The Quest for Identity in Shashi Deshpande's "That Long Silence" (1988)

Abstract or Introduction

This paper examines the feminist perspective of Shashi Deshpande's "That Long Silence" (1988). This novel won the Sahitya Akademi award in the year 1990. In this novel, the soul protagonist is Jaya, whose complete control was taken over by her husband Mohan, after their marriage. Deshpande realistically depicts the inner conflicts of Jaya and her quest for the self or identity. This novel is about gender discrimination and inequality prevalent in society.

God created men and women equally, but the women’s rights were limited to small. Feminism as a movement might have originated in the West, but with the deterioration in the status of women in India and the subsequent efforts made during the freedom struggle to pave the way for equal access to education and equal status, there arose a need for feminist studies. The feminist movement advocates equal rights and equal opportunities for women. Feminism was portrayed by many writers of English literature and one among them is Shashi Deshpandae (1938).