Between conformity and non-conformity: a comparative study of the feminist critique of the patriarchal roles of women in Doris Lessing and Rajam Krishnan

Abstract

The consequential awareness in women at the advent of emerging feminist consciousness has heightened their questioning openly regarding their status in their family and society and especially doubts regarding their roles assigned to them by the patriarchal society such as a dependent daughter, wife and mother and as a member of the society. Marxist feminists see class as the ultimate determinant of women s current economic status, whereas socialist feminists view gender and class as equally powerful oppressive mechanisms in addition to focusing upon areas of sexuality and reproduction. The sharp distinction, made in the psychoanalytical feminist perspective, between woman s nature and nurture has had its impact on the polarization of the old feminine mystique, the angel in the house now split into feminine and feminist, but the adaptability of the remedies they all offer for the existing evils is still an unsolved mystery. Contemporary women thinkers are trying to achieve attitudinal changes by developing critiques of established assumptions about female familial roles. Yet it has been perceived by liberal feminists that, though feminists have highlighted the oppressive aspects of role-playing, the societal values have not changed as fast as women are changing. It is apt to probe whether the contemporary women writers react to the changing female attitudes towards domestic familial role-playing in such a society. The extent and the strategies of their reactions and the matters related to it also need to be analysed and hence a select study of two women novelists from varied cultural backgrounds British : Doris Lessing and an Indian Regional Writer in Tamizh : Rajam Krishnan, is undertaken in this dissertation.CHAPTER - I: INTRODUCTION: THE DIVIDED WOMAN makes a survey of the changing attitudes towards feminine mystique in the context of the feminist movement, highlighting issues such as the creation of the mystique through institutions of patriarchy. Origin of Property is identified.