Concept of Beauty in the Selected Works of Manjula Padmanabhan

Abstract

Manjula Padmanabhan, the Indian English Fiction writer is a self proclaimed feminist who sees beauty and all its associated notions as patriarchal concept. She is a prolific writer who has short stories, novels, plays, a travel memoir and cartoons to her credit. She tries to dismantle the stereotypical notions of feminine beauty through her subversive works. Her works be it fictional or non fictional attests to a notion of beauty which is all about self acceptance and self love. Her fictional works such as the short story “Urmila the Ultimate”, her dystopian novels Escape and The Island of Lost Girls and her travel memoir Getting There disapproves the existing notions of feminine beauty and projects a new alternative. The paper aims to probe the concept of beauty in Padmanabhan’s works. It aims to configure the author’s standpoint on concept such as feminine beauty and notions attached to beauty in the context of her fictional as well as non fictional work.  Issues such as body disfiguration, anorexia, body image are also tied to the idea of beauty and the paper aims to discuss these issues in the light of Padmanabhan’s works.