Gender Roles and Feminist Interventions in Anita Nair’s Lessons in Forgetting and Kavery Nambisan’s Mango-Coloured Fish

Abstract

This paper examines gender as a crucial aspect of identity that plays a major role in shaping women’s experiences in society. It explores the gender-specific roles and the other factors that affect their growth and development. Women have faced discrimination over the years and have been expected to do specific pre-aligned gender based roles. They often lack awareness and hence accept the injustices that happen to them without questioning. They were forced to devote their entire lives to family responsibilities and made to do it without recognition. They were made dependent on men at all phases of their lives. This study focuses on how Anita Nair and Kavery Nambisan portray these women’s realities in their works. Through a comparative study of Lessons in Forgetting and Mango-Coloured Fish, the paper highlights how their female characters face neglect and numerous hardships for being women. The study emphasizes women’s personal struggles in relation with gender.  The findings aim to get justice and equality by giving insight into their experiences and challenges.