Exploring the Postmodern Feminist Consciousness in the Novels of Anita Desai: A Critical Study
Keywords:
Anita Desai, Postmodernism, Feminism, Female Identity, PatriarchyAbstract
Anita Desai’s novels embody a profound synthesis of postmodern narrative techniques and feminist ideology, portraying the fragmented realities and psychological intricacies of women’s lives in contemporary Indian society. Her fiction transcends traditional realism by employing stream of consciousness, symbolism, and introspective narration to reveal the silent struggles, alienation, and quest for identity experienced by her female protagonists. Desai’s narratives critically examine patriarchy, social conformity, and cultural repression while simultaneously exploring women’s self-awareness and resistance within domestic and emotional spaces. By blending postmodern skepticism with feminist assertion, Desai presents women not as passive sufferers but as thinking, feeling individuals negotiating autonomy and meaning in a chaotic world. This study analyzes her novels as postmodern feminist projections that redefine gender discourse in Indian English literature and challenge the traditional paradigms of womanhood through narrative fragmentation and existential introspection.
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