Patriarchy and the Lacanian Symbolic: Condition of Women in Anita Desai's Fasting Feasting

Abstract Anita Desai’s Fasting, Feasting offers a compelling critique of patriarchal structures and cultural ideologies that shape individual subjectivities in both Indian and American societies. Through a psychoanalytic and feminist lens, this study examines how the novel portrays gender oppression, familial control, and cultural contradictions. The novel juxtaposes two worlds—India, where women are confined within rigid societal expectations, and the United States, where excessive individualism imposes its own forms of constraints. The protagonist Uma’s struggle against the oppressive Indian symbolic order, alongside Arun’s alienation in an unfamiliar American setting, highlights the universality of ideological conditioning. Using Lacanian theory, the analysis explores the symbolic as a repressive system that normalizes gender hierarchies and expectations. Fasting, Feasting ultimately exposes how cultural norms dictate human experiences across different geographies, reinforcing power structures that limit true freedom, particularly for women. Through her protagonist Uma, Desai urges readers to question the hidden mechanisms of power that shape identity, agency, and liberation in both patriarchal and consumerist societies.