LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13:12 December 2013
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)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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M. S. Thirumalai
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Depiction of Woman as Human:
A Reading of Excesses of Feminist Readings of
Shakespeare’s King Lear

Pankaj Sharma, Ph.D.

History and Elements of Feminism

Feminism as a movement came riding on the back of postmodern and postcolonial theories. Return of the margin, dislocation of centre, return of the wretched and such expressions gained currency during the second half of the last century. The power structures were questioned and locations, gender and positions redraw these structures. The political power distribution of Centre-colony was dismantled and postcolonial came into being. Within the rise of the powerless, came the question of power-powerless relationship, at the micro level, even in powerless families, communities and societies it was the female who was the doubly colonized.

Feminism as a movement tried to understand and represent the whole world and its artifacts as expressions and manifestations of the patriarchal reality. New historicism, Cultural Materialism, ‘history from below’ and ‘alternative histories’ are the theoretical frameworks that have provided impetus to the feministic rereading and deconstructive angles.

Shakespeare Under the Lenses of Feminist Theory

Critic after critic have analyzed and dissected Shakespeare under the lenses of Feministic theory. Feminist theory borrows much of its methodology from Deconstruction and applies this in specific contexts that concern how gender roles the power dynamics between Men and women, and the roles those forces us each to play are depicted in culture and in literature. It wishes to examine, among other things: how women and men are (or are not) represented in a given work of literature, how and why certain gender stereotypes, archetypes, and paradigms are either “written into” our stories or undermined by them. But in the present case I have two serious issues to raise - first is that Feminism in its second wave and aggressive stance grew into a myopic vision and doesn’t care to look at the complete picture. And second, I wish to understand that writer and writing have to be understood in their particular roles. A piece of work, a novel or drama or poem, is an artistic representation of reality as the writer sees it and weave it in his words and form. But if there are suffering females in the work it does not necessarily mean that the vision of the writer is patriarchal. I wish to analyze my assumptions in relation to Shakespeare’s King Lear its reception by the feminist critics, especially in the last thirty years.

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

Pankaj Sharma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of English
Ch. Devi Lal University
Sirsa 125055
Haryana
India
pscdlu@gmail.com
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