A Comparative Study of the feminist Portrayal of Rosie in Narayan’s The Guide and Ila in Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines

Abstract

The main purpose of this research is to bring forth a comparative analysis of the portrayal of female characters, Rosie of R. K Narayan's The Guide (1958) and Ila of Amitav Ghosh's The Shadow Lines (1988). Based on comparative literature and feminist theories, the study goes up to the norms and complexities of gender issues in South Asian literature with two different decades and settings. It looks at the similarity and differences between Rosie and Ila as they attempt to attain independence and authority over their own lives. This research focuses on investigating, from a feminist point of view, the factors that arise from external situations and affect the goal of identifying the persistent and evolving problems women have to overcome in order to achieve self-determination and empowerment. While a broader investigation could have been done using theories of postcolonialism, postmodernism, capitalism, and psychology, this study specifically focuses on the feminist perspective. Keywords: Rosie, Ila, feminist, gender, patriarchy, female. iv