Citation

Gupta T. rupkatha 2022; 14(2).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022)

DOI

10.21659/rupkatha.v14n2.22

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Annie Besant was a Victorian radical whose outspoken views included advocacy of women's rights and atheism. In her mid-forties she went to live in India. Her An Autobiography (1893) charts her dramatic political and ethical awakenings, up to the point where she joined the Theosophical movement. It describes how she was unhappily married to a clergyman, contemplated suicide, embraced atheism, and legally separated from her husband. The present paper is an attempt to explore Annie Besant's rebellion against patriarchal and religious institutions through an in-depth study of her autobiography with special reference to the chapter "Atheism as I Knew and Taught It". The paper will analyze how Annie Besant revolted against the performative construction of identity which is the result of the patriarchal religious discourses, and how breaking the binary of theist/atheist gave her strength to further deconstruct the male/female binary. © 2022 Aesthetics Media Services. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

religion; atheism; patriarchy; discourses; free thought; gender roles; performativity; women liberation