Women's Language: A History of Indian-English Women Writers. “Women have burned like beacons in all the works of all poets from the beginning of time. Indeed, if woman only existed in fiction written by men, we would imagine her as a person of the greatest importance; very varied; heroic and villainous; splendid and sordid; beautiful and hideous in the extreme; as tall as a man, some would say taller. But this is the woman in fiction. In fact, as Professor Trevelyan points out, she was locked up, beaten and thrown around the room. A very strange composite being thus emerges. From an imaginative point of view it is of the greatest importance; practically, it is completely insignificant. It permeates the poetry from beginning to end; she is practically absent from the story. It dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact, she was a slave to any boy whose parents put a ring on her finger. Some of the most inspired words and deepest thoughts in literature come from his lips; in real life, she could barely read; barely spell; and was the property of her husband. » - Virginia WoolfIn "A Room of One's Own" Viriginia Woolf attempted to write about the history of women's writing by including real women writers like Jane Austen, George Eliot as well as those who might have existed if given space like Shakespeare's sister. The above epigraph also holds true for Indian-English women writers until very recently. In India, until the 1970s, the male-dominated literary tradition did not recognize the works of women writers and yet, women have always found representation in works of art. There is a proliferation of t...... middle of paper ......um/Pittsburgh. 2014. Web.7. Woolf, Virginia. The Death of the Butterfly and Other Essays. National Society for the Service of Women. 1931. the canvas. April 19, 2014.8. Roy, Anita. 21 under 40. 2007. Zubaan, an imprint of Kali for Women. Print.9. Sheshadri, Vijayalaskhmi. The new woman among Indian-English women writers since the 1970s. 1995. BRPublishing Corporation. Print.10. Cixous, Helene. Cohen, Keith. Cohen, Paula. Laughing at the jellyfish. The University of Chicago Press. 2009. Internet. 2014.11. Kristeva, Julia. Jardine, Alice. Blake, Harry. Women's time. University of Chicago Press. 2010. Internet. 2014.