Signifying the Self: Women and Literature

Signifying the Self-Women and Literature is a collection of essays that explores the multifarious expressions of feminism in India. It is divided into five sections: women’s autobiography, writing by Dalit women of Bengal, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh; regional and global issues in women’s writing; same-sex love in women’s literature & film and the male gaze. Dealing with texts as disparate as Tagore’s early twentieth century novel Choker Bali and Deepa Mehta’s contemporary film Fire, short stories by Assamese women writers, fiction by Mahasweta Devi, poetry by contemporary Bengali women poets, autobiographical writing by Ismat Chugtai and Bama-the collection is an important new interrogation of feminism and what it means to Indian writers. It will be of use to scholars and concerned readers alike.