feminist fables by suniti namjoshi summary

At the end of Summer Days, for instance, she speaks to the reader directly: ‘and the moral of the story? There isn’t one. Namjoshi consciously plays with this didacticism, sometimes concluding by challenging the idea that there is a moral to be found at all. The fables are short and simple, often only a few paragraphs long, and have a strong ethical sensibility that, in my own experience, often characterises short fiction. ‘If something didn’t make sense, I wrote a fable about it’ (1), she writes in the introduction to this section, and indeed, many of feminism’s primary concerns can be spotted in each text. The first set, simply entitled Feminist Fables, represents the author’s own strategies for negotiating a confusing patriarchal world as a new feminist. While the form of the book lends itself well to collecting Namjoshi’s fables and poetry, it does less justice to her longer works, the extracts of which are intellectually interesting, but emotionally unfulfilling.Ī significant part of The Fabulous Feminist is made up of fables, a form which Namjoshi is particularly drawn to. There is certainly a sense of thematic unity to the collection, largely through the author’s exploration of morality and immorality, and her almost ubiquitous use of allegory and animals as characters. Even from its title, The Fabulous Feminist is clear in its philosophy, and takes the reader on a journey through Namjoshi’s own experiences with feminism, as told through fables, poetry and several longer works of fiction.Īs a reader in Namjoshi’s body of work, The Fabulous Feminist throws together a range of different books and collections. It is not often that a book falls into my hands that calls itself – consciously and unashamedly – a feminist book.

Suniti Namjoshi, Spinifex Press, Melbourne 2012. I’ve had a busy first week at uni, so I thought it would make a good filler post until I write up some newer stuff. Last year I was asked to write a review of a forthcoming collection of the works of Suniti Namjoshi for the Australian Women’s Book Review, which was published online earlier this year.

Feminist fables by suniti namjoshi summary