The Portrayal of Woman in Shashi Deshpande’s The Intrusion and Other Stories
The Portrayal of Woman in Shashi Deshpande’s The Intrusion and Other Stories
Introduction:
No art is more spontaneous than that of the short story, and though it may be proved that lyric poetry came earlier to the dignity of literature, it is certain that stories of some sort were told as soon as man became articulate. The short story is one of the most spontaneous and one of the most entertaining of literary forms that is developed considerably during the recent years. Of course it would be wrong to assume that it is a very new form. Stories are as old as the earliest literature. For ages in each and every country of the world, stories have been in existence in one or the other form, e.g. anecdotes, jokes and brief narratives. If we look into the history of any literature in the world, we find stories in different forms. For example, fables, parables, allegories, ballads as well as the folk tales that dealt with legendary matters or with magic and enchantment. We find, in India, stories of the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesh and in the West we have Aesop’s fables as well as the tales of the Old Testament and Apocrypha. Stories in the Arabian Nights and Boccaccio’s Decameron are some other examples of this art, which is as old as mankind. Thus, the history of the short story is indeed fairly long. It has passed through many stages, the chief among them being myth, legend, fable, parable as well as the novella. In form, content and technique, of course, these old stories did differ a lot from the modern short stories. However the fact is that this form is traceable to the classical romance and has developed through such medieval types as ‘fabliaux’, ‘novella’ and ‘exemplum’. When looked at the stories in the old time and the modern period, the difference is startling. The crude narrative of old has given place to a sophisticated story throbbing with human interest written in a style that is quite polished and artistic. In a way, the
Introduction:
No art is more spontaneous than that of the short story, and though it may be proved that lyric poetry came earlier to the dignity of literature, it is certain that stories of some sort were told as soon as man became articulate. The short story is one of the most spontaneous and one of the most entertaining of literary forms that is developed considerably during the recent years. Of course it would be wrong to assume that it is a very new form. Stories are as old as the earliest literature. For ages in each and every country of the world, stories have been in existence in one or the other form, e.g. anecdotes, jokes and brief narratives. If we look into the history of any literature in the world, we find stories in different forms. For example, fables, parables, allegories, ballads as well as the folk tales that dealt with legendary matters or with magic and enchantment. We find, in India, stories of the Panchatantra and the Hitopadesh and in the West we have Aesop’s fables as well as the tales of the Old Testament and Apocrypha. Stories in the Arabian Nights and Boccaccio’s Decameron are some other examples of this art, which is as old as mankind. Thus, the history of the short story is indeed fairly long. It has passed through many stages, the chief among them being myth, legend, fable, parable as well as the novella. In form, content and technique, of course, these old stories did differ a lot from the modern short stories. However the fact is that this form is traceable to the classical romance and has developed through such medieval types as ‘fabliaux’, ‘novella’ and ‘exemplum’. When looked at the stories in the old time and the modern period, the difference is startling. The crude narrative of old has given place to a sophisticated story throbbing with human interest written in a style that is quite polished and artistic. In a way, the
References: Deshpande, Shashi. The Intrusion and Other Stories. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1993. Bande, Usha. Violent Responses: Murder in Fiction by Women Literature and Ideology (Essays in interpretation), Veena Singh (edi.) Jaipur: Rawat Publications, 1988. Geetha T.N. The Short stories of Shashi Deshpande. Indian women novelist. R.K.Dhawan(ed) Set I: Vol. V, New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1991. Sahgal, Nayantara. The Virtuous Woman. The Tribune, 24 December 1988/ reproduced in “Point of view”, Prestige publishers. www.wikipedia.comwww.enotes.com