Emotional Abandonment and Ethical Issues in Indian Fiction: Posthumous Impact of Love in Preeti Shenoy’s Life is What You Make It

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-477-8_9How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Psychoanalysis; feminism; romantic trauma; psychological rupture; feminine grief; bipolar disorder; feminist psychoanalysis

Abstract

Indian Fiction traditionally digs into romantic relationships as ethically complex or psychologically disruptive, often shedding light on the emotional intimacy and mental health. However, these themes are confined into the boundaries of cultural science, ethical boundaries and gendered responsibilities. This limitation restricts how openly trauma, grief or personal collapse are portrayed in literature. The paper explores the often-underestimated psychological and ethical core role of the Vaibhav as a character in Preeti Shenoy’s novel Life is What You Make It, focusing on examining Vaibhav’s influence following his demise on the protagonist, Ankita. From a central standpoint of psychoanalysis and feminist theory, this research examines how Vaibhav’s demise turns into an epicentre of unresolved memory, repressed grief and overwhelming guilt. The paper supports Freudian ideas of oppression, Judith Herman’s trauma theory, and Luce Irigaray’s insights into female emotional labour, by exploring the claim that Vaibhav is not a supporting character but rather the psychological and narrative axis around which Ankita’s emotional breakdown takes place. The study highlights the idea of how broken romance becomes a site of emotional abandonment and ethical conflict. Ultimately, it raises critical question about identity, stir up trauma, and healing in contemporary Indian fiction, emphasizing the significance of psychological depth in literary narratives.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Avantika Sharma
AU  - Shalini Saxena
AU  - Mahendra Kumar Dhakad
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/11/10
TI  - Emotional Abandonment and Ethical Issues in Indian Fiction: Posthumous Impact of Love in Preeti Shenoy’s Life is What You Make It
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference, Anubhuti: Revitalizing Indian Knowledge Systems for the Modern World (ICIKS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 114
EP  - 123
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-477-8_9
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-477-8_9
ID  - Sharma2025
ER  -