This paper introduces students to read language in service of patriarchy. This is made in such a way that even if students without a background study of Literature get a glimpse of ways in which Literature works in constructing values and how women’s autobiography sees the world around them.
Introduction to Language as a patriarchal construct in Primary and Secondary Education, Abuses on Women’s bodies
Images of women in literary text by men & women writers – Rabindranath Tagore’s Binodini, Sharat Chandra’s Charitraheen, Munshi Premchand’s Kafan, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s Ekadasi, Darisi Annapurnamma’s Gnanamba
Autobiographies of women: Tarabai Shinde’s ‘Stri Purush Tulana’, Vina Mazumdar’s Memories of a Rolling Stone, Prabha Khetan’s Anya se Ananya
Depiction of Women in Ramayana and Mahabharata: Sita, Urmila, Ahilya, Manthara, Kaikeyi, Mandodari; Gandhari, Madhavi, Draupadi, other wives of Pandavasa – Hidimba and Subhadra.
Expectation from women due to dominance of a particular Literature (English/Hindi) Shakespeare’s Taming of a Shrew; Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas, Krishna Sobti’s Mitro Marjani
Unit I
Susie Tharu and Lalita K (ed.) Women’s Writing in India, 600 BC to Twentieth Century, Volume I & II, OUP, New Delhi, 2009 Introduction Vol. I pp 1-38
Unit II
Sharat Chandra’s Charitraheen, Rabindranath Tagore’s Binodini, Munshi Premchanda’s Kafan,
Subhadra Kumari Chauhan’s Ekadasi, Darisi Annapurnamma’s Gnanamba in Susie Tharu and Lalita K (ed.) Women’s Writing in India, 600 BC to Twentieth Century, Volume I & II, OUP, New Delhi, 2009 pp 421-424, 451-459
Unit III
Tarabai Shinde’s ‘Stri Purush Tulana’ in Susie Tharu and Lalita K (ed.) Women’s Writing in India, 600 BC to Twentieth Century, Volume I & II, OUP, New Delhi, 2009, pp. 223-234
Vina Mazumdar’s Memories of a Rolling Stone, Kali for Women, New Delhi 2010
Prabha Khetan’s Chhinnamasta
Unit IV
C Rajgopalachari, Ramayan and Mahabharat.
Unit V
Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew;
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice;
Krishna Sobti’s Mitro Marjani
Links:
[1] https://sociology.iisuniv.ac.in/courses/subjects/women-language-and-literature-0
[2] https://sociology.iisuniv.ac.in/academic-session/2016-17