Contextualizing New Woman in Manju Kapur’s Custody

Abstract

New woman is a concept which addresses and accentuates women’s capabilities and struggle in patriarchal society. The term is referred to women who exercise control over their own lives in personal, social and economic matters, and pursue their own desires. The concept as a consciousness emerges due to social and cultural changes, rise of urban centers, increased immigration, industrialization, growing influence of consumer culture and changes in the structure of labour force. The concept appeared in late Victorian fiction with the intention to focus on women and about woman from the standpoint of woman. Chiefly New Woman expresses their dissatisfaction with contemporary position of women in marriage and society. Manju Kapur’s Custody registers significant aspects of new woman i.e destigmatizing infertility in the novel. She presents this as newness in woman in her thinking and to lift the social disparity between men and women. The paper attempts to explore the concept of new woman and theoretically to understand ‘home space’ and ‘public space’ of woman that kills and diminishes the status and position of woman in a traditional Hindu society.