Post Modernism in Shobha Des Novels

Abstract

The rationale behind choosing Shobha De s Novels: Socialite Evenings, Starry Nights, Sultry Days, Sisters, Second Thoughts, Strange Obsession, and Snapshots for research was to highlight modern and post-modern life with its similarities and contradictions. Shobha De is one of the prolific writers of the contemporary times. The broad aim of the study is to attempt an exploration of the elements of post-modernism as reflected in Shobha De s novels. The scope of post-modernist study has widened considerably making one aware that there is enough in socialite culture to provoke an intellectual situation and a world of ideas which can help us to understand the complexity of the age that we live in. newlineDe champions modern and postmodern life through her literary work. She has presented the merger of two traditions of the east as well as the west. She breaks new world through the open discussion of female sexuality from women s point of view. The whole canvas of love, sexuality, femininity and emotional turmoil is presented in a dispassionate way. It is as inhabited and candid portrayal this aspect which is rare in literature. The honesty of her sexual writing is new and bold. Her novels present a documentation of different aspects of urban elites in metros. The world of advertisement agencies, the party world, the film people, the journalists world, the life on the college campus and the different forms of sex encounters and adventures are depicted convincingly in her novels. The broad features of postmodernism find their reflections and expressions in the fictional worlds portrayed by Shobha De in her major novels. Her novels are mainly concerned with women s quest for newlineiii newlineself. There is a constant struggle to find and preserve the identity of the self. Shobha De writes to refute the age-old notion of a woman as an object to be used and abused. Her protagonists struggle to find and preserve their identity basically as individual human beings. She desires women to be aware of their potential and power. newlineIn the portrayal of