Reimagining Womanhood in the Select Novels of Anita Nair

Abstract

The article explores the feminist undercurrents in Anita Nair's fiction, focusing primarily on her seminal novels Ladies Coupé (2005), Mistress (2005), and The Better Man (2015). A distinguished contemporary Indian author, Nair constructs nuanced female characters who navigate, resist, and ultimately dismantle patriarchal structures. The study employs Sylvia Walby’s patriarchy theory alongside feminist literary criticism to interrogate gendered power dynamics and systemic inequalities. The principal aim is to examine how Nair’s protagonists reconfigure womanhood through acts of resistance, self-assertion, and redefinition of personal identity. Through Akhila’s introspective voyage in Ladies Coupé, Radha’s subversion of conjugal expectations in Mistress, and Valsala’s reclamation of bodily autonomy in The Better Man, Nair posits female subjectivity as a site of both struggle and transformation. The study also contextualises Nair’s work within the broader socio-historical trajectory of Indian women’s reformist struggles, which intersect with caste, class, and religion. The objective is to elucidate how Nair’s fictional narratives serve as powerful critiques of patriarchy and offer literary blueprints for feminist emancipation. Her protagonists, embodying both endurance and rebellion, symbolise the emergence of a “New Woman” in Indian English literature—self-aware, resolute, and liberated.