Female Protest And Assertion Of Self In Githa Hariharan’s –The Thousand Faces Of Night

The concept of self is a brooding concern for many modern women writers. Githa Hariharan, a postmodern feminist writer, voices the same concern in her first novel The Thousand Faces of Night. In the patriarchal system, the identity of woman is that which defines her relation to a male. Either she is a daughter, wife or his child’s mother. She does not have her own independent identity. Now, slowly women have begun to move towards self perception and self expression, not entirely against tradition but within  family binding. Hariharan’s The Thousand Faces of Night is a sensitive saga of women struggling to survive in a world of shattered dreams. It is a story of Devi, the protagonist and her desperate search for identity in the traditional Hindu society. Intermingled with Devi’s search is the search of Mayamma, the old caretaker
and Devi’s mother Sita.