LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:3 March 2014
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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From Suppression to Self-realisation:
A Study of Shashi Deshpande's That Long Silence

Manju, M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil.

Abstract

Women have been depicted in various ways by writers of modern Indo-English fiction. Kamala Markandaya, Anita Desai, Kamala Das, Nayantara Sehgal and Shashi Deshpande have effectively portrayed the different facets of women in Indian society. Shashi Deshpande is a well known feminist writer with seven novels and four collections of short stories to her credit. Her novel, That Long Silence in 1989 earned her prestigious Sahitya Akademy Award.

The major themes of her novels include man-woman relationship, human desire, longing, gender discrimination, marginalization, rebellion, protest and patriarchy. Being an Indian female, Shashi Deshpande through That Long Silence brilliantly focuses on gender discrimination, impact of patriarchy, conflicts in conjugal life, subordinate position of females, and wrong child rearing practices persisting in Indian society. Since childhood girls are taught to suppress their feelings in order to fit in the frame of ideal woman created by society.

Jaya, the protagonist of the novel, is a victim of gender discrimination and patriarchy. After marriage, she becomes voiceless in order to remain happy in conjugal life. This paper is an attempt to trace the journey of Jaya the protagonist of That Long Silence from patriarchal suppression towards self –realization.

Keywords: Patriarchy, Gender discrimination and suppression.

Shashi Deshpande and Indian Women

Shashi Deshpande represents the real life experience of half of the humanity, women. In Indian society stress is given to create female persona for different stages, docile daughters, chaste and obedient wives and sacrificing mothers. The only domain ascribed to female is to fit in this good daughter, good wife and good mother criteria. Husband and wife are considered as soul mates. But man assumes himself superior to woman, and he never tries to create emotional bonding with his wife, to understand her wishes or act according to her consent.

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

Manju, M.A., B.Ed., M.Phil.
Visiting Faculty
Delhi College of Arts & Commerce
New Delhi
India
manju.chhikara10@gmail.com
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