THE POETICS OF ESTRANGEMENT: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF FEMALE ALIENATION IN ANNIE ERNAUX’S THE YEARS AND KAMALA MARKANDAYA’S NECTAR IN A SIEVE

Abstract

This research study conducts a comprehensive comparative analysis of female alienation as represented in two notable literary texts: Annie Ernaux's The Years (2008) and Kamala Markandaya's Nectar in a Sieve (1954). These authors are separated by great distances, different languages, and different political and social situations in the twentieth century, post-war France, and pre- and post-independence rural India. However, their descriptions of the "forlorn" female persona are very similar. This study employs the theoretical framework of "The Poetics of Estrangement" to examine the construction of forlornness characterized as a multifaceted amalgamation of emotional abandonment, social dislocation, and existential solitude through particular narrative strategies.In The Years, Ernaux employs her distinctive écriture plate (flat writing) to convert the singular "I" into a collective "we," illustrating the estrangement of the female protagonist from her own memories due to the incessant progression of consumerist history and secular advancement. Markandaya uses a tragic pastoral realism in Nectar in a Sieve to demonstrate how Rukmani is pushed to the outside of society by the forces of industrialisation, extreme poverty, and the rigid institutions of patriarchal customs.This study posits that "forlornness" in these works is a structural consequence of class, gender, and the passage of time, rather than a transient human emotion, by systematically evaluating the characters' internal monologues and their growing interactions with changing societal structures. The study looks at how Ernaux's main character deals with the alienation of the modern, free woman who feels "lost" in a sea of choices. On the other hand, Markandaya's main character feels a more visceral, basic sense of alienation induced by loss and physical dislocation. The comparative synthesis shows that the historical reasons for alienation are different in each case, from the loss of stability in rural India to the rise of neoliberal individualism in France. However, the "poetics" of their solitude have a common frequency. Finally, the study contends that both Ernaux and Markandaya give voice to the forlorn, turning the silence of female suffering into a strong criticism of the social structures that make women invisible. This adds an important cross-cultural element to the global female literary canon.