Feminism across Cultures (A Comparative Study of Habba Khatoon and Emily Bronte)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The very title of the present book Intimates the areas of my basic interest, expression, feminism, and comparative study. Without having training in lyrical poetry or any specialization in the technicalities of music, I feel transported by ecstasy when I have the opportunity to enjoy listening or reading lyrical poetry, particularly the one which is rich in mystic suggestions. Linguistic differences are no barrier in this enterprise because, I agree with the universally accepted principal of music that it has one language that obtains in different dialects. Nevertheless, Kashmiri music, and the romantic songs of Habba Khatoon, have had a deep influence in shaping my consciousness; I always cherish the music in my leisurely hours.

It was only of late that I got interested in various movements of Feminism which aim at ending the centuries' old subjugation, exploitations and marginalization of women. I read, as far as I could the basic literature in the field and grew a passion to do some in depth study in any specific field of Feminism. The poetry of Kashmiri poet Habba Khatoon of the 16th century and that of English poet Emily Bronte of the 19th century facilitated my work in this regard. The two poets, in spite of the difference of language, culture and age, have many striking similarities in giving lyrical expression to feminism.

DR. ASMA SHAW (b.1974), is a senior Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Islamia College of Science and Commerce, Srinagar (J&K), India. Her brilliant performance at the post- graduate level fetched her a "University Gold Medal", which was an extention of her equally bright performance at the under-graduate level. She was adjudged "Best Graduate of the Year, 1997" and bagged "University Gold Medal' and "Dr. Zakir Hussain Gold Medal" for her meritorious performance. Deservingly enough, she has won a merit scholarship as a student of Department of English, University of Kashmir. She later did her Ph.D from University of Jammu with a specialisation in Comparative Literature.

Dr Asma has many research publications to her credit in UGC approved national and international journals. She has participated and presented a paper in 2nd World Conference on Women's Studies held at Universita Roma Tre, Rome, Italy in 2016.

She recently presented a paper in 4th World Conference on Women's Studies, held in New York city, USA organized by World Center for Women's Studies, titled, "Stopping Violence Against Women and Promoting Dignity of Women: India the Stakeholder "in Nov, 2018.

She is a life time member of International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA).

In accordance with the theory and practice of comparative literature, any two poets of any two different cultures, nations, ages and languages can be studied in terms of their themes and styles. Hence the two poets, Habba Khatoon from 16th century Kashmir and Emily Bronte from the 19th century England are selected for a comparative study. The justification for the study, besides the theory and practice of comparative literature, was that the two poets of the past were two prominent women poets of two remotely related Indo-European languages, Kashmiri and English. The two woman poets, in spite of the differences of culture, language and ethical mores represented the aspirations of women in the two feudal societies governed by patriarchal norms.

Like other forms of creative art, poetry is an important and integral part of man's collective behaviour. Though poetry and other forms of creative literature are essentially such human products that are to be read and enjoyed at the individual level, but emergence of literary appreciation or literary criticism as a distinct discipline of knowledge has made syncretism necessary to includes gains from all spheres of knowledge, particularly humanities, like psychology. religion, ethics, aesthetics, sociology, history, linguistics, anthropology, and philosophy. A poet is at the same time a product of his/her milieu, moment and race. In the light of the views of various theorists and practitioners, in the field, like Rene Wellek and Austin Warren, for instance, the chapter shows how comparative literature is inevitably cross-cultural in nature. It is maintained that literature in any language in an era is influenced by other literature of other languages that have had or are having cultural contact with the language and culture of a particular nation. It flourishes and is energized only when it accepts influence from all direction.

**Contents and Sample Pages**