Individual Freedom and Gender Identity: A Comparative Study on Nayantara Sahgal’s “A Time to be Happy” And Anita Nair’s “Ladies Coupe”

Abstract

The present paper is comparative study between Nayantara Sahgal and Anita Nair regarding the exploration of the predicament of women in terms of Individual freedom and gender identity. Both the novelists have conspicuously placed themselves in the world literature. Both the writers have brought forward something new related to individual freedom of women and their gender identity. Both expressed the view that women in the present society still are suppressed by the patriarchal society. Nair stresses on the identity of women while Sahgal tries to establish the concept of new women. However, both the novelists uniformly observe and analyze the plights of women with different psychological and social visions. This paper finds that the suppression and identity struggle are the one and the same in the light of new women concepts where both the novelists tried to express with unique expressions.