Of Friendship and Motherhood: Feminist Positives in R.P. Jhabvala's Heat and Dust

FADILLAH MERICAN (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)

Abstract


Much of contemporary fiction by women centralizes women's experience. Feminist positives often underlie the portrayal of the female quest for identity, fulfilment and independence. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is a novelist whose distinguished fiction may be studied within various contexts: Indian writing in English (on the basis of her long residence in India), Western writing about India and contemporary female fiction. This paper offers a close analysis of the dynamics and power of female relationships in sustaining and nurturing the female quest as depicted in Heat and Dust, the most positively feminist of R.P. Jhabvala's fiction so far. The ideas of psychologist Nancy Chowdorow and Dorothy Dinnerstein on the mother - daughter relationship provide the theoretical framework for this literary analysis.

ABSTRAK

Kebanyakan fiksyen oleh penulis wanita menumpu kepada pengalaman wanita. Fiksyen ini menggambarkan perjuangan wanita dalam mencari identiti, kepuasan dan kebebasan yang di dalamnya kerap terdapat nilai- nilai positiffeminisme. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala adalah seorang novelis yang terkenal dan penulisannya boleh dikaji dalam beberapa konteks: penulisan orang India dalam Bahasa Inggeris (berasaskan pengalamannya yang lama di India), penulisan Barat mengenai India dan fiksyen wanita semasa. Kertas ini membentangkan satu analisis terperinci mengenai apsek kedinamisan dan kuasa dalam perhubungan antara wanita untuk memper- kukuhkan dan menyuburkan perjuangan wanita seperti yang terdapat di dalam novel Heat and Dust. Karya ini boleh dianggap karya Jhabvala yang ulung dalam menggambarkan nilai-nilai feminisme. Ide-ide dua orang ahli psikologi, Nancy Chodorow dan Dorothy Dinnerstein mengenai perhubungan ibu-anak perempuan akan digunakan sebagai rangka teori dalam analisis ini.



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References


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