ISSN : 2663-2187

MAGICAL REALISM AS MODERN FEMINIST FORM AND STYLE FOR WOMEN IN CHITRA BANERJEE'S NOVEL THE MISTRESS OF SPICES

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Dr. Kumar Gaurav, Poonam Parbat
ยป doi: 10.33472/AFJBS.6.13.2024.4519-4525

Abstract

The research paper proposes the genre of magical realism as a modern feminist form and style through the novel The Mistress of Spices by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, a postcolonial diasporic and modernist American Author. The academic undertaking engages in a discourse on reality, realism, and magical realism subjected to a feminist point of view, highlighting the urgency of an alternative narrative against hegemonic patriarchal notions and women's empowerment. The idea of reality is explored and questioned both as a philosophical concept, artistic form, and style. Realism prioritizes objectivity over subjectivity, demanding conformity from minor voices to dominant structures, forms, and subject matter. Meanwhile, magical realism incorporates myth and imagination to subvert the practice and exploit subjectivity as a tool to explore diverse individual objective realities. Magical feminism as a sub-genre within magical realism is critically analyzed and established as few found the language of women to question and subvert the institution of marriage and address contemporary feminine identity in a globalized world order. The new feminine sisterhood is argued as an alternative with magical realism to the pitfalls of dilemma and dichotomy of cross-cultural intersectionality.

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