Which are our novels that give us the sense of birth of a country? I find most such novels have women at the centre. Sometimes she is a 'fallen' woman (as in Umrao Jan), sometimes she is a slave (not just hidden behind purdah, but locked up in castles as well), or subservient in love. The oppressed woman frequently appears as a heroine in what appears to be a national allegory, to borrow Fredrick Jameso's term. When the novel and the country were born together, in India, the focus became the woman's freedom. The crucial texts are not those like Pariksha Guru which depict contemporary social reality directly, but those texts where truth and delusion coalesce, facts and desires get interwoven sometimes in dreams - and most of these happen to be love stories. These are imaginative creations, not imitations of some other model. Such novels have remained neglected by and large, because our approach has remained technical. We did not talk about the form of the content or the content of the form.
The identification of such neglected novels and tracing their trajectory can be a process of intellectual liberation for us. In this year 2000, seen by many as the beginning of a new millennium, we must start looking at the history of the novel in India in our own terms.
Based on the passage choose the statement that is correct:
Which of the following statements is true?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → What appears to be national symbol is the oppressed woman that frequently appears as a heroine
The passage says, "The oppressed woman frequently appears as a heroine in what appears to be a national allegory." An allegory is a story in which characters stand for larger ideas. In these novels the story stands for the nation, and the oppressed woman at its centre is the figure through whom the nation is represented, so she works as a national symbol.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: Heroines are not oppressed women — Incorrect. Contradicted: the passage says the reverse: the heroine is frequently the oppressed woman - fallen, enslaved or subservient in love.
Option 3: The oppressed woman rarely appears as a heroine in such novels — Incorrect. Contradicted: the passage says the oppressed woman frequently appears as a heroine, and that most such novels have women at the centre.
Option 4: In Fredrick Jameson's term, what appears to be a national allegory is a heroine who is not oppressed — Incorrect. Contradicted: the heroine of such a novel is oppressed.