Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Articles

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2026): 21CILS: 21st Century Indian Literary Studies

Constructing the Womanhood-Self: Creativity, Self-Reliance, and Sustainability in Anuradha Roy’s The Folded Earth (2011)

Submitted
January 15, 2026
Published
2026-02-15

Abstract

Women take a lead for new beginnings in life. Unexpected events disrupt a person's regular routine. The path is illuminated by the impact of a ray of hope. Retracing for logical reasoning is not a frame of traits in womanhood self. In such a context, women stand for creativity, self-reliance and sustainability. The sense of rambling for uncontrollable prospects of past and future is detained in these former dimensions. Womanhood flourishes in later stages. The novel, The Folded Earth by Anuradha Roy, puts forth three women who epitomize the former dimensions. These women sprout from different age groups: a teenager, a young adult, and a ripe old woman, and thrive under the same landscape of mountainous regions of Ranikhet. The former dimensions have an in-built progressive trait of free will. It is free from guilts, complaints and expectations. The progressive arena is essential for a high-yielding futuristic prospect. This creates a notion of essential understanding in oneself and provides courageous support to withstand the womanhood-self.

References

  1. Arora-Jonsson, S. (2011). Virtue and vulnerability: Discourses on women, gender and climate change. Global Environmental Change, 21(2), 744-751.
  2. Fiske, S. T. (2010). Venus and Mars or down to Earth: Stereotypes and realities of gender differences. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 5(6), 688-692.
  3. Glick, P., & Fiske, S. T. (2001). An ambivalent alliance: Hostile and benevolent sexism as complementary justifications for gender inequality. American Psychologist, 56(2), 109.
  4. Harrison, M.M., Neff, N.L., Schwall A.R., Zhao, X. (2006). A Meta-analytic Investigation of Individual Creativity and Innovation. Paper presented at the 21st Annual Conference for the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Dallas, Texas.
  5. Kripalani, K. (1965). All men are brothers – life and thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi as told in his own words. New York: Columbia University Press.
  6. Roy, Anuradha. The Folded Earth. Free Press, 2012.
  7. Seelos, C.; Mair, J. 2005. Social Entrepreneurship: Creating New Business Models to Serve the Poor, Business Horizons 48(3): 241–246.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.