Women Writers

-

 Anita Desai

Introduction:

- Born Anita Mazumdar on June 24, 1937, in India.

- Renowned Indian novelist and Emerita John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities at MIT.

- Fluent in multiple languages due to her diverse upbringing.

- Shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times.

- Received Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978 for "Fire on the Mountain" and British Guardian Prize for "The Village by the Sea."


Family Life:

- Married Ashvin Desai in 1958, director of a computer software company.

- Mother of four children, including Booker Prize-winning novelist Kiran Desai.


Education:

- Attended Queen Mary’s Higher Secondary School in Delhi.

- Earned Bachelor of Arts Degree from Miranda House, Delhi University, in 1957.


Her Novels:

- "Fasting, Feasting" (1999)

- "In Custody" (1984)

- "The Village by the Sea" (1982)

- "Clear Light of Day" (1980)

- "Fire on the Mountain" (1977)

- "Cry, The Peacock" (1963)


Awards:

- Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize and Sahitya Akademi Award (1978) for "Fire on the Mountain."

- Shortlisted for Booker Prize for Fiction twice.

- Won Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (1983) for "The Village by the Sea."


Conclusion:

- Known for introducing psychological novels to India.

- Addresses feminist issues and realistic themes in her work.


Jane Austen

Introduction:

- English novelist known for romantic fiction set among the landed gentry.

- Recognized for realism, biting irony, and social commentary.

- Born in Steventon, Hampshire, on December 16, 1775.


Family:

- Born a month later than expected, to parents who valued her arrival.

- Educated at home and briefly attended boarding school in Reading.

- Father was a clergyman, mother from a landed family.


Writing Style:

- Known for parody, mockery, irony, and free indirect speech.

- Themes include education, morality, religion, gender, politics, property, and class.


Her Novels:

- "Sense and Sensibility" (1811)

- "Pride and Prejudice" (1813)

- "Mansfield Park" (1814)

- "Emma" (1815)

- "Northanger Abbey" (1818)

- "Persuasion" (1818)


Conclusion:

- Pioneer of the modern, interiorized novel character.

- Significant figure in English literature.


Virginia Woolf

Introduction:

- Famous English writer, born on January 25, 1882.

- Pioneered modernist 20th-century literature.

- Notable for stream of consciousness narrative.


Achievements:

- Published notable works like "Mrs. Dalloway" (1925) and "To the Lighthouse" (1927).

- Championed feminism and women's rights.

- Known for essays like "A Room of One's Own" (1929).


Background and Depression:

- Raised in a social and artistic family.

- Suffered from childhood sexual abuse, leading to lifelong depression.

- Committed suicide in 1941.


Conclusion:

- Revolutionary novelist known for feminist criticism and modernist movement.

- Advocated for women's rights and artistic independence.


Elaine Showalter


Background:

- American literary critic, feminist, and writer.

- Co-founder of feminist literary criticism in the US.

- Notable works include "Towards a Feminist Poetics" (1979) and "The Female Malady" (1985).


Personal Life:

- Disowned by parents for marrying outside the Jewish faith.

- Academic career included teaching and writing on feminist literary theory.

- Active in social and cultural issues.


Critical Importance:

- Contributed to the development of feminist literary theory.

- Advocated for understanding feminist tradition.


Conclusion:

- Significant figure in feminist literary criticism.

- Notable for mapping the history of feminist literature.


Arundhati Roy

Childhood:

- Born Suzanna Arundhati Roy on November 24, 1961.

- Mother was a Christian social activist; father was a Bengali Hindu tea planter.

- Experienced abuse and depression in childhood.


Early Life and Career:

- Pursued writing career after training as an architect.

- Published debut novel "The God of Small Things" in 1997, winning the Booker Prize.


Activism and Legal Problems:

- Active in environmental and human rights causes.

- Criticized for supporting Naxalite insurgency groups.

- Faced legal issues for advocating Kashmiri independence.


Conclusion:

- Renowned novelist and activist.

- Known for addressing social and political issues in India.


Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni


Background:

- Indian American writer of poetry, short stories, and novels.

- Born in Kolkata in 1956, now resides in Houston, Texas.

- Notable works include "Arranged Marriage" (1995) and "The Palace of Illusions" (2008).


Career:

- Earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

- Taught at various universities and colleges.

- Co-founder of Maitri, a helpline for South Asian women dealing with domestic abuse.


Publications:

- Wrote fiction and poetry exploring South Asian immigrant experiences.

- Won awards like the American Book Award for "Arranged Marriage."


Conclusion:

- Distinguished Indian American writer.

- Explores themes of immigration, identity, and women's experiences.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Dissertation Upon Roasted Pigs by Charles Lamb

-
                                                            A Dissertation Upon Roasted Pigs Charles Lamb  Author Information Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian.  He is famous for his essays published in Essays of Elia.  He is related to the Romantic movement, and he is also a great friend of notable writers like Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.  His writing has wit, humor, and nostalgia along with whimsy.  He was a clerk in the East India Company for decades and wrote in his free time.  His writing, especially his essays, is still widely enjoyed for their wit and understanding of people. Gist of the Essay: A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig is a  satirical  essay that  traces  the  history  of roasting p...
Read more

Four Kinds of Meaning - I.A. Richards

-
'FOUR KINDS OF MEANING' I.A. Richards Those who trust books forget that little sums constitute one bigger group. They do not consider whether little sums are properly constituted or not. Atlast, they find the error clearly. They believe the little sums   and do not find a clear way to the understanding of the book. They spend time in fluttering over their books as birds do while they (birds) enter through the chimney. They are finding themselves enclosed in a chamber. They flutter at the reflection of light on a glass window. They do not have the knowledge to understand through which   way they came into the chamber. - Leviathan After so much of documentation, the readers would be in a mood to welcome an attempt to point at some morals and some guiding principles with the help of which the complicated and irregular ways followed by them may   become less confusing. Otherwise, we have to admit the defeat in the principle- ' as many men, so many opinions ' as the standard...
Read more

Creative Writers and Day Dreamers by Sigmund Fraud

-
Creative Writers and Day Dreamers  Sigmund Freud Introduction Sigmund Freud, known as the father of psychoanalysis, discussed in his essay, Creative Writers and Day Dreamers, the link between creative writing and daydreaming. He studied how the writer draws on his unconscious mind, just like a daydreamer, to build imaginary worlds. Freud argued that both acts—writing and daydreaming—are a means of fulfilling deep-seated psychological needs. This essay, in itself, presents a vivid insight into the creative process and motivations for storytelling. It was through the study of the mental processes involved in creativity that Freud sought to bridge the gap between psychology and literature. The Association Between Writers and Daydreamers Freud postulated that creative writers and daydreamers have a psychological similarity. The two indulge in fantasy work as a way of evading the world and exhibiting suppressed desires. He compared fiction writing to playing with toys in the case of a c...
Read more