Vandana Pathak
Sudha Murthy: Study as a Novelist
History of Indian Fiction in English Many Indian Male
Novelists Many Indian Female
Novelists Toru Dutt Arundhati Roy Shobha De Jhumpa Lahiri Manju Kapur Anita Nair … and Sudha Murthy
Sudha Murthy Literature with ‘L’ and literature
with ‘l’ Sudha Murthy as a Novelist and
Bio Note Her Oeuvers: How I Taught My Grandmother to
Read Something Happened On The Way
To Heaven The Old Man And His God:
Discovering the Spirit of India The Day I Stopped Drinking Milk Wise & Otherwise Gently Falls The Bakula The Accolades Galore
The Bird with Golden Wings: Stories of Wit and Magic
Dollar Bahu Grandma's Bag Of
Stories (Children's fiction) The Magic Drum And
Other Favourite Stories (Children stories)
House of Cards The Mother I Never
Knew (Two Novellas)
Characters
“For me Writing is like breathing.” Middle Class in India, Modern Educated Women Protagonists, Economically Independent, Independent Outlook, Conscious of Their Identity and Place in
Society,
Characters
Her characters are her
“mental daughters who live with me for two to three years, go wherever I go and whom I bid a good bye after the work on the book is over”
(News: My Characters Are Like My Mental Daughters: Sudha Murthy, August 30, 2010/PTI, Bangalore).
Gently Falls the Bakula
Husband Wife Relationship, Deals with how the single minded ambition of
one partner can spoil a beautifully nurtured relationship,
Shrimati-the Protagonist is torn between her duties as a wife and her desire for a career-plight of a middle class woman,
Dollar Bahu
Gauramma is the Mother-in-law, Jamuna is her Dollar Bahu, her simple bahu daughter-in-law Vinuta. Gauramma is a greedy woman. Has three children Chandru, Girish and Surabhi, Lives in a small house in Bangalore with her husband Shamanna. Chandru, the eldest son, is settled in America and is married to Jamuna,
only daughter of rich parents. Girish the second, is a bank clerk and married to Vinuta, Vinuta is a sweet young woman who works hard day and night and is
perfect in household duties and her duties to her mother-in-law. But between Jamuna’s Dollars and Vinuta’s selfless devotion, Gauramma
always finds her favour with the Dollar and ignores what is truly priceless – Vinuta’s devotion and selfless love.
Mahashweta
Anupama happily married to Ananad-a fairytale marriage,
Develops a white patch-on arm and foot, It is leukoderma, She is abandoned by her husband and in-laws, Returns to her natal home in village, Social stigma, barbs and ostracism, Thinks of suicide, Vows to rebuild her life,
Female Characerts
Three Types:
The Sufferers
The Oppressors
And the Helpers
Elaine Showalter’s
Three Phases in
Feminist Tradition: Limitation Protest And Self Discovery
Myths(Each myth/tale has to be decoded)
Gently Falls the Bakula Bakula-its freshness, whiteness and its lasting
fragrance even after it is wilted, Dharmashastra and Bhamti-Both Srimati and her
husband interpret it differently, perspectives differ, Drinking of Halahal by Shiva-swalloing of all
insults by Srimati,
Myths in Dollar Bahu
Dollar as the new Myth
Sage Kashyap and his two wives-Vinuta and
Kadru,
Vinuta’s son is Garud and he fetches nectar after
100 years,
Myths in Mahashewta
Mahashewta –the novel in Marathi by Dr. Sumati Kshetramade and it deals with the issue of leukoderma,
Story of Banabhatt and his Kadambari, Love of Princess Mahashweta and hero
Pundarika, Rohini and Chandra, Lakshmi and Narayana, Allusion to Swapna Vasavdutta,
Interwoven Motifs
Realistic Portrayal, Women who shoulder
responsibilities and never run away from them,
Love, Marriage, Human Relationships-
Hisband-wife, with MIL,SIL and others,
Sacrifice,
Patriarchy, Pygmalion Complex, Suffocation, Submissiveness, Monotony, Male Domination Loss of Individuality, Oppression, Male Child Preference, Motherhood/ Barrenness,
Interwoven Motifs +
Self Respect, Quest for Identity, Empowerment, Status and Position as a
Woman, Values, Resilience, Individuation, Women in Various Roles, Woman as a Human Being
and Not a Sex Object,
Subjugation, Envy, Ambitions, Possessiveness, Power, Money/Greed, Generation Gap, Attraction of Foreign
Countries/Lure, Double Standards, Hypocrisy, Marginalization,
Interwoven Motifs +
Education/Learning/ Career,
Marriage as a Commitment,
Inner Conflict, Disillusionment, Dissolution of Marriage, Stereotypes, Brain Drain, Inner Strength, Deeep Psychological
Trauma,
Class Conflict, Lust/Passion, Stigma, Gender Bias, Existential Predicament, Loneliness/ Alienation, StagnationTradition Vs.
Modernity, Stagnation, Women as Rebels, Self Will,
Feminism
Theories of Feminism,
Waves of Feminism,
Liberal Feminism,
Radical Feminism,
Psychoanalytical Feminism,
And Indian Feminism
Western Feminists
Daly Mary: Beyond God the Father, Elaine Showalter: Towards A Feminist Poetics, Kate Millet: Sexual Politics, Betty Friedman: The Feminine Mystique, Germaine Greer: The Female Eunuch, Simone De’ Beauvoir: The Other Sex, Virginia Woolf, Sherry Ortmer, Barbara Christian, Lilian Rubin,
Indian Feminists
Tarabai Shinde,
Kamla Das,
Gauri Deshpande,
Amruta Pritam,
Kamla Bhasin,
Vidyut Bhagwat,
Conclusion
Her women characters are of two types: the women who are willing to
submit before custom bound restrictions of matrimonial life and the
women who when humiliations and injustices seriously do affect their
self respect, do not hesitate to rebel and revolt.
Conclusion
Sudha Murthy creates a problem for her women
characters and makes them strong enough to fight
against it and carve a niche for themselves or create
their own space. The ability to tolerate, accommodate
and also absorb their own cultures being conscious of
their Indianness marks her protagonists as special.
Conclusion
In her analysis of post-modern dilemma of
women characters, she concentrates on their
achievements of education, career of women
and the problems they face outside the
threshold of their homes in basically male
dominated social set ups.
Top Related