Clear Light Of Day Research Articles

Female Identity, Gender and Politics in Partition Novels: A Comparative Study of Ice Candy Man and Clear Light of Day

The division of India and the formation of a new nation Pakistan has had a transformative impact on the whole subcontinent. The partition resulted in widespread violence that not only posed a challenge to the nation's identity but also had a profound impact on the identity of women, regardless of their cultural or religious backgrounds. Women, who are seen as the pride of the family, particularly in Asian nations such as India, are subjected to oppression and derogation in the name of religious, social, and cultural traditions. They are treated as commodities and objects of entertainment by men. The partition has had a profound impact on both the collective mindset of the people and their social interactions. Throughout history, women have consistently experienced subjugation under patriarchal dominance, and this was most evident during the split. The treatment of women during partition exemplifies the treatment of women as a distinct social group on the Indian subcontinent. The partition of the Indian subcontinent had a profound impact on the lives of women, causing significant trauma. Amidst the tumultuous period of partition, certain famous authors such as Bapsi Sidwa and Anita Desai have drawn parallels between the bloodshed that transpired and the brutality inflicted upon women. The violence was of such magnitude that certain dads resorted to the act of killing their own daughters. Women were killed in the pursuit of preserving their family's reputation. Writers such as Bapsi Sidwa and Anita Desai aimed to contribute to the process of restructuring and rewriting the status of women in their works "Ice Candy Man" and "Clear Light of the Day," respectively. The objective of my research paper is to assess the extent to which they have achieved success in this endeavor. In this paper, I have conducted a thorough analysis of the female characters in both novels who have endured the atrocities of division. I will examine how these characters navigated the realms of politics and patriarchy.

The Perspective of Woman in Anita Desai's Novel Clear Light of Day

Anita Desai is a well-known writer in India. Her writings are influenced by the Indian world as well as European literary traditions. In the majority of her works, she is primarily concerned with Indian women. Anita Desai has a feminist vision that explores women's struggles against patriarchal oppression. She is distinct from other female writers in that she stresses personal redemption and inspiration. This research discusses how women struggle secretly and seek liberation in Desai's well-known novel Clear Light of Day (1980). This research focuses on Bimla, the protagonist in Desai's novel, who strives to overcome patriarchal obstacles in her search for independence, voice, and identity. The novel explores women's plight in India for a long time before and after independence in 1947, also how India's partition from Pakistan influenced both the nation and individuals. Desai concentrates chiefly on the women of the Das household, and the choices of the different female characters have in life.

Locational Evocational and Emotional Topography in Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain, Clear Light of Day and Cry, the Peacock

The nature with all its phenomena governs the whole universe and it is a principal source for civilization to exist on this planet. This whole natural system cannot be controlled or governed by man. Though, being free gifts of nature, human beings stated misusing these resources for their personal gain and desires. As a result, natural resources are being degraded and gradually fading away the natural setting with the concern of the universal threats revolving around us.
 India is blessed with the wide range of natural resources, beginning from the Himalaya Regions to the dynamics of Sunderbans and the dry land-desert in Rajasthan. With the passing of time, these natural resources are harmed by population, pollution and other avarices of humankind. Now the writers come out with the global concerns for the degradation and depletion of nature and environmental landscapes. During the post- colonial era, Anita Desai is a leading Indian author in English who construct nature in their works. She remarkably writes on those aspects which she has observed. She succeeds in capturing and delineating the spirit of surroundings, places and social values. Nature has been known to reflect the inner state of human mind more than ever, either through as it is in its immediateness or by its phenomenal happenings like drizzle or heavy downpour. Griffin rightly interprets on it in her book, ‘Woman and Nature: Roaring Inside Her’, that
 
 “I know am made from the earth, as my mother’s hands were made
 from this earth, as her dreams came from this earth… you… are earth
 too, and listen as we speak to each other of what we know, the light is in us.”
 (Griffin 227)
 
 Based on this aspect Anita Desai’s masterpieces Fire on the Mountains and Clear Light of Day portray a beautiful significance of nature in every aspect of human nature. Set in the natural backdrop of Kasauli and Delhi respectively, these two novels aptly portray not only the isolation and loneliness haunting the human mind but also specifically demonstrates the passage of time in the life of people, connected by blood and the ups and downs in their relations, signified by their immediate surroundings and it's protection by Carson.

The Perspective of Woman in Anita Desai's Novel Clear Light of Day

Anita Desai is a well-known writer in India. Her writings are influenced by the Indian world as well as European literary traditions. In the majority of her works, she is primarily concerned with Indian women. Anita Desai has a feminist vision that explores women's struggles against patriarchal oppression. She is distinct from other female writers in that she stresses personal redemption and inspiration. This research discusses how women struggle secretly and seek liberation in Desai's well-known novel Clear Light of Day (1980). This research focuses on Bimla, the protagonist in Desai's novel, who strives to overcome patriarchal obstacles in her search for independence, voice, and identity. The novel explores women's plight in India for a long time before and after independence in 1947, also how India's partition from Pakistan influenced both the nation and individuals. Desai concentrates chiefly on the women of the Das household, and the choices of the different female characters have in life. The fundamental aim of this research is to shed light on a woman's perspective in Indian culture. Woman in the East and India resides in unique sociological, political, and cultural circumstances. These circumstances have an essential impact on her future, identity, and personality.

The Influence of the Partition on the Indian Family in Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day

Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day (1980) is a partition novel which depicts the influence of the Partition between India and Pakistan on the unity of the Indian family. In 1947, India witnessed a civil war which led to partitioning it into two countries along religious lines. These events coincided with the end of the British rule in India. As a result of that, the Indian individual started questioning his real identity. During the period (1947-1970), India witnessed dramatic social, political, economic changes and transformations In her sixth novel Clear Light of Day, Anita Desai studies the impact of the Partition on the country and on the personal lives of the Indian individuals. The novel is precisely a depiction of family disintegration which parallels the disintegration of India under the Partition circumstances. The aim of the study is to investigate the influence of the Partition on the Indian families which survive the civil wars between the Hindus and the Muslims. Also the study tackles the role of women in the Indian society and the influence of the western principles on them.

Maya’s Materialistic Longings Resulting in Alienation and Frustration: A Feminist Reading of Anita Desai’s Cry, the Peacock

Anita Mazumdar Desai occupies a much privileged place in the Indian Writing in English. She is known as an acclaimed Indian woman novelist who deals with the psychological problems of her women characters. She was born in 24 June 1937 in Mussoorie. Her father D.N. Majumdar was a Bengali businessman and her mother Toni Nime was a German immigrant. Anita Desai is working as Emeritus John E. Buchard Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anita Desai got a congenial environment to learn different languages in her own home and neighbourhood. She learnt Hindi from her neighbourhood. They used to speak German, Bengali, Urdu and English at their home. She learnt English at her school. She attended Queens Mary Higher Senior Secondary School in Delhi and she did her B.A. in 1957 from the Miranda House of the University of Delhi. So far is Anita Desai literary career is concerned, she wrote her first novel Cry, the Peacock in 1963. With the help of P. Lal, they founded the publishing firm Writers Workshop. Clear Light of Day (1980) is her most autobiographical work. Her novel In Custody was enlisted for the Booker Prize. She became a creative writing teacher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993. When she published her novel Fasting Feasting and it won the Booker Prize in 1999, she came to the limelight. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize three times in 1980, 1984 and 1999 for her novels Clear Light of Day (1980), In Custody (1984) and Fasting Feasting (1999) respectively. She received Padma Bhushan in 2014 also. She has received Sahitya Akademi Award in 1937 for her well-known novel Fire on the Mountain. The present paper analyses the central female protagonist Maya’s materialistic pursuits which turn in a great catastrophe for her in the novel Cry, the Peacock.

Burrowing a way: Plato’s cave and the labyrinth of creation

Plato’s simile of the cave has for over two millennia been the model for a particular understanding of the limitated nature of human knowledge. Castoriadis’s understanding of human knowledge differs from Plato’s in that the artificiality of knowledge, and by extension of culture and society in general, is seen not as a barrier to true knowledge but as a necessary precondition for any knowledge whatsoever. Plato dreams of leaving the cave and encountering the world in the clear light of day; Castoriadis contends that the labyrinth of human creation is our only means of encountering the real. Plato tries to use philosophy to design a way out of the traps humans find themselves in, traps they build for themselves. Castoriadis seeks no such escape and believes that to make such an ultimate escape the business of philosophy or politics is misguided, if not dangerous.

“WORLD of TWONESS”: Anita Desi's CLEAR LIGHT OF Day

“WORLD of TWONESS”: Anita Desi's CLEAR LIGHT OF Day

Memory and Fantasy in Anita Desai's-Fire on the Mountain and Clear Light of Day

Memory and Fantasy in Anita Desai's-Fire on the Mountain and Clear Light of Day

Bondage of Time and Human Bondage in Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day

Bondage of Time and Human Bondage in Anita Desai's Clear Light of Day

Reading Urdu, Writing Home: Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day

Reading Urdu, Writing Home: Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day

Effects of Continental Clouds on Surface Aitken and Accumulation Modes

AbstractRelationships between clouds and surface aerosol are investigated at the Oklahoma Atmospheric Radiation Measurements Southern Great Plains site. Cloud chemical transformations, coalescence, and Brownian capture increase material within cloud droplets. Then when cloud droplets evaporate, as they often do, their residuals are larger than unnucleated particles. This creates a bimodal particle size distribution by moving some Aitken mode (25‐ to 100‐nm diameter) particles to the accumulation mode (100‐ to 825‐nm diameter). Clouds also block solar radiation that causes photochemical reactions that produce small particles that grow by coagulation and condensation into the Aitken mode. Highly significant positive correlations of remotely sensed cloud fraction (cf) with time‐lagged Aitken and accumulation mode mean particle diameter (mpd) isolated the effects of cloud processing on both modes. Positive correlations of cf with accumulation concentrations and negative correlations of cf with Aitken concentrations also provided evidence of cloud processing. Photochemical production of very small particles under clear daylight skies worked together with cloud processing to enhance Aitken mpd and concentration correlations with cf. Cloud‐processed aerosol was evident only during daylight and when the boundary layer mixing height exceeded the remotely sensed cloud base altitude. Greater cf, especially consecutive high cf hours increased accumulation and Aitken mpd and accumulation concentrations while it decreased Aitken concentrations. Lower cf, especially consecutive hours of no clouds, decreased overall mpd and did not enhance the accumulation mode. All of these results implicated clouds as a source of the accumulation mode, and thus, clouds seemed to explain bimodal aerosol over the mid‐North American continent.

The Effect of Light Projections for Wayfinding Purposes within an Airport Context

An airport can be a stressful place for passengers. One of the reasons to get stressed might be the result of poor wayfinding. Current wayfinding signs are often static, which makes them difficult to adapt to new situations. In contrast, dynamic signs can be updated and adjusted accordingly. Light projections can be used as dynamic signs. The aim of this study is to understand if the use of animated projections onto the floor can improve the wayfinding experience. Four animations have been developed and tested within a controlled testing environment of which one animation has been tested in a real airport environment. Results indicate that animation for wayfinding purposes should show a clear vertical motion to guide towards a certain direction. Additionally, higher velocity in the animation was perceived as more positive. The observation in the airport showed that a projection in clear daylight and on the floor is not noticed by the passengers walking by.

Bim- A Female Beyond the Average Indian Womanhood in Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day

Bim (Bimala) is the protagonist of Anita Desai’s novel Clear Light of Day . Unlike the general Indian womenfolk, she is contemplative about her position and dares to fight against the traditional norms regarding females in Indian society. In doing so, she is not bothered about the consequences. Bim is highly sensitive and intelligent and endeavours to discover a relief from the sufferings created by the accepted notions of the society about women. In a sense, Bim is a feminist and somebody who surpasses the average Indian womanhood. This paper aims at examining the ways which make Bim a distinguished female character unmatched by most of her contemporaries in the society in which she lives. Keywords: Traditional, norms, Indian society, feminist and womanhood. DOI : 10.7176/JLLL/56-03 Publication date :May 31 st 2019

Motherhood beyond biology: Two Indian women writers’ fictions of non-biological motherhood

In India, the feminist theorization of motherhood is a relatively new concern that has emerged in the last decade. Indian feminists such as Jasodhara Bagchi and Maithreyi Krishnaraj have repeatedly lambasted the societal obsession with biological motherhood, which chimes with dominant social mores around “sacrosanct” marriage. However, despite the rise of scholarly interest in maternal matters over the last decade, the issue of non-biological mothering is one area that has received little scrutiny (in the social sciences) and almost no critical attention (in literary studies). My article addresses this lacuna, aiming to explore the maternal beyond biology by focusing on the portrayals of non-biological mothering by two ostensibly “childless” women in Anita Desai’s novel Clear Light of Day (1980) and one in Nandita Bagchi’s short story “Bilkisu Becomes a Mother” (1999). Amid many forms of non-biological mothering, I choose to concentrate on the literary ramifications of two modes — informal mothering by female kin and delegated caring labour by nannies — which lie outside the dominant paradigm of motherhood. My concern here is to exploit the subversive potential of literary texts in order to disrupt the popular polarities of mother and non-mother. I argue that these works of fictions create an eclectic definition of motherhood while suggesting that a latent tension of acceding to conventional feminine roles nonetheless exists in the texts.

Representation of Postcolonial Indian Women: Bimla and Nanda Kaul in Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day and Fire on the Mountain

Patriarchal societies in many respects, as history witnesses, sideline women and consider them inferior to men. In these societies, men treat women as servants and use tools of patriarchy to silence their voices, although they contribute equally, and sometimes more substantially, to the development of a nation where their contributions are not duly acknowledged. In postcolonial Indian society, women are regarded as mere “objects” and “others.” As a leading figure of the twentieth century Indo-Anglican fiction, Anita Desai holds a vision of feminism that addresses the confrontation of women against patriarchal oppression. In most of her novels, middle-class women in contemporary India strive to overcome societal limitations imposed by patriarchy. Desai differs from other feminists as she emphasizes individual salvation through self-exploration and motivation. This article is an attempt to discover how women suffer silently and look for freedom in Desai’s famous novels Clear Light of Day and Fire on the Mountain. The article highlights two of her leading characters, Bimla and Nanda Kaul, who struggle to conquer the challenges of patriarchy, and seek freedom, identity, voice and dignity.

Exploring Enigmatic Realities in Anita Desai’s <i>Clear Light of Day</i>

In each and every era, there arises a common search for the purpose of one’s life and its predicaments. As William Shakespeare has rendered his answer for this interrogation, this world is a stage and all the mortal players are experiencing their own entrances and exits1. The writings of numerous writers have revolved around this motif. Anita Desai is one such novelist whose novel, Clear Light of Day (1980) exuberates the normal life of human beings, particularly it webs with the intricacies of female characters and their psychological perspectives. The enigmatic realities of time and the darkness and clear light are metaphorically picturized in the novel and it focuses on the exigency of uniqueness, compassion and temperance in human lifestyle.

Negotiating Gender, Memory, and History in Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day

Abstract Anita Desai’s novel Clear Light of Day, published 33 years after the Indian subcontinent’s Partition, lays its focus on markedly ‘female’ experiences of Partition, wherein the importance of national history is negotiated within the framework of gendered family history. What role such familial (social) memories play within the larger canon of ‘Partition narratives’ will be analyzed exemplarily through the novel in this paper. Looking at the way the family house is depicted in Clear Light of Day is important to mark out its chronotopic value, i.e. the house contains as well as evokes spatial memories and triggers the mnemonic processes of the female protagonists that eventually facilitate the overcoming of past conflicts. Finally, the narrative technique of internal focalization, repeatedly deployed in the novel, will be scrutinized in order to reveal the inner turmoils and the personal (traumatic) experiences of the female protagonists.

Partition in the Private Sphere: Family Narratives as Vehicles for the Trauma of National History in Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day and Irina Liebmann’s Die freien Frauen

This article probes the allegorical potential of Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day (1980) and Irina Liebmann’s Die freien Frauen (2004), two family narratives which are set in the contexts of Indian/Pakistani and East/West German partition respectively. By appropriating Frederic Jameson’s contested concept of the ‘national allegory’ as a tool that is useful beyond his limited notion of its exclusive applicability to ‘Third World Literature’, I argue that both the Indian and the German text complicate a clear demarcation of private and public spheres. An examination of three themes shared by both novels – the breakdown of communication, the significance assigned to space, and the interplay of personal and collective memory – reveals the intensely political subtext of two narratives that have mostly been considered subjective, gendered explorations of familial past. Situated in this comparative approach, Clear Light of Day and Die freien Frauen mutually highlight the ways in which each text resists a generalising, official version of history and prove their relevance within the discussion of partition literature.

Representing the Unrepresentable in Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day

This article looks closely at Anita Desai’s Clear Light of Day from the critical perspective of trauma studies with a particular focus on the representational crisis posed by individual and collective catastrophic events. It positions the novel within the category of partition fiction so as to enable a contextual reading—one that takes the literary-historical milieu as well as the evolution of the genre into consideration. Such positioning makes comparison and cross-referencing between texts possible. Any traumatic event causes a mnemonic gap in the individual victim’s consciousness and a politically motivated suppression of memory on the level of the collective. This problematizes its representation in the realistic mode, and partition novelists, especially from the 1980s and onwards, have resorted to indirect means to represent this massive disruption of social cohesion in the subcontinental history. Anita Desai, for example, uses the motifs of sibling rivalry and fragility of social relationships to imply the antagonism between India and Pakistan as well as Hindus and Muslims. Clear Light of Day gives its audience a localized view of history in the sense that it illustrates the profound consequences of the Partition on the members of the Das family. This article has attempted to explore how this localized view through indirect means of representation may yield insights into the intersecting points of public and private traumas and their recovery.