Conflict and Dialectical Relation Paving the Way for Women’s Emancipation: A Reading of Ashapurna Devi’s Satyabati Trilogy

Abstract

Human society is always in a flux; it has always been a space for construction, deconstruction and reconstruction. Every human being, being indispensable part of that society, is never out of that process and takes part in the formation of a new and develop ed entity of the society. For a drastic change, society must undergo a long process and in that process conflict and dialectical relation (between individual and society, individual and individual, individual and self) contribute equal share. Ashapurna Devi and her works formed “a silent resistance” (Datta 9) and in her Satyabati Trilogy, depicting the story of three generations of women, she focused on how a woman created larger space for the women. Colonial and postcolonial Bengal witnessed many forms of dialectical relation, one of them is between radical thinking and conservative ideas, and the growing consciousness played the role of a catalyst. This paper endeavours to analyze how conflict and dialectical relation paved the way for women’s emancipation.