Journey of Women Characters in Githa Hariharan's The Thousand Faces of Night and Manju Kapur's Home
Journey of Women Characters in Githa Hariharan's The Thousand Faces of Night and Manju Kapur's Home
Journey of Women Characters in Githa Hariharan's The Thousand Faces of Night and Manju Kapur's Home
Abstract: Indian English fiction has gained ground rapidly, bagging numerous accolades at home and abroad.
Indian women writers now question the prominent old patriarchal domination and show signs of resistance to
the same through literature. The image of women in fiction has undergone a sea change too during the last four
decades-- from traditional self-sacrificing women to characters searching for identity. There are number of
women characters that can be found in the contemporary Indian Fiction, who are searching for identity and a
space called "home". This search can be seen in the works of the most prominent women writers, to name a few,
Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Githa Hariharan, Manju Kapur and Arundhati Roy and it has left indelible
print in the mind of readers. This paper will study the growth of a feminist centric approach in modern Indian
Fiction. This paper will study Githa Hariharan's The Thousand Faces of the Night and Manju Kapur's Home.
Keywords: gender inequality, identity crisis, myth, mythological characters, women characters in Indian
English fiction
I.
Introduction
Contemporary Indian women writers, in their widely acclaimed texts, question the prominent old
patriarchal domination and also show signs of resistance to the same. In the writings of these women authors,
we hear what was never said or was said from a man's perspective. The shift from women characters as seen and
projected by men to being experienced and expressed by women is a crucial one;perhaps they were not heard as
they did not write. The image of women in Indian fiction has undergone a sea change during the last four
decades-- from traditional self-sacrificing women characters to characters that introspect and search for identity.
The growing number of writers like Shashi Deshpande, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Githa Hariharan,
Nayantara Sehgal, Manju Kapur and many others writing in regional languages have questioned the culture
where identity and individualism has been unheard of by the female genders; on the contrary the entire focus is
on the woman's role in the family: as wife, mother and daughter-in-law. In the present century, women writers
have given away with traditional portrayals of enduring, self-sacrificing, submissive, tolerant women making
adjustments to adopt strong female characters searching for identity or survival and who are no longer
characterized in terms of their victim status. The women characters now are financially independent and
assertive. So these writings become a collective consciousness that impact their presence in society and in turn
make it aware of their concerns and demands. Even now, when these writers re-represent the woman in their
postmodern narrative in postmodern era, the patriarchy demands acceptance and conformity, which is well
depicted in Githa Hariharan's novel, The Thousand Faces of Night(TFN).
The Thousand Faces of Night: women characters
The narrative is of sufferings, humiliation, and alienation of her women characters. The novel
represents a variety of female characters, mythological as well as real undergoing agony inconsequence of their
desires and ambitions. These characters are fighting the idea of an ideal woman which is demanded of them as
wives, mothers and daughters-in-law. Hariharan critiques the patriarchal power structure of the Hindu society
through these contemporary women. She also shows the reader the position of Indian women in the traditions
and culture of this male-dominated society. She deconstructs the ideas of gender, equality and identity through
the narrative. In the traditional structure of the novel, the author articulates the images of women, good and
bad with the help of Indian myths, Ramayana, Mahabharata and other Sanskrit stories. Githa narrates the
stories of Devi, Sita, Parvatiamma and Mayamma though linking them to Mythological characters. The myths
have been reinvented and retold for these women characters to connect to Amba, Ganga, Gandhari and others in
their plight, in spite of the time gap of centuries between them. The central characters expose the various
dimensions of oppression through Story within a story technique.
The novel is woven around three generations of women-Devi, Sita and Mayamma. The novel brings
forth the idea how despite the generation, background and the education that an Indian woman attains, her fate is
to fall back into the century old customs if not more to a small extent. The Indian society,constantly, demands at
DOI: 10.9790/0837-20347982
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DOI: 10.9790/0837-20347982
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