Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://ptsldigital.ukm.my/jspui/handle/123456789/392541
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dc.contributor.authorSengupta, Ashis-
dc.date.accessioned2023-05-30T07:52:59Z-
dc.date.available2023-05-30T07:52:59Z-
dc.identifier.urihttps://ptsldigital.ukm.my/jspui/handle/123456789/392541-
dc.description.abstractTheoretical approaches to literary study over the past few decades have taught us to comprehend and respect heterogeneity and difference as against the humanis/universalist tendency to reduce difference to a single identity. Anita Desai's second novel, Voices in the City (1965), had long been regarded as an artistic failure for its "out-of-place" female characters in the overall design established by the male protagonist. But thanks to recent revisionist approaches to non-traditional texts, Desai's novel has not only found pride of place in the English curricula of most Indian universities but had reappraisals in the West as well. Opposing earlier Eurocentric/androcentric readings of Voices, this paper attempts to re-read the novel as a significant discourse on the female identity in postcolonial India. By depicting women who "go in the opposite direction", Desai subverts the "quintessential" feminine ideal rooted in Hindu mythology and manifest in the cultural nationalism and socioeconomic sectors of both pre- and post-independence India. Interestingly, Hindu mythology also has a considerable body of cultural imagery militating against traditional male orthodoxies, which she appropriates to create a new site for contemporary Indian women. With the exception of the first part, devoted to Nirode's "masculine" world, the remaining three parts of the novel foreground the struggle of three women for self-definition. The topicality of the book remains unabated as Indian women are still grappling with fundamentalism that now operates in newer guises.en_US
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherSchool of Language Studies and Linguistics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysiaen_US
dc.subjectIndian womenen_US
dc.subjectVoices in the City -- Novelen_US
dc.titleAnita Desai's voices in the city: reconstructing Indian female identityen_US
dc.typeSeminar Papersen_US
dc.format.pages48en_US
dc.identifier.callnoP35.I554 2003 n.1 semen_US
dc.contributor.conferencenameLanguage And Nationhood : Confronting New Realities : International Conference-
dc.coverage.conferencelocationPutrajaya Marriot Hotel-
dc.date.conferencedate2003-12-16-
Appears in Collections:Seminar Papers/ Proceedings / Kertas Kerja Seminar/ Prosiding

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