DECONSTRUCTING MYTHOLOGY: A FEMINIST REVISIONIST ANALYSIS OF KAVITA KANÉ’S SELECT NOVELS

Abstract

Keeping up with the trend of deconstructing the Meta narratives which disavows the grand récit ofMythology and promotes stories of Individuals by means of re-visioning the experience of the marginalised characters the contemporary Indian Mythology Writer Kavita Kané rewrites the mythology belonging to the Hindu tradition by specifically focusing on the marginalised women characters. The study offers an analysis of feminist revision of myth in the selected novels of Kavita Kané. An examination of critical and theoretical feminist concern regarding women’s writing and matters pertaining of revision and mythology precedes a reading of Kané’s narratives based on mythology. Ranging from a monster woman like Surpankha to the Queen of Hastinapur Satyavati, Kané deconstructs these forgotten epical women and gives them a new female identity. So, the study offers: 1) an examination of the character of these epical women that have presented by Kané and makes this genre as a ready site for revisionist; 2) to claim that myths are ideological narratives of hegemonical structure that are victimized to advocate and preserve the gender roles entrenched by hegemonic ideology; 3) to probe the cultural consequences of this new literary imagination. The present thesis investigates Hindu mythology and feminity and draws on both Hindu mythology and contemporary theories. Myth and archetype are the vehicles through which Kavita Kané conveys and presents reality. Within the concept of feminist revisionist mythology, Kané uses the mythical metaphors, symbols and archetypes to enter the subconscious and conscious mind of readers thereby amalgamating the two experience in a new language and a new myth. Kané addresses to the multiple sources of power that have an effect on the identity of women i.e. as seductress, deviant, passive character or as destructors. In order to uncover the female voices, Kané has given speeches to her mythology-inspired female characters that lie beneath our inherited patriarchal identities. She has approached the question of female sexuality and power from a new angle. The present study, therefore, argues that myths are ideological androcentric narrative that are employed to justify and conserve the gender roles established by this ideology. Kané's mythology-inspired narratives reveal an evidently misogynistic period of antiquity and make reference to critical issues of gender and femininity thus serving as a perfect example of feminist issues regarding their subversive and deviant behaviour. The proposed research explores the role of gender and its conceptualization in ancient Indian mythology. The study deconstructs this mythological narrative from feminist revisionists’ point of view to reconstructing the ‘Gender Identity’. The study also deconstructs these mythology-inspired narratives with a new feminist ii dimension known as feminist revisionist mythology. In order to achieve the above objectives the thesis would use the Feminist revisionist theory by Lisa Tuttle which serves as a framework for the feminist reading of the Hindu mythological-inspired novels. Feminist revisionist mythology is a part of feminist literary criticism that involves with mythology, religion, or other areas. The objective of postmodern feminism is to undermine the patriarchal norms entrenched in society that has sought to keep the voice of women suppressed. Lisa Tuttle’s conceptions on texts and meanings, with an endeavour to re-read some of the well-read epics, as she says “new question of old text” (3) has been taken as the guiding light. So, the feminist revisionist theory serves as the base of each objective. However, four different contemporary theories provide a framework for each objective as these theories are also useful and relevant when applied to Hindu feminism. So, the feminist revisionist theory makes the base of each objective however each chapter under the lens of revisionist theory also takes a separate Contemporary theory that creates a framework for the objective; Foucault's concept of docile bodies, MacKinnon’s theory of Objectification, Allen G. Johnson’s theory of Patriarchy, Judith Butler’s theory of Gender Performance, Edwin Schur’s theory of Woman Deviance and Sarah Grand’s concept of The New Woman. Each chapter discusses the respective theory thoroughly and more elaborately.