FRAGMENTED SELVES, LIBERATED VOICES: RECLAIMING FEMALE IDENTITY THROUGH POSTMODERN FEMINIST NARRATIVES IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIAN FICTION

Abstract

This paper explores how postmodern feminist narratives in contemporary South Asian fiction reimagine and reclaim female identity by embracing fragmentation, multiplicity, and narrative subversion. In contrast to linear, patriarchal portrayals of womanhood that have historically dominated both colonial and nationalist literatures, postmodern feminist texts offer a dynamic space where women’s voices emerge through disjointed timelines, metafictional techniques, and hybrid cultural identities. Drawing on the works of authors such as Arundhati Roy, Kamila Shamsie, and Jhumpa Lahiri, the study argues that these narratives reject the demand for coherence or fixed identity, instead validating dislocation and contradiction as authentic modes of self-expression. The paper is grounded in postmodern feminist theory, particularly the writings of Judith Butler and Hélène Cixous, who challenge essentialist notions of gender and subjectivity. Through textual analysis, the research highlights how female protagonists in South Asian literature resist dominant norms not by presenting a unified self, but by embracing fragmentation as resistance. Ultimately, the paper contends that in the postcolonial and postmodern moment, liberation for women writers and characters alike lies not in resolution but in the freedom to remain fluid, contradictory, and defiantly incomplete.

Keywords: Postmodern feminism, South Asian fiction, female identity, narrative fragmentation, Judith Butler, Hélène Cixous, literary resistance