Glimpses of Regionalism through the portrayal of Punjabi Culture in Difficult Daughters by Manju Kapur

Abstract

‘Local color or regional literature is fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region’ Regionalism is a quality in literature that is the product of fidelity to the habits, speech, manners,  history,  folklore and belief of a particular geographical section. The celebrated exponents of this have been Thomas Hardy who wrote about the Wessex area in England or William Wordsworth in poetry who wrote about the Lake District in England. In tune with this definition, the novel Difficult Daughter by Manju Kapur can be called Regional as the writer more or less sticks to one geographical area. Manju Kapur is a North Indian who resides in Delhi. All her novels are set in North India giving a glimpse of North Indian culture. Manju Kapur has set all her novels in the urban and international background: Amritsar, Lahore, Delhi, Ayodhya, Halifax in Canada. There is an unmistakable essence of North Indian culture through the descriptions of place, culture, dress, food, language, traditions, rituals, fasting and prayers. This Paper attempts to highlight the way Manju Kapur has been successful in highlighting the Punjabi Culture in her First Novel Difficult Daughters and improve our knowledge of Punjabi culture, Dress cuisine etc. Thus she qualifies as regional writer in English writing about the mannerisms of a particular part in India.