Browsing by Author "Srivastava, Vanya"

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Myth of Emancipation: An Exploration of Buddhist Feminism in Bhutan
(Swaranjali Publication, 2023) Srivastava, Vanya
Bhutan is a small landlocked country in the Himalayan Kingdom. The country is known for its spectacular beauty and vibrant culture and traditions. The country was in isolation for the latter half of the twentieth century and when it came out, it attracted the attention of the world for its worldviews, policies and approach towards embracing modernization and development. Besides its inspiring socio-economic and political policies, Bhutan also boasts to be a gender-neutral country. It claims to provide equal opportunity, space, and position to women. The Buddhist nation also states that Bhutanese women have better social representation and cultural existence than most of the women of other South Asian countries but the ground reality is contrary to the claims and notions of the country. The present paper attempts to explore the layered religion and cultural subordination and subjection of women in the land which claims to value happiness of its individual, irrespective of gender, over everything else and package and brand the country as Shangri-La, the paradise on earth.
SUFFICIENTLY DECAYED: AGING WOMEN IN DORRIS LESSINGS’S SUMMER BEFORE THE DARK AND LOVE, AGAIN
(Transstellar Journal Publications and Research Consultancy Private Ltd, 2023) Srivastava, Vanya
The new narratives of midlife and older women’s ‘journey to age’ have resulted in new critical responses by age theorists, psychologists, and literary critics in the form of feminist gerontology. This paper looks upon two such narratives by Doris Lessing, The Summer Before the Dark and Love, Again, where the protagonists embark on their internal journeys as they face, confront, and accept their ‘old age.’ Barbara Waxman names these narratives as ‘Reifungsroman’ or the ‘novel of ripening’ which is defined as a genre of female fiction that ‘rejects the negative cultural stereotypes of the old woman and ageing, seeking to change the society that created the stereotypes. The psychic journey that these protagonists undertake also brings forward the conflict between the ‘mind’ and ‘body’ ageing. Lessing’s fiction is deeply autobiographical, much of it emerging out of her experiences in Africa. Drawing upon her childhood memories and her serious engagement with politics and social concerns, Lessing has written about the clash of cultures, the gross injustices of racial inequality, the struggle among opposing elements within an individual’s own personality, and the conflict between the individual conscience and the collective good. Her stories and novellas are set in Africa, and published during the fifties and early sixties, decrying the dispossession of Blacks by White Colonials, and exposing the sterility of the White Culture in southern.