TRANSCENDING PATRIARCHY: INTERSECTIONAL FEMINISM IN SUDHA MURTHY’S LITERARY CORPUS

Abstract

This study critically analyzes Sudha Murthy’s Gently Falls the Bakula, Three Thousand Stitches, and Wise and Otherwise (Murthy, 1988, 2002, 2017), examining how her female protagonists navigate and transcend patriarchal constraints through emotional resilience, epistemic agency, and grassroots activism. By emphasizing psychological subjugation, socio-cultural resilience, and ethical resistance, Murthy redefines womanhood as a dynamic negotiation of power and dignity. Employing a comparative feminist framework, the analysis situates Murthy’s realism alongside Indian authors like Mahasweta Devi and Anita Desai, and global voices such as Alice Walker and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, embedding her work within transnational feminist discourses (Desai, 1980; Devi, 1997, 1998; Walker, 1982; Adichie, 2014). The study highlights Murthy’s narratives as interventions addressing human rights issues—gendered servitude, caste-based exploitation, elder neglect, and marginalized invisibility—offering epistemological insights into oppressed women’s realities. Additionally, it explores the relevance of Murthy’s texts in cyber feminist and AI-era gender studies (Haraway, 1991; Buolamwini & Gebru, 2018; Benjamin, 2019), critiquing algorithmic patriarchy and advocating for inclusive technological frameworks. This research enriches postcolonial feminist literature and digital humanities, positioning Murthy’s work as a cultural testimony and feminist praxis in an AI-mediated world.