Female Alienation in Anita Brookner's Providence: A Feminist Reading

Abstract

This research seeks to foreground women’s resistance against repressive patriarchy in Anita Brookner’s Providence. Through the depiction of a female character, Kitty Maule, Brookner in Providence tries to portray the resistance and self identity of a woman despite deep rooted patriarchal domination in the society. The female characters in the novel get united to subvert the artificial norms and values of the patriarchal mechanism in the contemporary society. The unification of women in the novel becomes instrumental to subvert such male hegemony. It is the traditional belief and roles of females which restrict them to be enslaved within their own house. That is why, to be free from such hierarchical domination and exploitation, construction of female bonding and resistance to such oppressive patriarchal mechanism is inevitable.