Representations of Women's Agency and Gendered Subjectivity in Preeti Shenoy's Selected Novels: A Liberal Feminist Analysis

Abstract

Women's identities are typically shaped by ideals of family honour, obedience, and household duties rather than self-expression or individual independence in highly patriarchal settings where women are subject to patriarchal standards. Gendered subjectivity is the extent to which cultural norms and gender norms influence women's self-perceptions, emotional lives, and self-beliefs. Most literary depictions of women's internal struggles also emphasise how these norms influence women's emotions and choices. Through Preeti Shenoy's selected novels, Life Is What You Make It, Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake, The Secret Wishlist, It Happens for a Reason, and The Rule Breakers, this paper aims to delineate how her female protagonists' gender identities are constructed. They can redefine femininity as active and compassionate, rather than passive and submissive, through relational and feminist agency.