'Crossing Thresholds': Radical Notes in Women's Writings ... - JPCS

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Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and SocietiesISSN No. 1948-1845 (Print); 1948-1853 (Electronic)in literary gatherings. I do not know how to please readers. I simply know how my eyesfill up with tears as I write every column. Every sentence, every word in each sentencetakes shape from my heart, not from my pen‖(Nasreen 2004). ―The columns flow fromTaslima‘s belief that "from the dawn of civilisation, humans have been guided by societyand religion. Society and religion have always been owned and directed by men in everyage. State and society surely, but religion too had forever dishonoured women‖ (ibid). Inher columns, she builds a strong case for indictment against marriage, Vedic diktats,social mores for women, lusty Pirs and holy men and even the Hadish, which propagates:―If a man wishes to be physically united with his wife and calls her, she must come atonce, even if she is cooking‖(ibid). Or, ―If your wife does something shameless, banishher from your bed and beat her‖ (ibid). Thus, her assertions in the public and privatespheres, her notions of equality and social justice and her feminist ideas and theories arecrystallized through her indomitable spirit in the Selected Columns.The discourse of transgression, assertion and resistance presented in the paper suggestswomen‘s confrontation with the ‗scripts‘ laid out by the masculine dominated system inwhich they are muted ,completely silenced or even eliminated. These feminist writingstend to undo such ‗scripts‘ and rewrite the ways in which women confront and critiquethe intertwined power structures of patriarchy and authoritarianism In all the texts dealtwith in the paper, writers and their protagonists have crossed the proverbial ‗threshold‘ ofthe female space by critiquing communalism, questioning capitalism, condemningreligious fundamentalism and supporting female sexuality for these were not the usual‗womanly‘ topics of discussion and also veered towards immorality and promiscuity.But the time is ripe to accept change, to recognize difference and place it outside a powerrelationship, so that instead of hierarchical structures, equal relationships are madepossible.‘Crossing thresholds: Radical notes in women’s writings from contemporary South Asia,’Madhu SinghJPCS Vol 2 No 4, December 201198
Journal of Postcolonial Cultures and SocietiesISSN No. 1948-1845 (Print); 1948-1853 (Electronic)BiographyMadhu Singh is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Modern EuropeanLanguages in the University of Lucknow, India.Works Cited and ConsultedAhmad, Rukhsana. We Sinful Women: Contemporary Urdu Feminist Poetry. London:Women‘s Press, 1991.Baig, Mirza Nehal Ahmad ‗Lifting the Veil‘ in Biblio: A Review of Books, vol X nos.7&8 (July –August 2005) 9.Beniwal, Anup and Amrita Mehta.‗Communalism and the Poetic Imagination: A Studyof Indian English Women's Poetry‘. Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and thePacific Issue 25, February 2011Das, Kamala. ‗Introduction‘. New Delhi: Everest Press, 1965.Devi, Mahasweta. ‗The Hunt‘. .Imaginary Maps. Calcutta: Thema, 2001.Dhruv, Saroop.‘It‘s All in my Hands‘.http://www.poetryinternational.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=9982Jadhav, Radheshyam. ‗Like every woman, a sex worker should know how to sign‘. TheTimes of India, Feb 6, 2011.Gopal, Priyamvada. Literary Radicalism in India. New Delhi: Routledge, 2001.Kumaramkandath , Rajeev . ‗Glimpses of the fire: Documenting the debates around thefilm Fire‘. The Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore .Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. Feminism without Borders. New Delhi: Kali for Women,2003.Nasrin, Taslima. Selected Columns. Trans. Debjani Sengupta .New Delhi: SrishtiPublishers & Distributors, 2004.Pareira, Faustina. The Fractured Scales: The Search for a Uniform Personal Code.Calcutta: Stree, 2002.Satchidanandan, K. Preface. ―Transcending the Body ―. Only the Soul Knows How ToSing. By Kamala Das. Kottayam: D C Books, 1996.9.Sen, Amartya. Development as Freedom. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000.‘Crossing thresholds: Radical notes in women’s writings from contemporary South Asia,’Madhu SinghJPCS Vol 2 No 4, December 201199
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