Postcolonial Feminist Theory: An Overview - Igcollege.org

Proceedings of National Seminar on Postmodern Literary Theory and Literature , Jan. 27-28, 2012, NandedFeminism : A Post – Modern Trend-Ranvirkar S.G.Madhavrao Patil ollege,Palam, Dist. Parbhani.Feminism is a post-modernapproach to the world of literature inwhich the image of woman has beenanalyzed from the feministic pointof view. Feminism is defined byWebster’s Dictionary as-the policy, practice oradvocacy of political,economic and socialequality for women.(Webster’s Dictionary)The Oxford English Dictionary, inits seventh edition, defines feminism, as ‘theissue of equality for women’. It was aserious attempt to formulate the issues andfind solutions to gender problems.Traditionally, IndianSociety is a male dominated andman has been regarded as aprotector, a master and a guardian ofwoman. Generally women seen tohave been looked upon as beinginferior to men. Women are alwaysoppressed, suppressed andmarginalized by men. They havebeen ill-treated and exploited in allwalks of life. In her introduction to‘The Second Sex (1953)’, deBeauvoir wrote:She is defined anddifferentiated with referenceto man and not he withreference to her, She isincidental, the inessentialopposed to the essential. Heis the subject, he is theAbsolute. She is the other.()The term ‘other’ wasoriginally introduced by Simone deBeauvoir, she argues that one is notborn but rather becomes a woman.The general view appears to be thatwomen had to be under the care ofparents in their childhood, under theprotection of husband in their youth,and in their old age they had to beunder the control of their sons.Though she is a master figure in thefamily, she lived the life of slavery,suffering and suppression. VirginiaWoolf, describes the woman’s placein a male dominated world :“A very queer, composite.Imaginatively she is of thehighest importancepracticallyshe is completelyinsignificant. She pervadespoetry from cover to cover,she dominates the lives ofkings and conquerors infiction… Some of the mostinspired words, some of themost profound thoughts inliterature fall from her lips,in real life she could hardlyread, could scarcely spell,and was the property of herhusband”.Virginia Woolf shows howthe woman is subjected to slaveryand suppression. They are alwaysrecognized by a relationship likeKaku and Kaki, Atya and Vahini,Ajji and Mami which is relational toher father or husband or son.In this patriarchal society,the standard of womanhood is set bymen for women. The traditionalrole assigned to her has been that ofa dutiful wife and mother. It wasthe Universal assumption thatwoman belonged to the home aswife and mother. Her entire life wasdevoted to her family and sheremained in confinement within fourwalls. Marriage is considered a374 PLTL-2012: ISBN 978-81-920120-0-1