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The IUP Journal of English Studies

Transgression of Gendered Spaces in Attia Hosain's Sunlight on a Broken Column: Towards Construction of Female Agency

Article Details

Pub. Date	: June, 2023
Product Name	: The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type	: Article
Product Code	: IJES050623
Author Name	: Sana Asif and Sukhdev Singh
Availability	: YES
Subject/Domain	: Arts & Humanities
Download Format	: PDF Format
No. of Pages	: 13

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Abstract

The objective of this paper is to delineate the gendering of geographical space in Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961) by Attia Hosain and establish that through continuous violence and repeated transgressions of gendered spaces, agency can be built up. It is only through having an agency can women truly own the spaces they occupy.

Introduction

With the renewed interest in the field of Spatial Studies by Henry Lefebvre, Bill Richardson and Robert T Tally Jr. and the emergence of the study of Feminist Geography after the publication of the works of Doreen Massey, Linda McDowell and Gillian Rose, there is a development in the current scholarship of feminist spatial studies in the literature. This paper establishes how the spaces in the novel Sunlight on a Broken Column (1961) by Attia Hosain are gendered and interlinked with the lack of agency in female characters. Some characters like Laila and Nandi build their agency by transgressing gendered spaces repeatedly, which leads to the building up of their agency.