Autobiographies as Resistance: Reading the Lives of Malayalee Nuns

Abstract

This paper is a reading of the autobiographies Amen: Oru Kanyasthreeyude Atmakadha (Amen: The Autobiography of a Nun) by Sister Jesme and Karthavinte Namathil (In the Name of Christ) by Sister Lucy Kalappura. These texts conceptualise the authors’ lived experiences as nuns and interrogate the structures of religious institutions that seek to subjugate women. The paper examines these works as acts of resistance and self-articulation, analysing how they challenge institutionalised notions of Catholicism. The paper, thus, explores the differences they portray in their texts in relation to how women religious are positioned within ecclesiastical power structures. This paper employs content and discourse analysis grounded in feminist criticism to analyse the texts as acts of resistance by nuns, which call for reform within institutional structures.