• Dr.Sridhar Sharma

Feminism is women’s liberation movement and a rapidly developing ideology committed to liberate woman’s self-handicapped by the male dominated society since long. Feminism, in its real sense, is an advocacy of extended recognition of claims and achievements of women and their rights. Feminism or Feminist assertion in literature is not only identified with a political movement for equal wages started in nineteenth century in America but its roots can be exclusively traced back to the works of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Feminist literature in English is certainly not a recent awareness of women rights. It has been there ever since perspectives on life were recorded in the medium of literature, though it certainly has come to its own of late, of recent origin again is the feminist perception of literature. Feminist Criticism in its broadest implication has three distinct subdivisions, each distinct with its own adherents. The first two are well defined and frequently practiced without raising any ideological outrage. These are: The examination and analysis of the portrayal of women characters by themselves or in relationship with their male counterparts, and the appreciation of female authors. What is noteworthy is that in the last few years these commonly accepted critical practices have been over handed to accommodate the possibility of exclusively feminist perceptions of human relationships. The third direction is that of the so-called “prescriptive criticism” that attempts to set standards for literature that is good from the feminist perspective. Feminism in the Indian context is the recent renovation of early Vedic concepts of man-woman relationship and a byproduct of Western liberalism in particular and feminist thought in general. The indigenous contributing factors have been the legacy of equality of sexes Inherited from the freedom struggle, constitutional rights of women, thrust on women education, and new awareness due to electronic media among women. The Indian woman caught in the flux of tradition and modernity, saddled with the burden of the past and the present to cast off her aspirations, constitutes the crux of aspirations, in fact constitutes the crux of feminism in Indian literature. In literary terms it precipitates in search for identity and a quest for the definition of the women self. In critical practice, it boils down to scrutinizing empathetically the plight of women characters and their struggle for emancipation of self.

Subjugation, Self-Identity, Sexual Difference, Assertion, Self-Existence, Male Hegemony.

"Feminism in the Novels of Anita Desai", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.3, Issue 3, page no.1083-1094, March-2016, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701202.pdf

"Feminism in the Novels of Anita Desai", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.3, Issue 3, page no. pp1083-1094, March-2016, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1701202.pdf