LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 18:7 July 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

The Politics of (Re)naming in the Autobiographies of
Amrita Pritam, Kamala Das and Bama Faustina

Dr. Anshu Sailpar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

What Is in a Name?

“What is in a name?” (Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet, II.II 16). Though this quote from Shakespeare’s famous play Romeo and Juliet connotes that the names and naming are nothing more than just a handy reference work, the utter prominence of naming system lies in the fact that the orderly world without it cannot be imagined. It helps us in establishing our self-identity. Naturally, we build an image in our mind by putting together our experiences and attributes and then attaching that image with the name. A person’s identity invariably begins with his/her name, which becomes a complement of the self. Though it is initially a mark of physical identity, the name also comes to represent for the person an inner being. Therefore, for some persons the name becomes a veritable reflection of their self. Some cherish it; some change it to represent their being. The name of a person helps in developing his/her sense of self. Some try to live up to their names while some try to run away.

The Study of Self

The study of self, beginning with name has been invariably a multifarious subject to tackle with due to its suppleness. The ancient philosophers would never have agreed to the postmodernists’ notions of the self. Due to the multiplicity, flexibility and uncertainty of self, it becomes somewhat difficult to render a simple analysis of the representation of self by the three major women autobiographers namely Amrita Pritam, Kamala Das and Bama Faustina. The problem is further accentuated by the fact that though all the three writers are women born in the twentieth century in India, they belong to different sects or religions, regions and class amounting to their difference in the perception and construction of their selfhood. The present study has, therefore, undertaken to point out the commonality as well as differences in the life experiences and self-reflexivity of these women autobiographers.

There is a close connection between a person’s given name and their feeling of identity and self. In child psychology, it has been observed that the parents’ choice of names for their child will have an influence on the overall development of the personality of a child. In literature too, the names and naming system carry a larger significance. It affects the authors in their process of writing. Alastair Fowler observes, “In literature, names are often doors to meaning, and words giving glimpses of the writer’s intensions” (“What’s in a literary name?”).

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

Dr. Anshu Sailpar, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.
Dept. of English, CDLU, Sirsa, 125055 (Haryana), India
anshu.english@gmail.com

Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as 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.