Rewriting Epic as a Discourse of the Marginalized: A Study of Mahasweta Devis Select Fiction
The present dissertation engages itself with an analytical study of five short stories by Mahasweta Devi, where she has rewritten episodes from the grand narrative The Mahabharata. Her stories The Five Women, Kunti and Nishadin, Souvali, Draupadi and Bhishmas thirst have been chosen for being studied in order to show how Devi counter narrates the grand epic by looking at the religious battle of Kurukshetra and the canonical epic characters from the subaltern perspective and thus creates a discourse of the marginalised. The critical framework of the study is based on a postcolonial and subaltern study of the texts as the principal characters and Devis themes are anti-canonical and anti- hegemonic. Through Devis feminist rewriting of the ancient text the subaltern sections of the society, who have been marginally represented in the canonical text, have been given a chance to speak. A readers understanding of the epic undergoes a change by going through the rewritten stories which is Devis main intention behind rewriting The Mahabharata. Through her writing she challenges the age old notions and long established truths in the epic for which it has been granted an epic stature. Thus she makes an attempt to lend a voice to the voiceless by this narrative technique and fulfils her social commitment as a journalist and activist writer.