Abstract

The shift in relationships and marriage extensively challenged the norms and beliefs imposed on women for centuries regarding their status “married.” With the changing patterns of marriage, women prefer to be single in their 30s and 40s and pursue their desires to attain the desired subjectivity by practicing abjection. This article probes single women Sreelakshmi from Nair’s Eating Wasps (2018) and Asmi from Amulya Malladi’s The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You (2019) and their multiple desires, which are unconventional and threats to the existing norms and beliefs of the patriarchal hegemony, are explored using Kristeva’s abjection theory. They decide to be singles in their late 30s with stellar careers and have romantic relationships with married men by resisting the existing norms and turning abject figures to their families and society. By pursuing abjection, they get a new identity “abject” and “deviant,” yet they struggle to get new subjectivity in family and society.