Misrepresentation of Female Characters in Siddhicharan Shrestha's Selected Poems

Abstract

This thesis explores the issue of misrepresentation of female characters in Siddhicharan Shrestha's semi-epicsUrvashi: Khandakavya and Mangalman: Khandakavya. Shrestha's poems deal with both common people's aspiration for social change by retelling the myth ofArjunand Urvashi. In Shrestha's poems, male characters are depicted as rational, intellectual and visionary while female characters are shown physically weak and emotional who are even held responsible for the downfall of male characters. And hence, women characters are misrepresented despite their contributions in the personal and social life. This study employs theoretical concept of misrepresentation as discussed by Stuart Hall and other feminist theorists like Simon de Beauvoir and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.

Key words: misrepresentation,empowerment,social-justice, dichotomy, patriarchy, hegemony, stereotypical