Review of Literature: Women’s Struggle for Domestic, Social, Political and Economic Space in K.R. Meera’s Feminist Fictions

K. R. Meera, known for phenomenal creations of beautifully bold women in her novels, has always been vociferous on equality and freedom for her female characters. Very strangely, like a hangwoman, she keeps her readers tied to a noose of reason and justice. Often, we are made to ask ourselves questions on our social responsiveness, the moral responsibility of dutiful citizens and how to break the chain of imbalance in the society. Aarachar tightens the noose around the neck of many men, still strongly footed in the outdated patriarchal society. Many Sanjeev Kumar Mitras are hung publicly. Texts like Hangwoman, Khabar, Khathakan, Meerayude Novellakal, explore characters like Chetna, Satyapriya, Bhavana and the like who try to establish themselves as equals of their male counterparts. Their struggle to emerge successful depicts the everyday struggle of many ordinary women around us. Co-existence is nature’s impulse, emotional acceptance becomes the moral obligation of a sophisticated society. The purpose of this paper is to highlight how K. R. Meera, through the characterization of her signature women, show their struggle to gain social and economic space in a contemporary male-dominated society. Her commendable, outright writing to depict the identity of women is worth to be repeated as no male writers have ever taken the initiative to review a political, social incident and then speak for justice, write for the oppressed minority. Right to react is often questioned, as a minority, women need to react and respond intelligently. It’s also interesting to notice the writer’s new take on the concept of love. The age-old notions of pure love are let off to the air by the writer to showcase the righteousness of the decisions of her women. The paper also aims to discuss the redefinition of love the writer exhibits through a number of novels.