Goan Short
Stories by Women Writers: Parables of the Goan Psyche
-by Dr. Brian Mendonca
ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT
In this
paper I would like to consider Goan short stories by three contemporary women
writers, viz. Nisha Da Cunha, Aldina Braganza e Gomes and Jessica Faleiro. These
writers write in English. They also have great potential to be translated. They
matter to Goa because they through their writing and lineage -- which is often
Goan -- they offer an insider’s view of Goa transmuted through the literary
form of the short story. Being women writers they have a unique sensibility – a
cadence, a zeal and a perspective -- which is at once Goan as well as global.
This inquiry is urgent since more attention has been given to male writers of
Goan forms of literature obscuring the fact that from aching lyricism to ghost
stories, women short story writers of/on Goa have ‘a literature of their own.’
Women
writers in Goa have generally displayed a fondness for the memoir, the
autobiography and the novel. The Goan short story by a woman writer is harder
to find given the seeming reluctance of mainstream publishers to publish them.
Stories by these women writers are women-centric and portray life through the
pain experienced by women, viz. grandmother Avozinha in Aldina Gomes’ ‘The Girl
in the Frame,’ and Dona Angela in Nisha Da Cunha’s ‘Home.’ In so doing they
unravel an intricate web of Goa’s past tied to the realities of the present –
parables which continue to mirror themselves in the Goan psyche.
One-day Literary Meet on ‘Goa Matters in Goan Writing in English and in Translation,’ Department of English, Goa
University, Goa, 30 April
2014. Pix of Brian presenting his paper at the literary meet. The paper was well-received.
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