Figuring the Female (Women''s Discourse, Art and Literature)

About the Book The major concern of the essays in this book is to trace the emancipating values induced through the recognition of multiple perspectives as opposed to the socially maintained hegemonial standpoints. Each essay although starting off from various cultural locales and theoretical positions whether it is about autobiography or painting -attempts for the most a rediscovery of woman's history and culture, particularly in the case of non-European communities that have nurtured female creativity. Most of these have appeared variously in journals like Indian Literature, Kalakalpa, New Quest, The Literary Criterion, The Journal of Indian writing in English, LittCritt, Revaluations, Review of Social Sciences, The Literary Half Yearly, Samyukta and the Journal of Literature and Aesthetics.

Figuring the Female: Women's Discourse, Art and Literature, in general, examines the devaluation and silencing of the woman's experience, through a close exploration of the socio-cultural space wherein she is marginalized, and strives to expose its motives and strategies. The interdisciplinary nature of these essays would certainly be of interest to anyone seriously concerned with gynocriticism, gender issues and ideology etc.

About the Author Dr. Usha V.T. - critic and theorist-is Reader and coordinator of the Center for Women's Studies, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry. She has authored a number of articles on issues relating to women and ideology and also a book on the twentieth century British poet of Ted Hughes-The Real and the Imagined (1998). She is the co author of Tradition and Terrain - Aesthetic Continuities (2006)

Dr. S. Murali-- poet, painter and critic- is Reader in the Department of English, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry. He is the author of The Mantra of Vision (1997); South Indian Studies (1998), and two volumes of Poetry- Night Heron (1998) and Conversations with Children (2005). He has also co-authored with Usha V.T. Tradition and Terrain - Aesthetic Continuities (2006).

**Contents and Sample Pages**