Isabel Allende and Bapsi Sidhwa: A Comparison of their Fictional Works

Abstract

Utilizing the theoretical postulates of Chandra Mohanty and Uma Narayan, this comparative, eclectic, feminist, cross-cultural study focuses on six novels written by Isabel Allende and Bapsi Sidhwa. The novels included in the study are The House of the Spirits (1982), Of Love and Shadows (1984) and The Daughter of Fortune (1998) by Isabel Allende, and The Bride (1983), Ice-Candy Man (1988), and An American Brat (1993) by Bapsi Sidhwa. The study endeavors to reexamine the notions of subjection and passivity of the women belonging to the Global South, and analyzes the selected fictional works to see how the authors create female characters that show agency, autonomy, and selfhood. Analysis of the fictional texts problematizes the Western feminists’ idea of marginalized and disempowered ‘Third World’ woman and presents Chile and Pakistan as fertile places for perseverance. The study analyzes the modes of writing and the thematic concerns of the selected novels to assess how the authors use fiction to give voice to the silenced and marginalized females of their societies. Keeping in view the cultural contexts of the authors, the study focuses on the subversive female characters who challenge their marginalized status in the society. One of the primary goals of this dissertation is to explore how the literary works of these female authors reflect the effects of cultural, political and historical crisis on the status and condition of women in their native societies. Through close analysis of the selected novels, this thesis explores how, in their response to the political turmoil in their native lands, both contemporary postcolonial feminist authors render reality in creative forms. Although there are numerous points of convergence between the works of these authors, nonetheless, there are various points of divergence as well. Allende voices her concerns about the DRSML QAU xiv suppressed dictatorial Chile by utilizing the technique of Magical Realism to reflect the human struggle in the backdrop of the turbulent Chilean history, while Sidhwa employs realism in her portrayal of the human condition in the scenario of Pakistani social, historical and cultural cataclysm. This dissertation stands at such a point of assignation, where concepts fundamental to both postcolonial feminist theory and comparative literature intersect, therefore, the study focuses the fictional texts’ historicity rather than textuality, and politics rather than aesthetics. This comparative literary analysis draws upon the comparative method of Totosy de Zepetnek proposed in his book Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application (1998). Engaging with two Global South contexts, Pakistan and Chile, the goal of this study is to chart common grounds of feminist struggles. Keywords: Postcolonial feminism, Patriarchy, Subversive female characters, Agency, Marginalization, Culture, History, Comparative Literature