English Literature: 21st Century Women's Fiction - Assignment Example

For the novelist, the ideas about women come from the same sources that inspire anyone and everyone else — media, books, films, television and newspapers, from work place, schools and homes — and sometimes from personal experience. The creativity and imagination then shape stories of women around a theme that usually is trying to question the established perspective or explore another possibility regarding women and issues related to them. The foremost concern of feminists has been gender equality. This is not to say that feminists propose the idea that men and women are equal, but that they should have equal rights, equal opportunities and should be treated as distinct individuals. The endeavour is only to facilitate a recognition and not merely existence as far as women are concerned. Our culture has been so structured, explains Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, that arenas like political, social, professional, economic and intellectual constitute the public sector, while categories like emotional, sexual and domestic belong to the private sector and so do the practise of religion and psychotherapy. And, women are usually judged on parameters of the private sector, assuming them to be misfits in public sector. No doubts this assumption has changed with the passage of time, yet there are countries and sections of society where women are treated nothing more than door-mats. Moreover, women have been primarily confined to the private sector in the sense that it is either considered inappropriate or completely forbidden for women to express themselves in the space of public sector and neither can they fit into its hierarchical set-up. However, with feminist practice and writings, over the past three decades and even more, distinctions and compartmentalisation into public and private have been questioned. Thereby, it is suggested that the public sector also operates emotionally and sexually and that domestic sphere is not the only place where emotions are played out. “In the interest of the effectiveness of the women’s movement, emphasis is often placed upon a reversal of the public-private hierarchy… the deconstruction of the opposition between the private and the public is implicit in all and , and explicit in some, feminist activity” (Spivak 103). Hence, public and private sectors can not only be reversed but are also found overlapping. While deconstructing the whole notion of this, the public-private hierarchy feminist writings have been constantly trying to explore these spaces in between, with reference to the stereotypical and essentialised representation of women. Novelists Margaret Atwood and Monica Ali, whose novels have been picked up for reference, have presented their women protagonists on a journey, trying to reach at an understanding of the “self” in coherent terms. From being marginalised in the social space, the quest is not merely to locate themselves at a central position but to be able to assert themselves as distinct individuals with their own identity. The idea, more than changing the world’s order, is to find a place for themselves in it which should not infer as confinement. This is not to say that the two women writers are subservient or in subordination to the wave of feminism or the feminist movement. Rather, through their literary creativity, they offer an authentic picture of reality as they see it, understand it and interpret it at their own individual levels. Their works examine the society, without passing a moral judgement or a message, and to leave it to their readers to reach out to a conclusion in socio-political or cultural contexts. In fact, there has been no dearth of female characters in the literary tradition. But from those seen Victorian literature, the ones created by Atwood and Ali are struggling not only with the outside world but one inside as well. Each finds herself in a kind of tension generated by contradicting forces out of which they are trying to emerge. Their works are, perhaps, representative of the modern search for authenticity and wholeness through the discovery of the self, re-discovery of the past and contrasting the civilisations. Monica Ali’s novel Brick Lane is the story of Bangladeshi Muslim girl Nazneen, who moves to London after she is married off to a 40-year-old immigrant. “She is an unspoilt girl. From the village” (Ali 14) is how her husband Chanu describes her, adding that after considering all her attributes as well as her flaws, Nazneen is a satisfactory choice for a wife. She is merely reduced to an object that suits the requirements of the buyer. Nazneen is aware of this and has no choice but to accept her ‘status’. She, perhaps, was meant for this just as she was meant to live on even when at the time of her birth, she was considered dead. It was her mother who waited for the ‘Fate’ to ‘make up its mind’ rather than seeking medical help. And, today Nazneen too waits for the fate to take its own course. The novel is not merely a narrative about the sufferings that Nazneen, being a woman, has to go through. Rather, the author brings to fore the paradoxes and counter forces that play in the protagonist’s life. Moreover, the novel is not confined to the walls of the flat, in Brick Lane, a kind of Bangladeshi enclave in London that Nazneen lives in. Ali tries to put against each other the two worlds: On the one hand is the rural background of Bangladesh where Nazneen was born, the childhood years during which she was beaten by her father on the slightest provocation and how different she was from her younger sister; on the other hand, it is the globalised Bangladesh, with a slice of it at Tower Hamlets in London. The novel, through these worlds, brings out the struggles of the diasporic community, with women being doubly marginalised. However, the mindset of the people, including women, has yet to shift though the physical shift of place has already occurred. The novel doesn’t try to romanticise or underscore the miseries of the Bangladeshi Muslim women who are trying to make it in their own way in a foreign land. Yet, it comes out that they are not able to look differently at the women from their own community, who actually have to turn ‘more western’ in order to gain independence and exercise their free will, rather than trying to find out their rights within their religion and community. Unlike the conventional presentation of the dichotomy the suppressed woman and abusive patriarchal male, Brick Lane explores the complex working of a woman’s psyche, offers an insight into the mind and digs deep into her heart. An attempt is made to grasp the alternative conceptions and attitudes. The other Bangladeshi women, whom Nazneen meets, gather regularly to exchange notes of what is going on in their lives and to catch-up with one another. The intentions are more than just offering to be a good listener or sharing of problems and helping one another to get rid of them. More than anything else, they end up discussing lives of women who have been struggling in their own way and turning the information into cheap gossip. However, it is merely scandal mongering that they indulge in, neither trying to make any sense of things that are happening around them nor sympathising with the victims who are actually one of them. In a way, they are ridiculing themselves and their lot. For instance, they talk about Jorina’s daughter who has been sent back to her village to be married off: “She is sixteen. She begged them to let her stay and take her exams… the son had gone bad and they wanted to save the daughter. So there she is now. She can’t run off for a love marriage” (Ali 43-44). Also, Nazneen is told about a woman who jumped off the building because she had no children even after 12 years of marriage, which was as per the norms of the society the worst possible thing for a woman. The stereotypes not only have the social sanction but they are also essential for one’s normal existence and functioning of the social system. A violent husband, symbolic of the powerful patriarchy, who abuses and beats the wife is an accepted reality, taken to be a part of woman’s domestic life and since Chanu doesn’t beat up his wife, he is not only considered a kind human being but Nazneen is expected to feel thankful for it… she is fortunate to find a husband like him. At least she has been saved from the agony and embarrassment of going out with a split lip or an arm in the sling as her friend Amina, who is a victim of domestic violence or, rather, not as fortunate as Nazneen to have a ‘kind’ husband. The divorces, beatings and affairs become scandalous gossip for the women of Tower Hamlets who take it upon themselves to judge their fellow women and pass a verdict keeping in mind the social norms that can’t — rather, must not — be violated. A woman must fit — and fit well into the role: “What’s more, she is a good worker. Cleaning and cooking and all that” (Ali 15). And, entertaining any measure of self-regard or self-esteem would only mean sheer foolishness, Nazneen realises. It is hard to draw conclusions from what appears on the surface and the reality of woman’s experience could only be better understood after delving deeper. And, as one begins to do that, there is no escape from the paradoxes that are intricately woven in the novel. Women, in the first place, do not have an identity to assert and in the current of the counter forces they even lose their voice. These silences are quite loud in Brick Lane. Of course, women have been taught to be silent, with their very existence being defined by the patriarchal system. They have been brought up in such a space and environment that articulating their thoughts, opinions and desires becomes not just impossible but is considered blasphemous. And, they are accustomed to this; even a slight shift from the accepted and prescribed dogma would be translated as a serious offence that can’t be forgiven or forgotten. No matter how suffocating and strangulating the system is, the women will not only readily go through the agony, but they will also continue to support and endorse the rules and dogmas. Far from being left out, changed or modified, the oppressive structures are not even questioned. For Nazneen, the age-old maxim holds true: if you cannot cure, endure. Each day she seems to make a conscious effort to remind herself that if she can’t change a thing then she must bear it and since she can change nothing at all, she must bear everything. As a woman, she is constantly struggling with the forces working against one another — she wishes and wills to do one thing but she must suffer, without uttering a word. She can’t even find an apt answer when Chanu says: “Why should you go out?” (Ali 39). The silences on the part of women characters and the Bangladeshi diasporic community are pervading all over the novel, particularly around Hasina’s letters from Bangladesh. After eloping at the age of 16, Hasina is forced again to run away from her abusive husband. As she keeps writing to her sister in London, in a subtle way and not in direct, clear words, she tells about her sufferings — landlord rapes her, factory co-workers exploit her and then she is forced into prostitution. But it seems that a coded language is being used that conveys the meaning but doesn’t speak directly. Even when Nazneen talks to her husband about Hasina’s miseries, she doesn’t clearly spells out what has happened. Also, she never asks any direct questions, stops short of giving her personal opinions in a categorical manner on anything, there is no question of letting out disappointments, anger or even sharing fears and thoughts. The communication is formal and crisp, the need is never felt by either Nazneen or Chanu to have a conversation of complete sentences or more than one sentence. Later, even when people around her know about her affair, she only waits for Chanu to find out: “Can’t you see what is going on under your nose, she demanded silently of him every day” (Ali 418). Does she love her husband? Or, is it only gratitude towards him for being kind? At another moment she feels anger building up within her at her husband, whom she finds ugly. She has this urge to run away from the house and this life, never to return, but can’t decide how to step out and what direction should she take; Nazneen finds it difficult to come to any conclusion. The monotonous housework only adds to the misery of living an isolated life in England, she misses her sister Hasina: “Regular prayer, regular housework, regular visits with Razia. She told her mind to be still. She told her heart, Do not beat with fear, do not beat with desire” (Ali 46). Early in life, she had learnt to accept the fate but with each passing day in his Brick Lane flat, Nazneen is discovering “the self”. This is not to say that she is seeking some sort of personal identity which can be understood as some sort of immediate, instant self-experience. Instead, it is a self-constitution or self-construction. It is not how I feel but how I see and conceive of myself, how I make myself into perpetual and conceptual object. And, this self-constitution is structured according to a hierarchy of categories that are predetermined by the forces in power. Is she too an individual with a defined individuality? The quest for an answer is what pushes her towards taking a journey — she does step out of the shell, has an affair with young, handsome Karim. The novel is merely a stage where Monica Ali, at no point, criticises her characters for acting in a particular way, nor does she excuse them for their acts, be it Nazneen’s passion, Hasina’s suffering or Chanu’s indifference. Instead, she only tries to explore the sentiments, pleasures, guilt and humiliation without being judgemental or critical. A similar exploration is found in the works of Margaret Atwood, who has emerged as a prominent figure in the contemporary feminist writing. Her works have dealt with issues related to women at some level. Through female protagonists, narrators or other women characters, Atwood has presented the journey from victimisation to self-actualisation. She has used varying elements —science fiction, historical fact, fairy tale and dystopian vision — to explore the women’s psyche and her position in socio-political context and also culturally. Atwood generalises her concern for social and personal identity beyond the subaltern groups, underscoring the fact that all human relations are torn up and unfixed. In Oryx and Crake, Atwood once again presents a dystopian world. The novel opens with a character called Snowman pondering over the landscape around him. Apparently, as the novel moves back and forth, Snowman tells the story of his past when he was a young, immature man Jimmy. He does not find himself in an ordinary place, but in a territory and situation suggesting that he is the last human left. Jimmy can feel the approaching catastrophe that has been conceived by his friend, an over-ambitious scientist Crake. Atwood is known for her explorations of the female characters and her writing style when it comes to describing the state of a woman’s mind. In Oryx and Crake, while she does a fine job with her male characters, the woman here is quite different from her previous protagonists. Oryx was sold by her family when she was still a child: “Oryx had been a younger child, often pushed to the side” (Atwood 116). Moreover, the women of the village who would help one another on the day of selling of the girl child — for boys still were of some use if they went on farms to work. The ‘motherhood’ was not more important that human survival, struggle for existence required several compromises and selling children was one of them. In fact, the transaction is not called ‘selling’ but is referred to as ‘apprenticeship’. Oryx is the main female character in the novel. She is the love interest of Jimmy who had her first glimpses as a child on the porn website. After she actually meets him, she narrates her own life story, but Atwood in a subtle manner conveys that there is no single version, no single story but many: “There was Crake’s story about her, and Jimmy’s story about her as well, a more romantic version; and then there was her own story about herself, which was different from both… There must once have been other versions of her…” (Atwood 114). However, Jimmy seems to be obsessed with Oryx and her past. Every time, he tries to question her on the details, to know a little more than she is willing to tell. The woman here is not an open book, there are secrets or mere details that she prefers not to disclose and she has the prerogative to decide. She isn’t at the mercy of a man to offer an opinion, pass a judgment or give hi approval. But, at the same time, it is hard not to empathise with Jimmy who had had a troubled childhood while trying hard to seek maternal love. On the other hand, in contrast to the chaos of the pleeblands and the paranoia of the Compounds is the serenity Oryx. Right from the beginning she has been treated as a commodity — was dressed properly and given better food before being put up for sale. Different men have used her during her life for different purposes, but she bears no ill will towards any of them. She readily accepts her circumstances, believing that an alternate situation would be worse. Rather, she looks at the positive side of life. For her hopelessness is of no use and there is no point in feeling dejected or thinking about things that one doesn’t, can’t, possess. At another time, when Oryx is asked by Uncle En to play the game whenever she is asked to go into a room with a man, Atwood doesn’t emphasise or even make a passing reference to the helplessness of the girl. Rather, Oryx feels sorry for the men who are tricked. The roles here have been reversed. Though Oryx says she regretted her part, she enjoyed it too: “It made her feel strong to know that the men thought she was helpless but she was not” (Atwood 133). In her case, when she has made up her mind, there is no stopping. Atwood in her some what science fiction, Oryx and Crake, rejects the conventional view of man-woman relationship as power based, with woman being subservient. Also, Oryx is not the woman who would take on a journey to discover her ‘self’ by getting lost in the wilderness as has been the archetypical metaphoric description of the female character trying to reach a level of sanity. Here, Oryx is comfortable with her situation, doesn’t try to delve into the whys and hows of his life. On the contrary, it is Jimmy and Crake, the men, who are restless. ‘Femininity’ is often understood as inferiority, passiveness and submission to the male authority, as the socio-cultural set-up demand, in all spheres of life. But, Atwood refuses to reconcile with this in her novel. Oryx, perhaps, transcends even reality for it is her voice that Jimmy constantly hears her voice and talks to her. Earlier in the novel, yet another dimension of women is presented through the remarks of Jimmy when he finds left alone in the future: “Every time a woman appears, Snowman [Jimmy] is astonished all over again… They look like retouched fashion photos, or ads for a high-priced workout programme” (Atwood 100). It is this perfection that actually puts off Snowman, fails to arouse any desire in him. Thus, it is not the perfection, in terms of physicality or otherwise. The sense of freedom and recognition need not be solely dependent on perfect beauty. For women —as also for men in this case — the perfection actually becomes unreal. Is beauty then just a myth that writer like Atwood (and Monica Ali) is trying to puncture? Naomi Wolf has, in fact, questioned this whole idea of beauty: “But in spite of shame, guilt and denial, more and more women are wondering if it isn’t that they are entirely neurotic and alone but rather that something important is indeed at stake that has to do with the relationship between female liberation and female beauty” (Wolf 9). Also, landscape in the novels of Atwood plays a significant role. It becomes metaphor for spaces and identities that are exploited. Men destroy women in a Manichean vision of the world, bigger groups and nations oppress the smaller ones and, as in this novel, corporate world eats up the real world. The characters do not stand outside the world that surrounds them and neither are they indifferent to their surroundings. But characterisation does not have a prime function in a novel for Atwood. They are not the main reason for the novel to exist; it is the theme that is of primary importance. However, just as in any other work of Atwood, Oryx and Crake doesn’t offer any direct answers. Thus, the women writers of the 21st century are not necessarily looking for an equal status and neither are they attempting to do a balancing act. Readings of the two novels —Monica Ali’s Brick Lane and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake — suggests that the quest for a woman’s identity is not a step-by-step procedure. Rather, it is a continuous process towards attainment of recognition accompanied by a sense of fulfilment. Nazneen in Brick lane and Oryx in Oryx and Crake and two very different women, having a different perspective in life, neither right nor wrong, and both try to attain an understand of life with them being at its centre. The two authors’ sensibilities as women and as writers have developed with each published work they bring out, but the jouney continues. Works Cited Ali, Monica. Brick Lane. New York: Scribner, 2003. Atwood, Margaret. Oryx and Crake. New York: Anchor Books, 2004. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics. New York: Routledge, 1988 Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. Toronto: Vintage Books, 1991 Secondary Sources Atwood, Margaret. Negotiating with the Dead. Canada: Anchor, 2002. Gilbert, Sandra M and Gubar, Susan. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Hall, Stuart and Du Gay, Paul, eds. Question of Cultural Identity. London: Sage Publications, 2000. McClintock, Anne. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Context. London: Routledge, 1996. Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. London: Vintage, 1994. Taylor, Charles. Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992 Read More