Marital Subjugation and the Erasure of the Self in Anita Nair’s Lessons in Forgetting

Abstract

               This research paper explores how the marital subjugation leads to the gradual loss of female selfhood in Anita Nair’s Lessons in Forgetting. It argues that the novel depicts marriage as a patriarchal structure that enforces erasure through economic control, emotional manipulation, emotional silencing, and social undervaluation of their labor. Using Simone de Beauvoir’s idea of “immanence,” Erving Goffman’s concept of “spoiled identity,” and latest discussions on “agentic forgetting,” the study analyzes the experiences of Meera and Jak’s mother to trace how subjugation can result in self-erasure. The paper demonstrates that Nair transforms the idea of “forgetting” from trauma to resistance that allows women to unlearn patriarchal expectations and rebuild their identities in the novel. The article concludes that financial independence and female solidarity emerge as essential responses in resisting marital erasure. By situating the novel to contemporary debates on domestic confinement and economic abuse, it highlights financial independence and female solidarity as paths out of marital erasure and underscores Nair’s contribution to post-millennial Indian feminist thought.