LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:1 January 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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Kalpana Swaminathan’s Venus Crossing: Twelve Stories of Transit –
A Projection of Postmodern Indian Women and
the Crisis They Face

M. Subha, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Research Scholar and Dr. T. Jayasudha

Venus Crossing

Abstract

With the assistance of education, Indian women who had been marginalized for centuries in most of the Indian cultural traditions due to the patriarchal set up of society, (except in a few places where women had a centralized position due to the matriarchal society - like Kerala state) are finally trying to assert their vital positions. But gaining something one had been denied for long, has never been a simple process; it raises severe protest from the opposite dominant sex. Like many other constant struggles in society, this hurdle is also unending. This paper analyses the award winning novel Venus Crossing: Twelve Stories of Transit by Kalpana Swaminathan. It presents the contemporary challenges and sexism posed against Indian Women.

Keywords: Patriarchal set up, dominant sex, postmodern Indian women, Venus Crossing, predicament of women

Introduction

This postmodern world is challenging, complicated, and competitive even to the stronger sex, namely the male, and so one can see how the predicament of women is much more than what the man experiences. The equal status given to women in some jobs in some places, seems to add more responsibility coupled with restrictions and dangers thrust against them. Internationally women are used to the threats like: ‘You can be kidnapped’, ‘you can be sexually abused either individually or by a gang’, ‘you can become a victim of acid-throw if you refuse any love proposal’, ‘you have to pay dowry if you want to live your conjugal life with an equal partner of the opposite sex’, and so on. This is the postmodern condition destined for women; apart from all this, they have to establish themselves in the society and in the intellectual space as well.

Kalpana Swaminathan
Kalpana Swaminathan

Kalpana Swaminathan (1956 - ) is a surgeon and she has authored the novels: Ambrosia for After and Bougainvillea House. She has written detective stories and six books for children too. She won the Vodafone Crossword Book Award (Fiction) for Venus Crossing: Twelve Stories of Transit in 2009. Previously a collection of stories was usually called ‘short stories’. But in postmodern narrative the small narratives have dethroned the mega-narratives to the margins. One such collection is this, which by default falls under the category ‘fiction’.

Like Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s One Amazing Thing (2010) which tells one amazing story from the lives of victims soon after the massive earthquake hit the American city, similarly Venus Crossing tells twelve stories which capture the moment of transit. At that moment the impossible and unthinkable occurs in life so that the novel’s revelation or challenge bestows existence. It reminds the reader Thomas Hardy whose characters were helpless and the victims of circumstances; here the characters are victimized by the postmodern condition. The reader can only feel sorry for what took place. The writing moves the reader, purifies the emotions and reveals the current state accurately.

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

M. Subha, Ph.D. Research Scholar
Bharathi Women’s College
Chennai - 600108
Tamilnadu
India
subhamarimuthu@gmail.com

Dr. T. Jayasudha
Research Officer
Tamil Nadu State Council for Higher Education
Chennai – 600 005
Tamilnadu
India
Sudhatj70@yahoo.co.in

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