Estrangement Consciousness and Assertion A Selected Study on Autobiographies of Dalit Women

Abstract

The Postmodern era witnessed a spurt in the third world writings, which were newlinekept at margins by the Eurocentric terms of reference of Literature. The recent sociopolitico-cultural trends have played a dominant role in making these marginalised newlinevoices perceptible. Writings of the third-world have been an outcome of the resistance newlineof the marginalised for their rightful position in the society. Under the rubrics of newlinePostcolonial studies in India, Dalit Literature has emerged as a resistance to the canonical, mainstream writings. It gradually merged as an integral part of postcolonial studies, where the issue of identity played a pertinent role.This dissertation has taken up an in-depth study of the literature of Dalits that newlineattempts to bring into light the reasons behind the silence in the articulation of Dalit newlinewomen. When the issues of identity politics and self assertion are concerned, writings newlineof Dalit men are more prominently visible than that of Dalit women. Their gender newlineidentity often makes Dalit women more vulnerable to the patriarchal pattern of the newlineIndian society, and their caste identity places them absolutely unprotected on the face newlineof socio-cultural atrocities. Analyzing literature written by a female Dalit writer is, newlinetherefore, more difficult and challenging than it appears. In this study, the special newlinestandpoint would be, to analyze the life narratives of selected Dalit woman writers, like newlineUrmila Pawar, Baby Kamble and Bama and bring out the issues atypical to the Dalit newlinewomen. newline