An analysis of Hale’s narrative in debunking social norms and maxims: The Poststructuralist element in Princess Academy

In the period of 1960s, in France, the Poststructuralism was emerged having the ideology to question the binary opposition and semantics. The core idea of the Structuralism which was based on these two pillars, hereby confronted before the intellectuals who staunchly adhered the concept of plurality of a given text. Poststructuralists argued that the meaning that derived from a word or symbol, can be various according to the context depending upon the situation. Therefore, the meaning of a word or text must be sought out of the relevant intention of the given context, not by limited or fixed to the binary opposition or semantics. The concept of the arbitrariness of a language was replicated on the anthropological, philosophical, psychological and sociological perspectives separately in order to examine with extensive and inclusive practices. The ‘real' meaning is arbitrary according to the exponents of this theory. By keeping that theoretical approach on the foreground, this paper aims to take a fantasy trilogy named, Princess Academy, written by Shannon Hale, as a primary text to present the societal context where the author has given narratives tinged with poststructuralist dimension. The characters and the plot those are posited with 21st century feminist point of view, found quite adequate for the descriptive research in the field of women's role in a society through diversity and inclusion. Moreover, it is very significant to put a paradigm as deconstructing the patriarchal narratives and concept of liberation. Shannon Hale's trilogy, Princess Academy has plotted so many characters, but for the particular scenario of the research, this article has taken only few of the female characters in the forefront to make a possible representation in the above-mentioned objective.