| ISSN: 2583-3812 | ISSN: 2583-3812JOURNAL ARTICLE
Keywords: Shashi Deshpande, Search for Identity, Psychological Realism, Feminist Criticism, Silence, Domesticity, Self-Building, Indian English Fiction.
Abstract: This paper explores the struggles and identity searches of female characters in the novels of Shashi Deshpande, one of the brightest modern authors writing in Indian English literature. Through the analysis of her significant works, such as That Long Silence, Roots and Shadows, and The Binding Vine, the study also considers The Dark Holds No Terrors and Small Remedies, making a total of five selected novels. The focus will be on how Deshpande represents the concept of the inner psyche and the silent sufferings that the middle-class female characters must endure as they juggle the societal pressures and the power of choice. The research is based on a qualitative approach based on feminist literary criticism and psychological realism, and deals with the chasm of tradition and modernity through which these characters are moving. Those results show that the home space and the meaning of the so-called long silence, which at first were the means of patriarchy's subjection, are transformed into a noetic space that enables an odyssey of self-Bildung and self-epiphanies. The focus on minutiae of everyday life, highlighted by Deshpande, reflects an arena of critical reclamation and empowerment through which women can create little individual spaces of resistance and move out of passive subjectivity onto the offensive agency. In conclusion, the discussion confirms that Deshpande made a contribution in shedding light in the depth of the psychologicality and the lifelong search of selfhood in a society bound by tradition.
Article Info: Received: 18 Feb 2026; Received in revised form: 16 Mar 2026; Accepted: 20 Mar 2026; Available online: 24 Mar 2026
DOI: 10.22161/ijeel.5.2.7
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