Bapsi Sidhwa’s Novel Ice-Candy-Man: A Feminist Perspective

Abstract

Bapsi Sidhwa (b. 1938) is a Pakistani novelist of Parsi descent who writes in English. Bapsi Sidhwa is beyond doubt one of the best contemporary novelists writing in English. Her novel Ice-Candy-Man (1991) earned her international acclaim and acceptance as one of the most promising English novelists from South Asia. Ice-Candy- Man is a tale of bloody Partition of India. “The novel offers a significant treatment of a gynocentric view of reality in which the feminine psyche and experiences are presented with a unique insight.”1 “The novel highlights feminist concerns about women’s issues, particularly their experience of victimization and suppression within patriarchal society and how the suppression takes a brutal form in the face of national upheaval.”2 The paper aims to analyze Ice-Candy-Man as a feminist text highlighting the marginalization of women in the patriarchal society and their resistance against the absurd gender discrimination.