Women's writing has its own uniqueness, says writer

More and more women are coming forward to express themselves through their writings and it is a good sign as far as women literature is concerned, opined noted author Giselle Mehta.

She was delivering the keynote address during the national seminar on ‘Indian women writers in English’ organised by the English department of St Aloysius College on Saturday.

“Earlier women were using pseudonym of men. However, in the last few years, there is a significant change in the situation,” she said and opined that women’s writing will help to have a credibility in portraying the life as they experience it. “However, the regional writers are not as expressive as English writers,” she said and added that this may be because of the social, religious and cultural factors.

Stating that many Indian women writers in English focus on urban life and less serious issues, she said that regional writers can be far more successful in their venture as they have the real idea of ground level realities. “In the current Indian society, women are facing many problems such as honour killing, dowry killing, female feticide etc. These major issues are not yet explored in literary works by the women authors,” she opined and urged the women to overcome the patriarchal mindset of society towards women and to use literary works as an effective tool.

Mediators influences autobiographies

Noted academician Dr Meena T Pillai, who delivered the lead paper presentation said that  in the current literary world, the scenario that women from different sections of society are coming forward and writing is a progressive sign. In her paper presentation, she did a comparison of autobiographies of Dalit liberation fighter C K Janu’s ‘Mother Forest’ and sex worker Nalini Jameela’s ‘Autobiography of a sex worker’.

Referring to the fact that the facts what they have faced and experiences have been told to some body and translated by some one else, she said: “Between the writer and the writing, there are many factors like mediator, translator, publishing house etc. The final writing will have additions and deletions according to the experiences, views and interests of these factors.”  She said that power of translation and the interest of publishing houses plays a major role in the literary work.

St Aloysius Institutions Rector Rev Fr Joseph Rodrigues said that at a time when women population is declining drastically, there should be awareness on the importance of role of women. Without women, there is no life. Human life is only possible with men and women act in oneness, he said. St Aloysius College Vice Principal Lourdswamy who presented the theme of the seminar said that the choice of topic is based on two facts. “St Aloysius College is celebrating this academic year as the 25th year of presence of women in the institution. Also in the current social set up, women is facing many problems and are trying to come out of those issues. In this regard, we thought that the topic on women writers would be more meaningful,” he said.

St Aloysius College Principal Fr Swebert D’Silva, English Department head Rathan were also present during the inaugural function.