Tracing the Voice of the Silenced: A Quest through the Select Women Autobiographies in Malayalam

Abstract

Silence is a word impregnated with various connotations. Sometimes silence is loud and powerful. It is something which is destructive and constructive at the same time. Being silenced and being silent are two distinctive concepts; the latter signifying the absence of authority.  When the silenced decides to break the silence¸ it brings them back the authority and power and will enable them to gradually move towards the mainstream society. Autobiography gained importance as one of the tools which is used by the silenced to break their silence.

Even though autobiographies garnered critical attention in the twentieth century, the life narratives of women were ignored and their lives were not considered worthy to be   narrated. With the advent of feminism, structuralism and post structuralism, the purview of the genre expanded to accommodate the subjects like ‘women’, who were pushed away from mainstream stream society and were forced to remain silent throughout their lives.