From Shadows to Spotlight: Women’s Liberation in Literary Narratives

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Author: Dr. Poonam Chouhan

Keywords: Women’s Empowerment, Feminist Literary Criticism, Gender Representation, Female Agency, Intersectionality, Women in Literature, Patriarchy and Resistance.

Abstract: Women’s empowerment is quite often presented through its spiritual evolution in English literature, representative of changing times and feminist movements. In which, we will follow the progress of female characters from passive marginal to independent self-determined protagonists, using key texts from historical periods. The women in such patriarchal literature were often starkly obedient and dependent on men or under domestic control. However, minority literature has been a very strong instrument in feminist thought at that time. This article examines how the portrayal of women in literature first began to change through medieval and Renaissance texts that had women largely fulfilling archetypal roles. In the 18th and 19th centuries, when the novel began to rise, female protagonists tried to exert autonomy; think Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, or George Eliot. Modernism brought a deeper understanding of the psyche with women's stories confronting issues of gender inequality and personal identity through the words of writers like Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath. Feminist discourse was further developed in postmodern and contemporary literature, which considered intersectionality and the nuances of race, class and sexuality through the works of Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. This article introduces a perspective of feminist literary criticism to analyze the various ways literature has contributed to discursive constructions that favor gender equity. The evolution of traditional roles, women’s independence, and dystopian feminism are central topics to describe the powerful role of storytelling in reshaping perceptions and attitudes in the war of women’s liberation. The specific paper concludes by suggesting that literature has not only mediated changes in gender representation throughout history but has been an active partner in rethinking gender roles. A tool for resistance, empowerment, and the constant struggle for gender justice, literature remains essential as contemporary writers push boundaries to challenge these new socio-political realities.

Article Info: Received on: 28 Apr 2025 Revised on: 22 May 2025 Accepted on: 26 May 2025 Published on: 01 Jun 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijeel.4.3.7

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