WORKING OUT FEMINIST PSYCHOLOGY IN CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI’S THE PALACE OF ILLUSIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61841/82bx0856Keywords:
-Indian English Literature, -Psychological fiction,, Mahabharata, Draupadi, , re-telling of myth,, feminismAbstract
Mahabharata, one of the two most famous ancient epics of India (the other being Ramayana) is a virtual sea of stories. It has, in addition, religious value as Lord Krishna is one of the protagonists. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is a well-known novelist of Indian origin. Her novel The Palace of Illusions centres around Draupadi, the female protagonist of Mahabharata. In this impressive re-telling, she aims at realizing a feminist picture of Draupadi to fit into the contemporary socio-psychological context. Her task is rather tedious as the key protagonist Draupadi is bound by the shackles of a patriarchal society that reveres only a pativrata (subservient to husband only) woman, and also by individual predicament that makes her the wife of five brothers. To achieve this end, Divakaruni resorts to tweaking the incidents, filling in the minor gaps that she spots and inventing Draupadi’s psyche, but unlike some other authors, she stays loyal, in the main, to the original storyline and sentiment of Mahabharata as told first of all by Vyasa in Sanskrit. In this paper, I analyse the novel The Palace of Illusions to mark the deviations of plot from that of the accepted versions, as also other inventive strategies which go to depict feminist credentials of Draupadi, as for example, her harbouring extra-marital desire, her work for other women, and her castigation of war and environmental degradation.
Downloads
References
1. Bhagwad-gita as it is. Ed. A.C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada. Mumbai: The Bhaktivedanta Trust, 2003
2. Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Mistress of Spices. London: Random Black Swan, 2005.
3. . The Palace of Illusions. New Delhi: Picador India, 2018.
4. . The Forest of Enchantments. NOIDA, India: HarperCollins India, 2019.
5. Kane, Kavita. Karna’s Wife. New Delhi: Rupa, 2013.
6. Kirby, Vicki. Judith Butler: Live Theory. London: Continum International Publishing Group, 2006, reprinted 2007.
7. Malik, R.S. & Jagdish Batra. A New Approach to Literary Theory & Criticism. New Delhi: Atlantic, 2014.
8. Miles, Maria & Vandana Shiva. Ecofeminism. (1993). Jaipur: Rawat, 2010.
9. Narayan, R.K. The Mahabharata. New Delhi: Vision Books, 1987, 17th Reprint 2012.
10. Nayar, Pramod K. Literary Theory Today. New Delhi: Prestige, 2002.
11. Neelkantan, Anand. Ajay: Role of the Dice. Mumbai: Leadstart Publishing, 2013.
12. . Ajay: Rise of Kali. Mumbai: Leadstart Publishing, 2015.
13. Pattanaik, Devdutt. Myth=Mithya: Decoding Hindu Mythology. Gurgaon, India: Penguin Random, 2006.
14. . Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of Mahabharata. Gurgaon: Penguin, 2010.
15. Patton, Laurie L. “How do you conduct yourself? Gender and the construction of a dialogical self in the Mahabharata.” Gender and Narrative in the Mahabharata, ed. Simon Brodbeck & Brian Black. Oxon: Routledge, 2007, pp. 97-109.
16. Rajgopalachari, C. Mahabharata. Mumbai: Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, 1951, 65th Edition 2019.
17. Shaw, George Bernard. The Arms and the Man. 1953. New Delhi: Orient Longmans, 1968.
18. Shiva, Vandana. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Development. Brooklyn, USA: South End Press, 2010.
19. Srivastava, Sonal. “In any retelling of history, there must be a degree of bias…It’s a question of what you exclude”. Times of India, 16 Jan., 2020, Capital ed., p. 18.
20. Todd, Janet. Feminist Literary History: A Defence. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1988, Reprint 1995.
21. Vyasa, Krishna Dwaipayana. Ved. The Mahabharata. Ed. J.A.B. van Buitenen. Trans. J.A.B. van Buitenen. Vol. 2. London: University of Chicago Press, 1975.
22. . Mahabharata. Trans. Kisari Mohan Ganguli. Internet Sacred Text Archive. 2010. Accessed 4 Feb., 2020. https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/maha/index.htm
23. . The Mahabharata. Trans. Pratap Chandra Roy. Vol. 1 Adi Parva. Calcutta: Oriental Publishing Co.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
You are free to:
- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially.
- Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.
- The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.
Under the following terms:
- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit , provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made . You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
Notices:
You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation .
No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.
