Multiple Perspectives: A Narratological Study of the Techniques of Revisionism of the Mahabharata in Indian Fiction

Abstract

Retellings of canonical narratives deviate from the conventional narratives and reconstruct them to present alternative perspectives through the aesthetic choices they make in terms of plot and character, and focus on a particular angle of the epic. These retellings selectively string together certain incidents to reflect the accepted mode of thinking of the milieu of their times. The present study is primarily based on four revisionist fiction on the Mahabharata: Chitra Divakaruni Bannerjee’s The Palace of Illusions, Pratibha Ray’s Yajnaseni, P.K.Balakrishnan’s And Now Let Me Sleep, and M.T.Vasudeven Nair’s Bhima Lone Warrior. The study aims to determine how different focalization techniques and employment of time and space brought a modern perspective to the epic reflecting contemporary realities through textual analysis of the revisionist texts. The first chapter deals with the effect of alterations in Temporality, and pace of narration in the selected works. As time and space are interconnected aspects of narratives, they have been examined to identify the innovative narrative practices followed in these texts. The second chapter in the thesis explores the narrative levels and focalization to decipher the effects of different focalization strategies, and variety of narrators in these works. The third chapter studies how revisionist fiction uses multiple viewpoints to create a unique narrative to engage a modern audience. This thesis attempts to examine the multiple perspectives in the revisionist narratives on the Mahabharata and the reasons behind the continued popularity.