The Quiet Strength: Exploring Femininity in Lahiri’s Literary Gaps

Abstract

The present research paper focuses on the compelling form and figure of femininity articulated throughout Lahiri’s diverse literary repertoire. Lahiri tells stories usually referred to as narratives of identity, migration and double loyalties that deepen the understanding of the lives of South Asian women. Interestingly, the study exposes a powerful silence amid Lahiri’s women while reading between the lines of these gaps in writing— the silences and omissions— untold stories, silently commanders even if they seem not to know it: an image emerges as Lahiri simultaneously deconstructs probably all that is known about femininity and make firm recusal against patriarchy. Through close readings informed by feminist literary theory and postcolonial discourse, it argues that Lahiri’s women are active agents interacting with multiple levels of inequality related to gender, race and class. An honest effort has been made to contribute not only to scholarship on Lahiri’s writing but more broadly to literary theory related to all contests that bridge race with autonomy from mainstream views. The article also celebrates Lahiri’s part in growing the ranks of South Asian women writers.