Redefining Womanhood In Manju Kapur’s The Immigrant

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to explore how women in Manju Kapur’s novels have emerged as individuals and marriage the sacred social institution becomes the primary source of conflict for her.  The women in Manju Kapur’s novels are unlike traditional women who consider marriage as the summom bonum of a  woman’s life and they have to submit to the wishes of their husbands.  Defying all batriarchal norms and conventions they emerge as new women who are self-conscious.  This fictional representation of New Woman has created a crisis in family and society and has shaken the deep-rooted tradition.  Pre-marital relationships, fornication, post-marital relationships and divorce are not considered as social taboos.  The protagonists in Manju Kapur’s novels are the personification of Now Women. Subverting male hegemony they emerge as convention-bashing new women.