Issue Details

VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS: A STUDY OF P. SIVAKAMI’S THE GRIP OF CHANGE

ABSTRACT

Literature is a reflection of emotions and when it expresses sorrows and pain, its voice resonates far and wide in the minds of the multitude. Dalit literature depicts the trials and tribulations of Dalits and the atrocities committed against them and at the same time it works to awaken their consciousness. The present research paper aims to critically analyze the representation of women characters in the narrative The grip of Change by Sivakami. Women characters in this work are worth analyzing in terms of their struggle, adversities, and patriarchal oppression both inside and outside of their community, as they confront triple exploitation due to their caste, class, and gender. This work depicts how they battle adversities inflicted on them and fight for their identities. Dalit people, particularly Dalit women, are the worst sufferers in the caste-ridden society, where social rules oblige them to undergo the horrors of injustice, male dominance, humiliation, sexual assault, and gender discrimination. As a result of their own experience of being humiliated, Dalit women writers use their writings to raise their voices for justice and against exploitation. Dalit writers positioned their writings as literature of insurrection and resistance. These writers have begun to speak against discrimination and exploitation leveled upon them; exploring the experience of their struggle, and using their writings as weapons to make space in mainstream literature. This narrative is aimed to get social justice by fighting against all sorts of oppression and exploitation.

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