GITHA HARIHARAN
AS A POST-MODERN INDIAN WOMAN ENLGISH NOVELIST/
Dr. P. SATYANARAYANA,
Vice-Principal, Balaji College of Education, Anantapuramu, A.P. India.
Abstract:
In this paper, I analyse the novels of Githa Hariharan, basing on Theme and Technique. There a quite a large number of novels that use mythical events, characters and motifs as narrative strategies. The use of the Sita myth in Githa Hariharan’s ‘The Thousand Faces of Night’ focuses on the tragic predicament of Indian Women. In ‘The Ghosts of Vasu Master’, the novelist weaves a tapestry of fables and parables which epitomize the human condition. In ‘When Dreams Travel’, the novelist uses multi-voiced narrative. In ‘Times of Siege’, the novelist holds up a faithful mirror …show more content…
It is a fiction narrative of the Indian woman’s predicament in an orthodox milieu which enforces restrictive codes of conduct and behaviour on married women. When Devi returns to Madras after her two0year study in an American university, she gets implicated in the conservative ways of a traditional family, the love of Sita, a doting mother, an insipid marriage with Mahesh, an unsuitable lover who offers a brief escape. Her mother arranges a series of meetings with prospective bridegrooms. Devi marries Mahesh. There is nothing to sustain the marriage; neither the husband nor the wife has any interest in making the marriage work. Devi lives like a stranger in her in-law’s home, with a stranger whom she has married, a father-in-law who quotes for her saying from Sanskrit books and Mayamma a servant who got married when she was still a girl to a drunken husband and was abused by mother-in-law, husband as well as her own son. She advises Devi that the key to marriage is the ability to endure. But Devi decides to elope with Gopal, a musician next door. Devi’s mother Sita is a woman who knows her mind, has clear views on what she wants to achieve. As a girl, her ambition was to become a great Veena player. She achieves that, but suppresses her love for music for ever, when her father-in-law irritatingly tells her that the Veena must not come in her way of being …show more content…
Vasu Master has recently retired from his job in P.G. Boys’ High School located in the small-town of Ellipettai. Away from the familiar, circumscribed world of school, principal and classroom, Vasu Master begins to write down in the notebook, which has been given to him by his students as a farewell gift, his observations, memories and thoughts about teaching. This process of introspection and self-discovery is sharpened by the arrival of Mani, a twelve year old boy who cannot speak. Vasu Master uses the pedagogic strategy of telling the taciturn child one fantastic story after the other as he faces up to the biggest challenge of his life; teaching and healing Mani though the use of fantasy, fable and a host of imagined characters. Githa Hariharan creates a richly textured and complex work that movingly explores the human condition, and the underlying principles of all human action as the narrative swings between past and present, fantasy and reality, hope and
AS A POST-MODERN INDIAN WOMAN ENLGISH NOVELIST/
Dr. P. SATYANARAYANA,
Vice-Principal, Balaji College of Education, Anantapuramu, A.P. India.
Abstract:
In this paper, I analyse the novels of Githa Hariharan, basing on Theme and Technique. There a quite a large number of novels that use mythical events, characters and motifs as narrative strategies. The use of the Sita myth in Githa Hariharan’s ‘The Thousand Faces of Night’ focuses on the tragic predicament of Indian Women. In ‘The Ghosts of Vasu Master’, the novelist weaves a tapestry of fables and parables which epitomize the human condition. In ‘When Dreams Travel’, the novelist uses multi-voiced narrative. In ‘Times of Siege’, the novelist holds up a faithful mirror …show more content…
It is a fiction narrative of the Indian woman’s predicament in an orthodox milieu which enforces restrictive codes of conduct and behaviour on married women. When Devi returns to Madras after her two0year study in an American university, she gets implicated in the conservative ways of a traditional family, the love of Sita, a doting mother, an insipid marriage with Mahesh, an unsuitable lover who offers a brief escape. Her mother arranges a series of meetings with prospective bridegrooms. Devi marries Mahesh. There is nothing to sustain the marriage; neither the husband nor the wife has any interest in making the marriage work. Devi lives like a stranger in her in-law’s home, with a stranger whom she has married, a father-in-law who quotes for her saying from Sanskrit books and Mayamma a servant who got married when she was still a girl to a drunken husband and was abused by mother-in-law, husband as well as her own son. She advises Devi that the key to marriage is the ability to endure. But Devi decides to elope with Gopal, a musician next door. Devi’s mother Sita is a woman who knows her mind, has clear views on what she wants to achieve. As a girl, her ambition was to become a great Veena player. She achieves that, but suppresses her love for music for ever, when her father-in-law irritatingly tells her that the Veena must not come in her way of being …show more content…
Vasu Master has recently retired from his job in P.G. Boys’ High School located in the small-town of Ellipettai. Away from the familiar, circumscribed world of school, principal and classroom, Vasu Master begins to write down in the notebook, which has been given to him by his students as a farewell gift, his observations, memories and thoughts about teaching. This process of introspection and self-discovery is sharpened by the arrival of Mani, a twelve year old boy who cannot speak. Vasu Master uses the pedagogic strategy of telling the taciturn child one fantastic story after the other as he faces up to the biggest challenge of his life; teaching and healing Mani though the use of fantasy, fable and a host of imagined characters. Githa Hariharan creates a richly textured and complex work that movingly explores the human condition, and the underlying principles of all human action as the narrative swings between past and present, fantasy and reality, hope and