LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:8 August 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Identity Crisis in the Selected Novels of
Anita Desai and Manju Kapur

G. Smitha, M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed.

Abstract

Anita Desai as well as Manju Kapur seems to have been on the quest for order and meaning in life in their Indian English fiction writing. Their protagonists undergo a struggle to find their real self; because of the cramping pressures of anxieties, they seem to have lost it. They experience a disparity between the higher needs of the individual’s inner nature and the unalterable cosmic conditions of existence. Those who are able to comprehend and surmount their personal problems, seem to gain a healthy vision of life after some struggles. Desai remains primarily a novelist of moods, of persistent states of mind, of the psyche. Most of her novels are extended narratives of states of being which do not cohere into a plot or structure in the conventional sense, Desai sees the world in terms of experience as it emerges from the encounter of the self with the world outside. This intensity and density of texture compensates for the absence of a strong plot or story lime in her fiction. Kapur has closely observed and portrayed the small human details of real relationships. The bewildering levels of communication and misunderstanding between the characters are depicted almost fondly, yet contrast strongly with the exhilarating freedom of being in a relationship where there is true intimacy.

This paper attempts to show how they achieve the results they seek to gain, in order to expose not only the extremity of the suffering endured by women, but also the deep psychological problems that beset many human beings.

Keywords: real self, conditions of existence, states of mind, psychological problems, real relationships.

Introduction

Fiction writing has reached the pinnacle of its glory with the writings of established women writers of fiction like Kamala Markandeya, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Nayantara Sehgal, Anita Desai, Santha Rama Rao, Atia Hussain, Manju Kapur, and Kiran Desai.

The basic view is that our civilization is pervasively patriarchal, is male-centered and controlled and organized and conducted in such way as to subordinate women to men in all cultural domains: familial, religious, political, economic, social, legal, and artistic. In the patriarchal view, women are taught in the process of being socialized and are encouraged to co-operate in their subordination.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

G. Smitha, M.A., M.Phil., B.Ed.
Assistant Professor
Department of English
N. G. M. College
Pollachi - 642 004
Tamilnadu
India
gsmithasatheesh@gmail.com
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