30, August 2025

African American Women’s Autobiographies and Indian Dalit Women’s Autobiographies: A Comparative Study

VOLUME-11; ISSUE-8; AUG-2025

Author(s): Mr. Bidhan Hazra

Authors Affiliations:

Assistant Professor of English

Prabhat Kumar College, Contai

Purba Medinipur, West Bengal, India

DOIs:10.2015/IJIRMF/202508042     |     Paper ID: IJIRMF202508042


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This paper undertakes a comparative study of African American women’s autobiographies and Indian Dalit women’s autobiographies, exploring their thematic intersections, political dimensions, and contributions to feminist and subaltern discourse. Despite being geographically and culturally distinct, both literary traditions share a history of systemic oppression, gendered marginalization, and resistance. African American women’s autobiographies, such as those by Maya Angelou, Harriet Jacobs, and Audre Lorde, articulate the trauma of slavery, racism, and sexism, while simultaneously asserting Black female subjectivity. In parallel, Dalit women’s autobiographies, including Karukku by Bama, Sangati by Bama, and The Prisons We Broke by Baby Kamble, foreground caste-based discrimination, poverty, sexual exploitation, and social exclusion within Indian society. The comparative framework highlights how both bodies of literature challenge dominant narratives, foreground double marginalization, and construct counter-histories. This study employs intersectionality theory, subaltern studies, and feminist frameworks to analyze these texts, arguing that African American and Dalit women’s autobiographies together form powerful archives of memory, resistance, and identity formation.

Autobiographies, Race and Caste, Feminism, Marginalization, Intersectionality, Resistance

Mr. Bidhan Hazra (2025); African American Women’s Autobiographies and Indian Dalit Women’s Autobiographies: A Comparative Study, International Journal for Innovative Research in Multidisciplinary Field, ISSN(O): 2455-0620, Vol-11, Issue-8, Pp. 312-315.         Available on –   https://www.ijirmf.com/

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