India through eastern and western eyes: women's auto/biography in colonial and post-colonial India.

Abstract

During the course of my dissertation I demonstrate the way in which Anglo-Indian women writers of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century diverge from the genre of the "feminine picturesque" as explained by Sara Suleri in her book, The Rhetoric of English India. I look too, at what Indo-English women use as a genre, instead of the "feminine picturesque". I also apply Spivakean ideas on representation to their writing in order to see the similarities and differences between my primary texts and the theory. I begin my dissertation by explaining what Sara Suleri means by the "feminine picturesque" and how I intend using it to better understand the primary texts I look at. I also explain Spivak's ideas on representation and how I intend using them to further my appreciation of Anglo-Indian and Indo-English writing of this period. I conclude my thesis by discussing my findings with regard to the theorists looked at, and how their ideas have been reflected in the four principal texts I examined.