Inscribing the Self by the Cultural Others: Kailashbashi Debi and Saradasundari Debi

Abstract

Western literary autobiography is conventionally conceived of as a unique form of self-presentation by a ‘singular entity’ proclaiming his superiority over and distinction from a myriad of relative nonentities. This paper shall try to socially locate the autobiographical endeavour and the essence of the lives of two Hindu bhadramahilas through their diary and autobiography. An attempt would be made to find out the significance of the distinguished ‘I’ when a woman constructs her autonomous entity and the agency of othersaround her. It will be explored whether self-construction of women whose families were active in the socio-political transition in nineteenth-century Bengal bore marks of an ‘idiosyncratic,’ ‘individuated,’ ‘inviolable,’ ‘singular’ self-considered essential for life-writing.