The Identity Crisis in Women A Study of Manju Kapurs Novels

Abstract

A quest for identity has been an issue for every human being, especially for a woman since many ages. Manju Kapur s novels are literary documentation of Indian women and their struggle for individual identity. The present thesis attempts to study Manju Kapur s five novels Difficult Daughters, A Married Woman, Home, The Immigrant and Custody in the light of the theory of Identity Crisis. newlineThe research work is based on descriptive, conceptual, analytical and qualitative research methodology. The researcher has conceptualized the notion of identity crisis by reading and analyzing majority of the available secondary sources like various articles published in the national and international journals, books and websites, and has designed the Research Tool which has been tested with the primary sources (texts) through interpretation and analysis and thereby the researcher has explored certain research findings. newline The present thesis encompasses five chapters. Chapter I is an introductory chapter that provides a brief history of Indian English fiction. The chapter discusses the concept of identity, the theory of identity crisis, and an analysis of identity crisis in relation to Feminism and other literary theories. It also gives a biographical sketch of Manju Kapur, her works and her literary contribution to Indian English fiction. It ends with a statement on the rationale and significance of the present study. Chapter II analyses Manju Kapur s first novel Difficult Daughters and her fifth novel Custody. While Chapter III analyses her third novel Home and the fourth novel The Immigrant. Chapter IV makes an analysis of Kapur s second novel A Married Woman. All the three chapters aim to explore causes and consequences of identity crisis in the women characters of the novels. Chapter V is the concluding chapter which testifies the research tool and presents major findings. The researcher has found that in all of Kapur s novels, she has depicted the causes responsible for generating identity crisis in women. She has discusse