Author: Nancy Sharma, Amity Institute of English Studies And Research, Amity University

Abstract: »Throughout the years, Shashi Deshpande has emphasised the struggles of middle-class Indian women at the intersection of capitalism and patriarchy. Deshpande’s “A Liberated Woman” establishes an innate relationship between an educated middle-class working woman’s inner life and social praxis. The text explores the protagonist’s struggle to gain autonomy within the institution of marriage and motherhood and further attempts to analyse how the so-called transgression of middle-class women into the public space disturbs the harmony of family life and supposed marital bliss. Even after being subject to sadism, Deshpande’s woman refuses to acknowledge the gravity and intricacies of the sexual assault as she tries to mystify the concrete bruises visible on her body. The present paper attempts to understand Deshpande’s unnamed protagonist’s predicament at the intersection of class and gender by drawing insights from the discourse concerning capitalist patriarchy and the idea of intersectionality. It highlights how the plight of Deshpande’s woman can only be understood when analysed through an intersectional lens that considers her position vis-à-vis the economic, sociocultural, legal, and political domains in India. It further endeavors to disentangle how the female body of the unnamed protagonist of Deshpande’s story acts as a ‘site’ of control and domination, by undertaking a close textual analysis of the text.« (Source: SARE)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. 103)
	Introduction (p. 103)
	Contextualising Capitalist Patriarchy: Deshpande’s (Un)Liberated Woman (p. 108)
	The Female Body: A Site of Revenge? (p. 113)
	Conclusion (p. 118)
	Works cited (p. 119)

Wikipedia: History of Asia: History of India | Literature: Indian literature / Shashi Deshpande | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in India