Metaphors of Women in the Fiction of Shobhaa De

Abstract

Shobhaa De, a modern novelist, renowned for portraying the sexual mania of the commercial world in a very frank and straight forward way, shot into literary limelight by writing her first novel, Socialite Evenings which is lawrentian in expression. She, a journalist since 1970, founder and editor of three famous publications Stardust, Society and Celebrity and consulting editor to Sunday and Megacity discards the early image of woman- a silent, an incarnation of patience and endurance in Indian English novel and creates an image of new woman, an assimilation of western influences and her native culture. She is the author of twelve books. Her works generally start with the letter ‘S’. The woman in her fiction is go-getting, lustful, power hungry and bold. In spite of having all kinds of cataclysms, her woman character is able to balance herself among diverse spheres of the life. Her modern women do not have moral and spiritual advocate for camaraderie. They are more prone to personal freedom and glamour. Through her characters she reveals the existence of glamour and modernity at the core. The objective of the present paper is to delineate the image of marginalized, dominated, defiant, unconventional and boundless new woman.