Women and their Quest for Identity in Arupa Kalita Patangia's Short Stories

Abstract

The stories woven in these tell-tales of women are enveloped with the responsibility of the stories as testimonies of trauma which need attention and focus. The theme of displacement and estrangement are seen in these texts. According to Freud, when one witnesses a truth which is not available to them, the other and the subject are to bear the testimony. This other, subject or the listener become the witness of the trauma. The regular lives of the characters are enveloped with traumatic events. These survivors, the mere witnesses to the brutality cannot explain their experiences in words. They sometimes get into the guilt of forming a false memory due to silence which completely distorted their memory. They reach the saturation point wherein they are unable to explain the situation they are dealing with. Looking at a different perspective, this silence functions a secured wall for them, as they live in this enclosure without any past memories or may be distorted memories of past. Once they step out of this wall, they relive the disaster again in their distorted memories of past.  This paper examines various female characters within their geographical settings, dwelling in the patriarchal society, limited to the horizons set by the dominant males, their thought processes and patterns, aspirations, feelings, beliefs and ultimately their own way of looking at life. My research focuses on few observations of portrayal of women and their subjection in the patriarchal domain in the selected short stories of Arupa Patangia Kalita with a view of exploring the female characters and their responses to their circumstances amidst the conflicting themes of identity.