Subversion of Subjugation: A Reading of Manju Kapur's Novel ‘A Married Woman’

This article aims at depicting female embodiment as the key site of political, social, cultural and economic forces. It illustrates that Manju Kapur, as a modern woman writer, gives relevance to the female body in her writings. Through the reversal of the dominant male gaze and by moving the female body from the margin of the page to the centre of the text, Kapur destabilises binary oppositions that are the root cause of oppression against women. She uses the deconstruction method of ideological critique to comment on patriarchal thoughts and institutions. A female is still viewed as a body, and both her body and sexuality are controlled by men. Manju Kapur takes up the theme of lesbianism to show that in modern times the power equation and ideology are re-defined and patriarchy is questioned. Women obsessed with social victimhood are craving for sexual autonomy. Women are challenging heterosexuality to re-draw the patriarchal map. The author theorises women's resistance and proves that women are capable of engendering subjective and emancipatory epiphanies. The novel ‘A Married Woman’ redefines the idea of ‘new woman’.