THE SHORT FICTION OF ANGELA CARTER MARGARET ATWOOD AND SUNITI NAMJOSHI

The book is a comparative study of the short stories of three contemporary women writers of different nationalities -Angela Carter Margaret Atwood and Suniti Namjoshi - both at the thematic level as well as narrative level focusing on the elements of feminism and fairytales in their short stories. These writers have reworked traditional fairy tale narratives to counter the destructive tendencies of patriarchal values and the prevailing male-female arrangements and present an alternative female paradigm by bringing women to the centre and erasing the margins. Focusing on women these writers attempt to shift them from object position to the subject position and in this way restore the displaced power of the muted half of humanity. They have attempted to emphasize that the old traditional myths about male and female no longer prevail and that the subject has been re-defined thus dismantling phallocentric structures. They question sexual politics challenging society's gender arrangements and attempt to dethrone the myth of femininity the construct of patriarchy and thus re-order the world.