LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:10 October 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.

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 © 2014
M. S. Thirumalai
Custom Search

Images of Women in R. K. Narayan’s
The Dark Room

C. Malathi, M.A., M.Phil., NET, Ph.D. Candidate


Indian novelists writing in English occupy a prominent place. Apart from female writers, male writers seem to echo the concerns of the women. In this book, I try to present a description of the images of women in R. K. Narayan’s novel The Dark Room. This novel was originally published in UK by Macmillan Publishers in 1938. The novel is set in Malgudi. Although R. K. Narayan may not be described as a feminist writer, his sympathetic portrayal of the suffering of women from all classes in India indirectly contributed to the awakening of the consciousness of both men and women in relation to the oppressed and suppressed conditions women were and are placed in.

1930s is an important period in the history of India. Importance of women’s place and family was readily recognized as evidenced by larger participation of women in the freedom movement, in the declarations of leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranth Tagore, Annie Besant, and others. Voting rights were granted to women in certain categories. More schools and colleges for women were opened. It is significant to note that R. K. Narayan’s The Dark Room was written and published during this decade.

R. K. Narayan portrays with sympathy the suffering of women and shows how important their roles are both in the family and in the public life.

I took up The Dark Room for my Master’s Project and wrote a report on the women of this novel. A revised version of this report is now presented in a monograph format. I am grateful to my supervisor Mrs. M. Ranjitham, M.A., M.Phil. for her support and supervision of the original project.

This short monograph is presented as follows:

Preface

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Indo-Anglian Novels and Images of Women

Chapter 3 R. K. Narayan’s Art

Chapter 4 Images of Indian Women in The Dark Room

Chapter 5 SUMMING UP - Narayan – A Great Conventional Story Teller

Bibliography

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

C. Malathi, M.A., M.Phil., NET, Ph.D. Candidate
Assistant Professor Department of English
N.G.M. College (Autonomous)
Palakkad Road Pollachi 642001
Tamilnadu
India
malskrish@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.