THESIS ON AN ASSESSMENT OF WOMEN CHARACTERS AND THEIR ROLES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF NUANCED THEMATIC PATTERNS IN THE NOVELS OF BHARATI MUKHERJEE Submitted for partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Award of degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH By NABASREE DATTA 2016 Advisor Dr. Shivani S. Verma Assistant Professor Department of English and Foreign Languages Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology & Sciences (Formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute) (Deemed to be University) Allahabad-211 007, India I.D.NO.10PHENG1O2 DEDICATED TO MY PARENTS Page 1 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINAL WORK This is to certify that the thesis entitled ‗An assessment of women characters and their roles in the development of nuanced thematic patterns in the novels of Bharati Mukherjee‘ submitted by Nabasree Datta (I.D.No.10PHENG102) in the Department of English & Foreign languages, Chitamber School of Humanities & Social Sciences of Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology & Sciences (Formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute-Deemed University), Allahabad, India for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English is a record of the bonafide research work, carried out by her under my personal supervision and guidance. The thesis, in my opinion, is worth of consideration for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in accordance with the regulation of the University. The results embodied in this thesis have not been submitted to any other University or Institute for the award of any degree or diploma. The assistance and help received during the course of investigation have been duly acknowledged. Date:28.04.2016 Place: Allahabad [ Dr. (Mrs.) Shivani S. Verma ] Assistant Professor Department of English & Foreign languages Chitamber School of Humanities & Social Sciences Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology & Sciences (Formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute-Deemed University), Allahabad, (U.P.) 211 007, India. Page 2 CERTIFICATE OF ACCEPTANCE OF EVALUATION COMMITTEE The thesis entitled ‘An assessment of women characters and their roles in the development of nuanced thematic patterns in the novels of Bharati Mukherjee’” has been prepared and submitted by Nabasree Datta (I.D No.10PHENG102) in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English of the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences Arts & Culture of Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology & Sciences (Formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute-Deemed University), Allahabad India. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sl. No Name Evaluation Signature ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Dr. (Mrs.) Shivani S. Verma Satisfactory / (Advisor) Non satisfactory Assistant Professor Department of English & Foreign Languages SHIATS, Allahabad. 2. Prof. (Dr.) G.S.Zaman (Member) Satisfactory / Dean, CSH&SS Non satisfactory Chitamber School of Humanities & Social Sci. SHIATS, Allahabad. 3. Dr. Ashish Alexander Satisfactory / (Member) Non satisfactory Head & Associate Professor Department of English & Foreign Languages SHIATS, Allahabad. 4. Dr. (Mrs.) Nishi Tripathi Satisfactory / (Member) Non satisfactory Associate Professor Department of Psychology SHIATS, Allahabad. 5. Dr. Apsara Stanley Satisfactory / (Member) Non satisfactory Assistant Professor Department of English & Foreign Languages SHIATS, Allahabad. The Thesis has been examined by the Evaluation Committee and found acceptable. Date : (Chairperson) Evaluation Committee Page 3 DECLARATION I , Nabasree Datta, (I.D.No.10PHENG102), hereby declare that the thesis entitled ‗An assessment of women characters and their roles in the development of nuanced thematic patterns in the novels of Bharati Mukherjee‘ submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English in the Department of English & Foreign Languages, Chitamber School of Humanities & Social Sciences of Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology & Sciences (Formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute-Deemed University), Allahabad, India, is my original work and it has not previously formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma, fellowship or other similar titles. Date: 28th April 2016 ( Nabasree Datta) Place: Allahabad I.D. No.10 PHENG 102 Page 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ` First and Foremost I would like to express deep sense of gratitude to my mentor and supervisor, Dr. (Mrs.) Shivani S. Verma, Assistant Professor, Department of English & Foreign Languages, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad for her invaluable guidance, keen interest, constant inspiration, constructive criticism and incessant encouragement throughout the tenure of this study. I am extremely indebted to her and I consider myself immensely fortunate for getting an opportunity to work with her. I am sincerely thankful to Dr. Ashish Alexander Head & Associate Professor, Department of English & Foreign Languages, SHIATS, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences for his healthy encouragement, constructive criticism, with a conviction of purpose, and valuable suggestions during my research work. With an exorbitant sense of humanity, I express my sincere thanks to Dr. Nishi Tripathi, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences for her keen interest and innovative and excellent help that made this thesis to be completed successfully. I feel immense pleasure in expressing whole sense of gratitude to Dr. Apsara Stanley, Assistant Professor, Department of English and Foreign Languages and all my dear teachers, faculty members of the Department of English & Foreign Languages, Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences for valuable suggestions, constructive criticism, with uninterrupted guidance. I am thankful to my parents for their wish that made me to take up this challenge to pursue the final step of academic journey which is a wonderful opportunity to explore. Dear Ma, thank you for your kind blessings, Page 5 inspiration, unlimited patience, constant support. Babu you were always in my mind and that gave me the invisible mental strength and I know now wherever you are definitely you are keeping track of my fate. Thank you all for that. I love you all. I sincerely acknowledge the all-round support, inspiration and help extended by my dear elder sister Dr.(Mrs.) Hira Bose, Assistant Professor, Department of English & Foreign Languages and respected brother-in-law Dr. Dipak Kumar Bose, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension and Communication, SHIATS, Allahabad, My lovely nieces, Dishani and Himani whose company relaxed me a lot during all the stress here in Allahabad. Thank you all. Ahana, dear daughter, and Dr. Sanjib Ray, dear husband, Associate Professor & Head, Department of Zoology, University of Burdwan, Burdwan, West Bengal, really I cherished your company in the whole course of travels and your inspiration, support and sacrifice immensely helped me to travel this extra mile of academic journey. I am indebted to my mother-in-law, brother in-laws, sister in-laws, cousins, nephews, nieces friends, relatives, family friends and all the well wishers for their inspiration moral support and all the best wishes which helped me a lot to complete this academic journey. Finally I am thrilled to thank almighty God for giving me ample strength, courage and patience to complete the work. ( Nabasree Datta) Page 6 ABSTRACT Liberty and censure became an integral part of the lives of Indian women who refused to buckle themselves under the pressure and succeeded in changing their own lives and lives of those who were dependent on them. In literature, it was being portrayed by majority of writers, among them, Bharati Mukherjee, became the live example of a free woman who through her novels, portrayed the struggles of immigrant women for achieving their identity. Bharati Mukherjee provides readers to take the challenge boldly against the traditional frame work of the society and to turn her way towards a new consciousness of her own worth and place in the society. Bharati Mukherjee is an Indian-born American novelist who started her writing career only at the age of three. Mukherjee achieved her fame with the novels like, The Tiger's Daughter, Wife, Jasmine, The Holder of the World, Leave It to Me, Desirable Daughters, The Tree Bride and Miss New India. This famous novelist achieved many prestigious awards during her splendid creative and professional career. At the age of globalization, immigration becomes a burning issue for most of the immigrant writers where the world is shrinking in to a global village, the differences melt into similarities. Culture and groups outside the dominant ideology try to find out ways to put forward their Page 7 diversity. In the earlier times, the main purpose of immigration of the third world people was only depending on their vocational problem. But in the present time vocational problem mingles with the desire of avocation for the purpose of crossing the boundaries of native land. But in the cases where cultural dissimilarities are much sharper in terms of racial, linguistic and religion, the predicaments get hopelessly complex for immigrant to cope with the new circumstances. The adjustment problems of the immigrant women in an alien society and their phobic mental condition due to political, gender and racial biasness become vital issues in the novels of Bharati Mukherjee. The women characters of her novels are very familiar and the novelist has very successfully portrayed them in the pre-existing context which really inspired the researcher to do her research with the purpose that the study would be a modern work in the field of literature and would render into helping hands for the researcher to do their research in this area. Therefore, this study is significant in the context of age of globalization and immigration. The major objectives of the research are as follows: 1. To find the thematic patterns in the novels of Bharati Mukherjee. 2. To study the influence of oriental and occidental culture on the women characters in her novels. Page 8 3. To explore the role of female characters in the development of the story. In order to obtain the objectives, researcher considered first seven novels of Bharati Mukherjee, and methodically explored thematic patterns, considering both the major and minor themes. Moreover, the influence of cross cultural conflicts in the immigrants‘ life and their sense of identity crisis were critically analyzed, and finally, role of women characters in the development of nuanced thematic patterns were explored in the research work. The thesis is arranged in five chapters where the first chapter introduces the novelist, Bharati Mukherjee, emphasizing her family back ground, academic and professional carrier and literary canon, back ground of the research topic, the major objectives and very brief outline of the context and plot of each of the novels. The second chapter is oriented to find the brief story line, the themes and thematic patterns in the novels. The third chapter is based on the influence of native culture in the lives women protagonists who settled in foreign land and illustrates the conflicts of Oriental and Occidental cultures that provide the altered shapes of the women characters in her novels. The fourth chapter is dedicated to explore the role of female characters in the development of each of the story. The fifth chapter is about conclusion that displays the Page 9