Motherhood, Anxiety, and Female Subjectivity in Anita Desai’s Where Shall We Go This Summer?: A Feminist–Psychoanalytic Reading

Abstract

Anita Desai maintains a unique position in Indian English fiction for her subtle examination of psychological reality and the inner landscapes of women. In her novel Where Shall We Go This Summer? (1982), she examines motherhood not just as biological or social institution but as a highly psychological and existential experience affected by patriarchal expectations and emotional fragmentation. This article addresses maternity, anxiety and female subjectivity in the novel from feminist literary criticism and psychoanalytic feminist perspectives. Using the theoretical insights of Julia Kristeva, Simone de Beauvoir, Nancy Chodorow, Adrienne Rich and Judith Butler, the study explores how the protagonist Sita grapples with maternal ambivalence, psychological instability, existential alienation and resistance to normative constructions of motherhood. The article contends that Sita’s maternal worry is a way of female subject construction not simply an expression of emotional pathology. Anita Desai in postcolonial India uses psychological realism to show the conflicts between patriarchal domesticity and female selfhood. Close textual analysis reveals the workings of mother awareness as a place of resistance, identity negotiation and psychological agency. This paper contributes to feminist studies on Indian English fiction by reframing maternal anxiety as a crucial framework for understanding female subjectivity and postcolonial womanhood.