ABSENCES THAT MATTER: REDEMPTION OF WIDOWHOOD IN LITERATURE

Historically, women have been portrayed as marginalized identities defined within the domain of patriarchal socio-cultural frameworks, struggling to break free from the shackles of ideological stereotypes which denied their self-hood and identity. They were forced to remain dependent either on their husbands, relatives or social and charitable institutions or within the quagmires of private or the domestic sphere. In accordance with the binaries that existed between the two realms of the society, that is, the private and the public sphere, New Woman as a feminist ideal emerged in the late 19^th Century and was used to describe those women who were pushing the limits that were imposed by the patriarchal society upon them.

In accordance with the aforesaid, the present study embarks upon analyzing Tagore’s Choker Bali as an alternate given by Tagore to the deprived, celibate widows. Tagore’s revolutionary widow flaunts all customs and duties which society imposes upon her. In this paper, Tagore’s sense of emergence of ‘new woman’ in Indian context is traced with reference to the textual representation of the character of Binodini.