Mothering India: Women's Fiction in English Shaping Cultural History (1890-1947) [Hardcover]

Mothering India concentrates on early Indian women's fiction, not only evaluating their contribution to the rise of Indian Writing in English (IWE), but also exploring how they reassessed and challenged stereotypes about Indian womanhood, thereby partaking in the larger debate about social reform legislations relating to women's rights in British India.Mothering India addresses this lack and concentrates on early Indianwomen's fiction written between 1890 and 1947. It not only evaluatesthe influence of women authors on the rise of IWE, but also exploreshow they reassessed and challenged stereotypes about womanhoodin India, adding their voice to the larger debate about social reformlegislations on women's rights. Moreover, in choosing to write inthe colonizer's language, they seized the attention of a much widerinternational readership. In wielding their pens, these trendsettingwomen stepped into the literary landscape as 'speaking subjects',refusing the passivity of being 'spoken-of objects', and thereby'mothering' India by redefining her image.TABLE OF CONTENTSTimelineIntroduction: Mothering IndiaBurning Matters: SatiSin of Survival: WidowYoung Shoulders, Mighty Responsibilities: Child-WifePain of Privacy: PurdahnashinNew Ideal Womanhood: Bharatiya NariAfterword: Legacy of Mother IndiaAppendix I: Brief Biographical Information on the Writers discussed in this BookAppendix II: GlossaryBibliographySusmita Roye,Associate Professor of English, Delaware State UniversitySusmita Roye is an associate professor of English at Delaware State University. Her articles have been published in such journals as English Studies, Callaloo, Kunapipi, and South Asian Research. She has also contributed to numerous volumes of essays, including Emerging Voices: Essays and Interviews of South Asian Women Writers, Critical Anthology on Amitav Ghoshs The Shadow Lines, Postcolonial Indian Fiction in English and Masculinity, and Subaltern Vision: A Study in Postcolonial Indian EnglislCp