Voices from the Margins: Resistance, Identity, and Empowerment in Women's Literature

Abstract

In literary history, women's voices especially those of marginalized women have been silenced, misrepresented, or omitted altogether. Herein, this paper delves into how literature becomes a space of transformation in which these women retake their voice, claim their identity, and challenge dominant cultural, social, and political discourses. With a focus on works of authors like Toni Morrison, Bama, Mahasweta Devi, Maya Angelou, and JhumpaLahiri, the current research analyzes how women's lives are shaped by different intersecting forces like caste, race, and gender and how these forces were represent in their writing. It is contended here that these works are not just narratives of oppression but acts of resistance and empowerment. Whether through dispersed autobiographical forms, reinvented mythologies, or representational imagery, these writers offer spaces for the voice of the marginalized women who resist traditional canons of literature and social hierarchies. Examining thematic issues like silencing, the feminized body, displacement in culture, and articulation of language, and this paper underscores the need for inclusive literary discussion and underlines the continued relevance of marginalized women's literature in modelling both literature and society.