ABSTRACT

The study analyzes the major works of Arundhati Roy and Shashi Deshpande
interpreting and exposing the elements of female subjugation and identity issues, and
the conduct of the modern female gender. The select works of these novelists are
written in the contexts of female concerns. The study is intended to explore and
interpret the primary texts yoked in the theme of female suffrage, and the subjugating
conduct of the despotic patriarchal society. Apart from studying the fiction of
contemporary feministic concern, this research is intended to solely deal with the
literary works sharing thematic representation of the elements dealing with
female-identity challenges and what part the patriarchal social norms do play in
relation to the exploitation of the modern woman. The recurrent focus of this study is
discourse analysis of female subjugation by the male-dominated Asian and the
Sub-continental patriarchal societies. The poignant picture of the modern woman
portrayed by the writers and novelists of the same era exposes suffrage through
segregation and suppression by her male counterpart. The present study explores all
the elements of thematic representation of female subjugation through discursive
analysis of the major literary works of two prominent contemporary feminist writers,
Roy and Deshpande.

Area of Research: Comparative Gender Study & South-Asian English Fiction

Key Rsearch: Subjugation, Despotism, Social Norms, Malevolence, Patriarchal
Society, Gender Study

Department of English Language & Literature

University of York