Beyond Virtue: Reclaiming Dignity and Challenging Patriarchal Metrics in the Works of Sudha Murty and Feminist Thought
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31305/rrjss.2025.v05.n02.027Keywords:
Female Agency, Self-Becoming, Patriarchal Structures, Literary Documentation, Subordination, SubjugationAbstract
Sudha Murty’s novels Mahashweta, Gently Falls the Bakula, House of cards, serve as the crucial space for female self-definition and rebellion against patriarchal structures. This analysis posits that women actively seize agency by conceptualizing, structuring, and documenting their experiences, thereby replacing externally imposed limitations with their own narratives of ‘self-becoming’. The protagonists' rejection of ‘absolute innocence’ and the passive ‘angel in the house’ role, is presented as a potent uprising to regain dignity and individuality. The study highlights the conflict between the woman's aspirations for self-realization and the confinement of traditional wedlock, which feminist critiques deem a parasitic existence. Ultimately, these narratives champion a holistic liberation encompassing mental, emotional, and economic independence, portraying the modern Indian woman as rational, self-sufficient, and grounded in her quest to build authentic careers and identity.
References
Murty, Sudha. Mahashweta. New Delhi. Penguin, 2007.print
--- Gently Falls the Bakula. New Delhi. Penguin, 2008.print
--- House of Cards. New Delhi. Penguin, 2013.print
De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. London: Picador Classics, 1988. Lerner, Gerda.
The Female Experience. Indianapolis: Bobbs – Merill Company, Inc. 1977. xxiv
Showalter, Elaine. ed. Speaking of Gender. London: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, 1989.
Spacks, Patricia Meyer. The Female Imagination. New York: Alfred A. Knoff Inc., 1975.
