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Latent feminism... in search of self
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<145,4>ANJANA RAJAN speaks to Rajni Walia, for whom literature is the experience of woman, not man... .
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RAJNI WALIA, author of "Women and Self - Fictions of Jean Rhys, Barbara Pym, Anita Brookner" - a Books Plus publication - teaches English at Government College, Chaura Maidan, Shimla. Concerned how women writers "tap their autobiographical self" in their fiction, she feels a woman's universe is not only different from a man's but is also intertwined in a much more obvious way than in a male writer. While men's writing reflects a different sensibility - "the men are more into achievement. For Shakespeare you can't really tap into his autobiographical self" - for women, it is the "daily trivia of everyday life" that provides an intricate literary tapestry, an unlimited source "where nothing is happening and so much is happening".
She clarifies: "It is not autobiographical in the sense of exact details of their life, but in terms of emotions. The focus is more towards the way we are. There are conflicts in life. The moulds that society has fashioned for women are too constricting."
She points out that the authors she has used in her study did not have contented lives. Yet through their fiction we can trace solutions.
"Literature gives you a heightened awareness of life. Particularly novels - they explain your life to you. This literature gives you coping techniques," and offers ways of "finding your validity other than heterosexual relations" - an awareness that applies equally to the Western paradigm of aging, due to which women lose their self-worth and which "can wreak havoc on a woman's psyche".
Rajni Walia differentiates three moods in English writing by women: In the early days it was an achievement in itself to be a published woman author. The phase was an imitative one in which women represented the worldview of their male counterparts. Then came a time of revolt - the overtly feminist and anti-male point of view. The third phase she sees reflected in the writings of the contemporary authors she has chosen for her present work. She describes their approach as "latent feminism" rather than outwardly feminist or revolutionary.
Rajni Walia's own feminism sits well on this wife and mother who chose Government service to be able to follow her husband on his travels and who is proud of her son in engineering college.
For a writer educated completely in India Rajni Walia's choice of British authors to prove her thesis on contemporary women writers in general might seem curious or politically incorrect. She explains that they "touched a chord" in her and she is drawn to "the poise and sophistication of their approach". Their tone is detached and makes significant use of irony, satire and humour, she points out. As regards how far her literary concerns are comprehensible to the students of interior Himachal Pradesh - which she has extensively toured with her forest conservator husband - she cites her experience with setting up the Post Graduate course in the Government College, Kullu. "The students were very interested, because I related the literature to their life." And these authors are all "talking about their life. They are all trying to bring the attention of society to loving and caring" - qualities thought of as a woman's prerogative.
Rajni Walia is an engaging talker. And though it is difficult to say as much about the book save in parts, it cannot be contested that her concerns are of real interest to many. "I wrote it," she says, for anyone for whom it will touch an answering chord and basically for contemporary women. I hope people will read this book and the book of those authors too."
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