LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 18:1 January 2018
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.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
         Dr. S. Chelliah, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

Language in India www.languageinindia.com is included in the UGC Approved List of Journals. Serial Number 49042.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2016
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Woman and Her Social Roles: A Study of Anita Desai’s
Fasting, Feasting

Dr. Jitender Singh


Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting

Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting is not merely a novel about woman and her diversified roles as mother, daughter and wife; but it also “recounts human relationships in the language not only of fasting and feasting but of greed, craving, taboo, denial and disgust” (Dasgupta viii). Delineating the human hungers, as its title suggests, the novel is about the starving women who are no more concerned with their social roles especially as ‘mother’ or ‘daughter’. Though remaining within the threshold of male dominated society, the woman here may retain something of her own, a niche for her individual being, divorced from the duties of a traditional mother or daughter. In addition to this, “this novel gives an excruciating account of how society can seize control of individuals – especially women – through such practices as eating, and remove them from everything they intend to be” (Dasgupta viii). On the basis of these observations if deconstruction is applied, the novel also presents possibilities for destabilizing the position of woman in the patriarchal society. She can transcend herself from the state of ‘fasting’ to the one termed ‘feasting’ by overlooking her social roles like ‘mother’ or ‘daughter’ in pursuit of her selfhood. Deconstruction in the present context does not blame woman for her participation in power struggle rather it proves the patriarchal basis to be the reason for her starving self. And finally it is left on the part of woman whether she believes in her own aptitude and wishes to change her position or wants to remain stuck to her traditional roles.

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


Dr. Jitender Singh
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Hindu College, Sonipat
Haryana
India
jitenderwriter@gmail.com

Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.