WOMEN CHARACTERS FROM THE PURANAS AND EPICS IN MALAYSIAN TAMIL SHORT STORIES: FROM A ARCHETYPICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

This study was conducted with a view to assess how women are portrayed in Malaysian Tamil short stories. The Archetype theory was used as a basis for evaluating the work of local short story writers. By applying this theory it is possible to examine how local short story writers apply the characters and roles of women from the puranas and the epics in the production of their stories. Therefore, this article examined to what extent the Indian female archetypes from the puranas and epics are used to portray women in the Malaysian Tamil short stories. Analytical and descriptive methods were used to explore the use of archetypes among local writers. This can provide an insight into the Malaysian Tamil communities’ maintainence of the traditional stereotypical images of women and with that the gender norms that it upholds. Consequently, short stories which are written over time can provide a representation of women in a society through the use of diverse archetype characters from the past. An analysis of the characters of women in Tamil short stories today using the Archetype approach prove that there have been efforts at maintaining traditional female roles within the context of social change as can be observed in the images of women as portrayed in Malaysian Tamil short stories.