Feminine Resilience and the Critique of Universalist Feminism in Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine

Abstract

The present study examines feminine resilience in Jasmine (Mukherjee, 1989). The research explores how patriarchal norms lead to women's identity crises as the protagonist transforms her identity from Jyoti to Jasmine and Jase to Jane under colonial, patriarchal, and migratory pressures. This research investigates how feminine resilience catalyzes cyclical identity crises, drawing on Chandra Talpade Mohanty's theory of feminine resilience. The present study fills this gap by addressing how feminine resilience is interrogated in Jasmine. Patriarchal oppression reveals dowry economies, ritual widowhood, and mother tyranny, which lead to psychological fermentation but also provoke resistance. Gender violence, from rape to forced marriage, results in a dramatic break that culminates in the perpetrator’s death. It also reveals the implied universalist feminism suggesting that all women across the globe share core human experiences, rights, and needs, transcending cultural, racial, and national boundaries. The analysis highlights the idea of human rights, shared sisterhood, and universal legal equality. It shows how masculine oppressive strategies evolve ecologically in response to women’s transformation by interpreting the plot of the novel from socio-political and socio-domestic perspectives. The study sets the pathways for future interdisciplinary studies and comparative literary criticism, and substantiates Jasmine’s continued relevance in examining resilience.