Women Protagonists in the Select Fictional Writings of Shashi Deshpande and Manju Kapur A study

Abstract

The word and#8213;Protagonistand#8214; originally came from the Greek language and in Greek drama, it refers to the person who led the chorus. Later on, the word started to be used to denote the first actor in order of performance. But it is not necessary for a protagonist to actually possess heroic or even good traits. Some protagonists are cowardly and weak while others are unambiguously evil. They generally undergo some changes that cause a turn of events, which makes the story interesting and helps deliver a message. They remain the key ingredients in the development of the story that revolves around them. So it is very obvious that the protagonists can either be the icons of chivalrous heroes or disloyal creatures. Not only men but also women characters have been created by both male and female writers to take the lead role as protagonists. newlineIndian women writers like Anita Desai, Shobhaa De, Nergis Dalal, Dina Mehta, Indira Goswami, Gauri Deshpande, Bharati Mukherjee, Namita Gokhale, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, Kamala Markandaya, Mahasweta Devi, Nayantara Sahgal, Githa Hariharan, Kamala Das, Shashi Deshpande, Manju Kapur and many others have portrayed women s issues both psychologically and physically in their novels. They broke the literary and social norms of the past. They studied deep into the psyche of their characters and projected various images of women and their status in society. They have written about women in a varied cultural perspective. In fiction, some women characters have an attitude of rejection and negation of life while others have an affirmation and acceptance of life with a compromising attitude leading to a deep sense of fulfilment. The present research work attempts to focus on the women protagonists of Shashi Deshpande and Manju Kapur. Their heroines emerge as rebellious protagonists in order to fight for their individual freedom. newline newline