Original Research Article
Year: 2018 | Month: October | Volume: 5 | Issue: 10 | Pages: 222-225
A Cultural Analysis of the Suffering of Women in World Literature
B. Josephine Mercy
M.Phil Research Scholar, Madras Christian College, Chennai, India
ABSTRACT
Literature of the 21st century is a wholesome package of assorted subject matters in which each study is pregnant with meaning. One of the most controversial topics of this era is the oppression of women. It is ubiquitous in its characteristics and hence has been proving itself as a problematic issue for decades together. This paper will focus on the maltreatment of women that can be seen in the African, American, African-American, Indian and British literatures written by authors across the span of time. A parallel line will be drawn along the texts chosen to bring out the similarities and differences between the women characters with respect to their cultures. The complications on being a woman and the way in which these characters assert themselves to establish their roles in the societies they live in will be focused in works like Storm in Chandigarh by the Indian author Nayantara Sahgal, Hotel du Lac by the British writer Anita Brookner, Sula by the African-American writer Toni Morrison, “We should all be Feminists” by the African writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the ideas expressed in the poems of the American poetess, Emily Dickinson. Individuality is power for these women and the struggle they undergo to unleash their dynamism in this biased world is the result of an epiphany. The epiphany is the truth that they are no less than men. This revelation is the need of the hour and is poignantly presented in literature.
Key words: Women writers, culture, identity, marriage
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