Asian Research Thesis Index

Abstract

This dissertation is a comparative study of selected works of two famous female authors, Margret Atwood and Arundhati Roy in the backdrop of ecofeminist theoretical framework. This study is delimited to the analyses of Atwood’s The Year of the Flood and The Penelopiad and Roy’s The God of Small Things and Walking with the Comrades. This investigation deals with the ecofeminist basic stance that the oppression of women and other human others (Others) and the domination of nature are interconnected. Using textual analysis as the method for interpretation, the research project explores the selected transcultural texts for the representation of interconnections in terms of oppression/domination amongst women, Others and nature. The study also deals with the reflection of the function of oppressive conceptual frameworks and value dualisms against the culturally inferiorized factions in the selected texts. The aim of the research is also to explore the texts for the reflection of individual and institutional practices which perpetuate and justify the victimization and exploitation of inferiorized human and nonhuman groups. It also seeks to address the emancipatory strategies which the selected texts offer for women, Others and nature for their liberation. The study has been carried out with this position that oppressive conceptual frameworks and value dualisms are the main concepts which the privileged human groups especially patriarchy employ against other human groups and nonhuman nature for their subjugation and victimization. The use of these ideologies and the eventual practices by these upper-class groups turn women, Others and nature into mere instruments and commodity for getting material benefits. The study shows not only that the selected texts reflect the subjugation of women, victimization of Others and exploitation of nature but also that both individual and institutional attitudes and practices in the backdrop of patriarchal ideology nurture and perpetuate oppressive ideologies in two different cultures. The difference appears in terms of racial and casteist social behaviors of the Ups against the Downs.

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