Negotiating Silence: A Comparative Study of Female Agency in Shashi Deshpande's That Long Silence and Anita Desai's Fasting, Feasting

Silence often functions as a nuanced metaphor in literature, encapsulating themes of suppression, resilience, and resistance. In Shashi Deshpande's That Long Silence and Anita Desai's Fasting, Feasting, silence emerges as a central motif that shapes the protagonists' lives within patriarchal frameworks. This paper explores how silence is used to reflect and negotiate female agency in these two novels. Deshpande’s Jaya and Desai’s Uma, though different in their socio-cultural contexts, grapple with similar struggles of identity and autonomy. Jaya’s imposed silence in marriage and Uma’s enforced silence in a patriarchal household underscore how silence perpetuates gender inequality. However, both authors also depict silence as a space for introspection and a subtle form of defiance. Through a comparative analysis, this paper examines how the interplay between silence and voice is integral to the characters' journeys toward self-realization. Drawing from feminist literary theory and cultural criticism, it investigates the layered role of silence as both a tool of oppression and a strategy for survival. Ultimately, the study reveals how silence is repurposed by the protagonists to assert their agency and resist patriarchal constraints.