Feminism in the Writings of Kamala Das

Authors

  • Sailakshmi Chavan Associate Professor of English, VEMU IT, Kothakota, Chittoor District.

Keywords:

Feminism, advocacy, suffrage, emancipation, patriarchy, gender, self-expression, domination, marginalization

Abstract

The term 'Feminism' is derived from the Latin word 'Femina' meaning 'woman'.  It refers to the advocacy women’s rights, status and power on par with men on the grounds of equality of sex. The term has garnered popularity in early twentieth century when there ensued a struggle to secure women’s suffrage and later for women's emancipation from patriarchal oppression.  Contrary to popular opinion, its impact, however was not restricted to only urban population but soon extended even to rural areas.  Many Indian women poets and writers have applied the term significantly in their writings and attained global recognition.  Prominent among them are Kamala Das, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Kamala Markandaya, and Bharathi Mukherjee. The paper attempts to shed light on the evolution of Feminism. It dwells on some of the writings of Kamala Das, her autobiography My Story, “The Old Playhouse and Other Poems”, “A Doll for the Child Prostitute”, “An Introduction'”, and “A Widow's Lament”.

Author Biography

Sailakshmi Chavan, Associate Professor of English, VEMU IT, Kothakota, Chittoor District.

The writer, Sailakshmi Chavan is currently an Associate Professor of English for the department of FME in VEMU Institute of Technology, Tirupati.  She has totally 26 years of experience in teaching English Grammar, Literature-- Prose, poetry and Non-detailed part. She worked as a Lecturer in English. She taught +1&+2, and Undergraduate students of all streams and all courses.  She has 12 years of experience in teaching Communication Skills, Soft Skills, Interview Skills and Literature part to Engineering students.  Her specializations are, Maintenance of English lab. for Communication Skills, Phonetics, English Grammar, Soft Skilled Training.  She has visited Malaysia, Srilanka, Seoul , Hongkong and  Timphu.

References

Das, Kamala, ‘The Old Playhouse and other Poems’ Madras Orient Longman, 1973.

____, ‘My Story’ (New Delhi: Sterling, 1976.

____, ‘A Doll for the Child Prostitution (1977): A Selection with Essays on her work

Harrex, S.C. and Vincent O’Sullivan. Adelaide: Centre for Research in the New Literature in English, 1986.

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Published

01.04.2021

How to Cite

Sailakshmi Chavan. (2021). Feminism in the Writings of Kamala Das . Journal of Teaching and Research in English Literature, 12(2), 10–14. Retrieved from https://journals.eltai.in/index.php/jtrel/article/view/JTREL120203

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 2 (2021): April

Section

Research Articles

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