion. They have lived by the role-appropriate feelings and by the wisdom of the cultural lore.
Despite the diversity of caste, class, creed, and religion, woman's subordinate status has been vouchsafed unanimously in the Indian society. This belief has been shaped over centuries by the ancient Indian normative texts and holds sway even today. Though vibrant changes in the socio-cultural domain are distinctly visible in the post-Independence India, yet a large segment of it still retains the asymmetrical traditions in new moulds. Notwithstanding the vast spate of modernization, globalization and mechanization, a large section of Indian society still endorses the medieval norms and traditions regarding women in the name of religious and cultural conformity. The fact is that no change, howsoever stupendous, can bring about holistic transformation unless it encourages the participation of all sections of society. Kali Nath Jha's observation seems to sum up the situation well: [...].
This chapter aims at studying and analyzing the lives of those women characters that are portrayed as being under the refuge and confines of the traditional norms in Manju Kapur novels Difficult Daughters, Home and Anita Nair's ladies Coupe. An in-depth study of the constructs-social, economic, cultural and political- has been aimed at to delve into the belief-systems and value-patterns that bind these women to the age-old traditions, taboos and societal constraints. Through a close analysis of the situated characters, an attempt has been made to through light on the stagnant characteristics of age-old patriarchal system and its threshold boundaries which remain a strict watchdog of society as far as fidelity, chastity and duties of women are concerned. This exploration is seen through some issues like education, marriage and home, the availability of and aspirations for space and the mother-daughter relationship.
Contrary to the common belief that conformism and submission of female persona to the patriarchal system would conjure up the image of illiterate, aged, socially and economically backward women, it is incongruous to witness this behavioral pattern among a large section of elite and educated women of all age groups and strata of society. They have submitted themselves as helpless victims of social system and continue to live lives full of drudgery, deprivation and discrimination. They surrender their unique identity and willingly mould themselves for the sake of role-based security and conform to the t