| dc.description.abstract | This thesis focuses on a collection of short stories by writer and activist Mahasweta Devi, After
Kurukshetra. The three stories borrow sub-narratives from the famous Indian epic,
Mahabharata, but are rewritten around identities that the mainstream marginalizes. The
protagonists of “Kunti and the Nishadin”, “The Five Women”, and “Souvali” are placed in
subordinate positions in society as depicted through the epic. These women characters of women
of lower castes and lower classes remain unspoken for in mainstream versions of the mythology.
The essay untangles the complexities of the fictive characters’ identities with these markers of
gender, caste and class, understanding the intersectionality of their identities. It also analyses them
as gendered subalterns, using and questioning Gayatri Spivak’s conceptualization. The thesis also
contextualizes the analysis of the stories against the larger background of Devi’s literary oeuvre
and activism with tribals and Adivasis in India. It does so by attempting an intertextual reading of
the epic contrasted with Mahasweta Devi’s retellings with emphasis on the narration and elements
such as folklore and oral tradition. | |
