Women Characters and Systematic Discrimination in Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting: A Study in Cultural Psychoanalysis

Abstract

The major objective of this study is to analyze the culture-based discrimination against women in the Indian society and the American society that is portrayed in the novel Fasting, Feasting by Anita Desai. In the novel, the males discriminate their female counterparts systematically or institutionally because their cultural practices are deeply rooted in the society. In the study, the novel is interpreted from the perspective of cultural psychoanalysis. In this novel, in particular, this kind of discrimination is related to the psychological suffering of women in both societies. The study concluded that, through her novel, Desai has portrayed the women characters as domesticated secondary beings, or systematically discriminated entities. The portrayal of women characters like Uma, Anamika and other women characters signifies how the patriarchy is prevalent everywhere regardless of culture or place. The patriarchal societies put men on a higher position while women on the lower rank. So the patriarchal system, also considered an institutionalized social structure, frequently disadvantages women psychologically, socially and economically.