THE LONG PATH TO SELF-RENEWAL IN JAHNAVI BARUHA’S REBIRTH

Abstract

This paper explores a study of the trajectory transformation of the protagonist from a submissive unassuming person to someone who knows her worth. The paper reviews the process of this transformation and how nature and person assisted in her self-renewal. The inextricable link between human beings and the natural environment has been of perpetual interest for writers down age. Theoretical deliberation on this relation between the natural environment and human beings has started to gain momentum only in the last decay of the twentieth century. The word ecocriticism deals with literature and nature and on the other hand ecofeminism establishes a direct link between the natural environment and female sensibility. Both ecocriticism and ecofeminism connect human beings with nature. Ecofeminism considers the domination of both nature and women by men as the root cause of environmental problems. The present study interrogates how nature becomes a perennial presence in the transformation of the protagonist from a meek docile girl to a bold lady who knows how to take things in her stride in Jahnavi Barua’s novel Rebirth.

Keywords: Transformation, self-renewal, Female sensibility, ecocriticism, and ecofeminism.