A Psychoanalytic Study of Kamala Markandaya’s Females in ‘Possession’

Kamala Markandaya is a world renowned author of English on the Indian landscape. Her works are famous for the true representation of the plight of Indian women who; caught into the web of patriarchy, are so utterly subdued and crushed that their voice of resistance go unheard and unnoticed. Extensive study of her works reveals the impression of her strong hold over the human mind as she has studied them quite closely and minutely. In fact she can easily penetrate into the hidden recesses of one's thoughts and bring out the unthought-of and unpredicted-of. She is a prominent Indian English novelist who has strongly stood with women's sexuality and her right to body in a most unconventional and subversive manner. She displays a highly developed consciousness of the gendered nature of morality and social structure. She is among the clutch of those few Indian female authors who have dared to portray the plight of Indian women suffering from prejudice in a dominantly patriarchal society and envisions a world based on equality and harmony between the two sexes. She examines the sufferings and problems of the women who feel entrapped within the bond of relationship, whether married or single; with keen sensibility and perception. Her novel ‘Possession' deals with different shades of human psyche, especially the females. It‘s reading gives the experience of therapeutic journey wherein the mind of the characters unfold slowly as the curtain raises on the main character, Valmiki. He is the most significant and pivotal character of the novel around which the other characters revolve revealing a plethora of mixed desires and characters. The inter play of emotions is the beauty of the novel which carries the readers on a roller coaster ride. The present paper is an attempt to unravel the text ‘Possession' by groping deep into its depths and analysing it through the vision of a psychoanalyst