Abstract
Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters (1998) intuitively appears to be a highly lucid and readable novel but this intuition needs to be verified on the basis of somewhat objectively verifiable criteria. This paper attempts to explore several factors, including the range of transcreation or Indianization, responsible for the novel’s high readability and lucidity. It examines the use of code-switching and code-mixing devices, and also explores the stylistic charm of this novel by evaluating the views of scholars like Genette (1972) and Leech and Short (1987).
Keywords: Indian Writing in English, Indianisation, code-switching, code-mixing, readability, Difficult Daughters, Manju Kapur
Indianisation of English in IWE
McCutchion (1969:10), a very important and old critic of IWE remarks about the use of the English language: “The fascination of Indian Writing in English lies … in the phenomenon … of literary creativity in a language other than the surrounding mother tongue.” Raja Rao (1938:5) also talks about the idea of Indianisation in the preface to his novel Kanthapura: “English is not really an alien language to us. It is the language of our intellectual make-up — like Sanskrit or Persian was before — … We are all instinctively bilingual, many of us in our own language and in English. We cannot write like the English. We should not. We can only write as Indians.”
Code-Switching and Code-Mixing
Manju Kapur’s novel is full of instances of Indianisation of vocabulary, loan translation, use of repetition and linguistic creativity. She voices her joys and hopes by using colourful words of colloquial Punjabi and creates a wonderful cultural context for her novel. Her use of Hindi/Punjabi words represents a vast area of experiences — food (dahi, chutney, dal, pakora, paneer, lassi, malai, puris, atta), place (dharamshala, aangan, gully, ghat, zenana aangan, kothi), profession (chowkidar, bania, munshi, dhobi, pundit), events (shaddi, chauth, uthala), relations (bade pitaji, baoji, bhai, bhenji, maji, chachi, beta, masi, bua), dress (dhoti, dupatta, kurta, kameez, pyjama), and utensils (karahi, katori, thali, patila).
Kapur extends the use of code-mixing to phrases and sentences, such as “puris and parathas wrapped in Britannia-bread waxed paper” (p. 2), “aalu ki sabzi in mithai boxes” (p. 2), and “They … skirted the zenana aangan” (p. 180).
Narrative Technique
A high lucidity of Difficult Daughters is also caused by the narrative technique used in the text. The major part of the story is told by the author herself as a ‘heterodiegetic’ narrator (Genette, 1972:255-6). Only a very small part is narrated by Ida, Virmati’s daughter, who is a ‘homodiegetic’ narrator. Ida starts narrating the tale with a very cryptic statement: “The one thing I had wanted was not to be like my mother” (p. 1). The novel appears to form a complete circle and this circularity gives a direction, continuity and speed to readers.
Verisimilitude and Credibility
A close analysis of the novel reveals that realism also promotes a high degree of reliability, and realism, to a large extent, is realized in ‘verisimilitude’ and ‘credibility.’ The novel is full of instances where readers get the impression of being participants or observers themselves. Kasturi’s belief that “it is the duty of every girl to get married” (p. 13) lends credibility to the novel because the same belief was a part of Indian consciousness till some years ago.
Works Cited
- Bala, S and Chandra, Subhash. “Manju Kapur’s Difficult Daughters: An Absorbing Tale of Fact and Fiction.” In R. K. Dhawan (ed), 50 Years of Indian Writing. New Delhi: Indian Association for English Studies, 1999.
- Bandyopadhyay, Sumana. Indianisation of English: Analysis of Linguistic Features in Selected Post-1980 Indian English Fiction. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Kanpur: Indian Institute of English, 2007.
- Cassirer, Ernest. An Essay on Man. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1944.
- Genette, G. Figures III. Paris: Seuil, 1972.
- Kapur, Manju. Difficult Daughters. New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 1998.
- Leech, G. and Short, M. Style in Fiction. London: Longman, 1987.
- McCutchion, David. Indian Writing in English: A Collection of Critical Essays. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1969.
- Quirk, R. The Indian Language and Images of Matter. London: Oxford University Press, 1972.
- Rao, Raja. Kanthapura. New Delhi: Orient Longmans, 1938. Reprinted 2001.
- Rollason, C. “Indian Writing in English: Some Language Issues and Translation Problem.” JSL, Vol. 9 (Spring), 2008, pp. 20-39.
- Roy, M. “Readability of Difficult Daughters.” The Commonwealth Review, Vol. 12(1), 2001, pp. 62-69.
- Sarangi, Jaydeep. Indian Novels in English: A Sociolinguistic Study. Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot, 2005.