Planting Seeds in Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve

Bibliographic Data

ID12145406
AuthorsBeth Zeleny (Park University, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume17
Issue1
Pages21-35
Publication date1997-09-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0887-3631 • E-ISSN: 1940-6320
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08873639709478328
OpenAlexW2074265760
LanguageEN
References cited15

To date, little theoretical and methodological research has been published in the field of literary geography. This paper shows that literary and feminist theories facilitate the geographical interpretation of woman/land experience, through analysis of landscape description and symbolization. South Asian novelist Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve describes a rural Indian village landscape wherein the female protagonist resists and then is reconciled to change in her environment. Analysis of Markandaya's created landscape reveals her affection for traditional rural life, as well as her belief that women enjoy harmonious, intimate relationships with their physical surroundings. Further, Markandaya conveys her post-Partition political ideology that conservative-national Indian women who challenge modernization will maintain order in a chaotic social milieu. Markandaya communicates these ideas by creating a pastoral landscape, and by braiding images of “seed” and “woman.”

Aesthetics · Affection · Art · Epistemology · Geography · Ideology · Interpretation (philosophy · Modernization theory · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies · Law · Philosophy

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