Paper Details

Name: Abhishek Yadav
Country: India

Year: 2023
Volume: Volume-10, Issue-2 (July-December)
Page Number: 80-89

ABSTRACT
This study explores the politics of precarity and the representation of resistance and resilience
in the works of Anita Nair and Anuradha Marwah, focusing on how their divergent narrative
strategies contribute to Indian feminist literary discourse. Drawing on theoretical frameworks
of precarity articulated by Judith Butler, Guy Standing, and Isabell Lorey, the research
examines how vulnerability operates not only as a thematic concern but also as an aesthetic
practice embedded in form, tone, and style. Through a comparative analysis of Nair’s Ladies
Coupé (2001), Mistress (2005), and Eating Wasps (2018), alongside Marwah’s The Higher
Education of Geetika Mehendiratta (1993) and Dirty Picture (1998), the study demonstrates
that Nair foregrounds affective realism to elicit empathy and intimate engagement, while
Marwah employs political satire to critique systemic oppression and institutionalized
inequalities. Resistance in Nair’s fiction emerges as subtle and inward, whereas Marwah’s is
overt and political, yet both converge in portraying resilience as a transformative force
bridging vulnerability with empowerment. By situating these texts within the socio-cultural
context of gender, caste, class, and neoliberalism in India, the study underscores literature as
a critical site where precarity is both lived and artistically represented. Ultimately, the
research extends global theories of precarity into the terrain of Indian feminist fiction while
highlighting the broader relevance of Nair and Marwah’s works for understanding women’s
struggles in contemporary India.
Keywords: Precarity; Resistance; Resilience; Feminist Aesthetics; Narrative Strategies;
Anita Nair; Anuradha Marwah; Indian English Literature; Realism; Satire