LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:9 September 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

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 © 2021
M. S. Thirumalai

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

The New Emergent Women in Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters and
Anita Rau Badami’s The Hero’s Walk

Sujata Sonthalia

Abstract

Manju Kapur and Anita Rau Badami have been widely recognised as great and distinguished writers of English literary world. Kapur’s debut novel Difficult Daughters earned Commonwealth Writers’ Award, the best first book, in Europe and South Asia in 1999. It earned her success in India as well as abroad. Badami received esteemed literary awards including the Regional Commonwealth Best Book Prize in the Canada/Caribbean Region, for her second book The Hero’s Walk. The award-winning novels Difficult Daughters and The Hero’s Walk are taken for study to examine the creative odyssey of Anita Rau Badami and Manju Kapur. Nirmala and Virmati, the protagonists of The Hero’s Walk and Difficult Daughters are respectively studied in the article to appreciate how they have become victorious and succeeded in representing the new emergent women.

Keywords: Manju Kapur, Difficult Daughters, Anita Rau Badami, The Hero’s Walk, new women, self-identity, middle-class Indian women, husband and wife relationship, tradition and modernity.

Introduction

An art form is a true reflection of social life. Novelists tend to reflect reality and various human relationships, human being in relation to universe, individual in relation to society and man in relation to woman. Traditional society is a male-dominated one where women’s rights are subjugated. As a result, her self-identity has very little recognition and she is expected to be submissive. She is reminded by the family and society that she needs not to assert her identity as she is destined for man. With the advent of technology, media and western education, the position of women has been undergoing a constant change for betterment. From sociological point of view a major change has come in the relationship of husband and wife. In this regard, literature has played a sterling role in nurturing the readers’ consciousness and preparing them for women’s emancipation. Female writers proudly project women in their writings as a new incarnation of women. The novel harmonious presentation of life in recent literature discovers a fresh identity and interpretations. Among all the great writers, Anita Rau Badami and Manju Kapur have attained a unique significance in today’s English literary world.

Anita Rau Badami and Manju Kapur occupy a fittingly suitable place and emerged as a strong voice of modern Indian women by presenting the real image of India. Anita Rau Badami has occupied a stupendous position on literary vista. Her chief thematic concern is to present women’s struggle in Indian social milieu. She was born in Rourkela, Orissa but spent her childhood in the north and east of India. After marriage, she moved to Canada with her husband. Badami wrote four novels Tamarind Mam, The Hero’s Walk, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? and Tell It To The Trees. Her art of writing carries a flavour of nativity and fragrance of motherland. Her roots in India make her successful in weaving tales of Indian women, exploring the rich and painful ceremonies which make a deep impact on the readers who are fascinated by the image of India in her works.

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

Sujata Sonthalia
M.A. English (Ph.D.)
Assistant Professor
DVR & Dr HS MIC College of Technology
Kanchikacherla (Andhra Pradesh)
sujataagarwal@mictech.ac.in
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.