தமழ மறறம மலயளப பதனஙகளல சமகச சநதன / Social Thought in Tamil and Malayalam Novels

This paper employs a comparative literary analysis of the representations of gendered oppression in K.V. Shailaja's “Kathai Ketkum Suvarkal” a translated Tamil novel from Sabu Kilithattil's Malayalam work “Nilaachoru” and Vairamuthu's “Karuvachchi Kaviyam”. Through a textual study, the paper demonstrates how patriarchal norms take place similarly across linguistic and cultural boundaries. It portrays the maltreatment of women. The analysis focuses on two female protagonists, namely Karuvachchi from “Karuvachchi Kaviyam” and Uma from “Kathai Ketkum Suvarkal” (Nilaachoru). Despite differing in socioeconomic backgrounds, they suffer under marital deception and sexual violence. Both characters have a symbolic attachment to the ‘Thaali’ (sacred marriage thread) and reveal a complex compromise between private trauma and social expectations. The cultural ornament ‘Thaali’ represents oppression and protection in the novels. The study employs a comparative feminist literary analysis to interrogate how those narratives reveal common stereotypes of gender subjugation. Methodologically, this research contributes to comparative literature by way of demonstrating the utility of translated Malayalam text and the Tamil text in a cultural analysis and highlighting how local literatures can articulate transnational feminist issues. It is a dream for women to get a fair education. It can help them to achieve economic independence to live a liberated life. Despite education and economic independence, women are forced to bear the double burden of family and work. These literary works reveal that there is no change in the problems faced by women over time and linguistic disparities. Women suffer under many faces of patriarchal domination and suppression. The findings portray that women are under the clutches of patriarchy, curtailed by marital laws and sexual violence. Both of the novels show the similarity of women suffering under the patriarchal hegemony.