Ecofeminist Landscapes in Anita Desai’s Cry, The Peacock and Where Shall We Go This Summer
Keywords:
Cultural Landscapes, Psychological Landscapes, Ecology, Ecofeminism, Environment, nature-culture, Anita Desai, Tropical IndiaAbstract
In modern parlance, landscape can be understood in various contexts that range from urban and rural, to emotional and repressive, to revolutionary. The concept of landscape is thus an entanglement of nature and culture. It is simultaneously a spatial and mental entity and involves a temporal dimension (Tress & Tress, 2001). Through a close reading of Anita Desai’s novels Cry, The Peacock and Where Shall We Go This Summer, this paper investigates the environmental landscapes of the tropical Indian settings, and the psychological landscapes of the two female protagonists. The novels self-exploratory journeys of the central female characters Maya and Sita, bring forth the anguish of middle-class Indian women who live a life of lack, loss and longing in an oppressive patriarchal system that does not give them space to express themselves or be heard. Through these narratives, the paper examines how landscapes of the feminine psyche, landscapes of tropical India and landscapes of middle-class Hindu women present an ecofeminist quest for integration of self through nature.
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