A Study on the Image of the Woman in the French Novels; Une si longue lettre and Le Voile de Draupadi

Abstract

Francophone women’s literature is an important area of study in world literature and women’s studies as it illustrates the role of women through literature. Francophone women writers mostly focus on the image of women represented in their literary texts. Among Francophone women writers, Mariama Bâ of Senegal and Ananda Devi of Mauritius are recognised as feminist writers. This research attempts to conduct an in-depth analysis of the two novels Une si longue lettre by Mariama Bâ and Le Voile de Draupadi by Ananda Devi. As the woman’s role in society is considered crucial today, this study attempts to investigate the research question on how women are being represented in the two novels. Accordingly, the main objectives of the study are to identify the conditions of women in the two respective Senegalese and Mauritian societies, and to explore how the female protagonists face problems within their respective societies, depicted in the two novels. The research is based on a literary and socio-psychological analysis of the two novels and the study of qualitative data collected by different sources and interviews. The study is conducted by focusing on the different themes that the two writers have developed based on their respective analysis of the woman’s condition in society. Accordingly, this study concludes that despite the cultural and social differences portrayed in the two societies, the position of women is rather tragic. Hence, this study explores the ways in which the two writers have striven to highlight the woman as the victim while revealing the key elements that contribute towards her victimisation such as marriage, culture, religion, motherhood, and fatalism. The study also portrays findings pertaining to the effective use of language in representing the image of the woman, which is a potential area for further research