Archetypal Women Figures in Indian English Fiction

Abstract

The representation of women in Indian English fiction has undergone significant transformation over time, moving from stereotypical portrayals to nuanced depictions that reflect the complexities of gender, identity, and social change. A key approach to studying these portrayals is through the lens of archetypes—universal symbols and patterns rooted in mythology, folklore, and cultural imagination. Archetypal women figures such as the Mother Goddess, the Sati-Savitri (chaste wife), the Rebel, the Victim, and the Seeker reappear in Indian English novels, reinterpreted to mirror both tradition and modernity. Early writers like Mulk Raj Anand and R. K. Narayan tended to situate women within domestic and cultural archetypes, while later women novelists such as Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande, Bharati Mukherjee, and Arundhati Roy reshaped these archetypes to foreground female subjectivity, resistance, and self-definition. This paper explores how archetypal figures evolve in Indian English fiction, tracing their transformation from idealized symbols of virtue to complex individuals negotiating patriarchy, colonialism, and globalization. It also highlights how feminist and postcolonial perspectives have reinterpreted archetypes, offering new ways of reading women’s roles in family, society, and nation. By analyzing select novels, the study argues that archetypal women figures in Indian English fiction provide both continuity and critique of cultural traditions, serving as mirrors of social reality while also challenging oppressive norms.