Shashi Deshpande’s The Dark Holds No Terrors A unique Case of Misguided Feminism
Smitarani Patro
Prof. Smitarani Patro, Department Humanities, Gandhi Institute for Technological Advancement, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Manuscript received on July 15, 2015. | Revised Manuscript received on July 29, 2015. | Manuscript published on August 15, 2015. | PP: 8-11 | Volume-1 Issue-10, August 2015. | Retrieval Number: J00800811015
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© The Authors. Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Shashi Deshpande is a realistic writer who addresses feministic issues in her novels but she does not want to be branded as a hardcore feminist. The Dark Holds No Terrors is her first major novel before she got recognition with That Long Silence for which she received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990. The novelist focuses on issues like individual human rights, marital rape, sexual discrimination etc in a rational manner. The female protagonist Sarita in this novel reflects the customary traditional values that an Indian woman really lives by in the society. In due course of her story, she describes her feelings of anguish, frustration, despair as well as complacent, hope and ecstasy in various stages of life. With time she has become more mature in her views. She has craved for a humane treatment of the female sex. Her narration of her childhood in comparison with her brother Dhruva shows how there exists a discrimination in treatment of a girl child and a boy in our families. She recalls her displeasure at the treatment of her estranged husband but she also talks about her sexual gratification that she gets from him. In this way, Shashi Deshpande always possesses a balanced view of the man-woman relationship.
Keywords: Feminism, marital rape, sexual sovereignty, discrimination, human rights.