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- Title
GENDER AND NARRATIVE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PENELOPIAD BY MARGARET ATWOOD AND THE PALACE OF ILLUSIONS BY CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKURNI.
- Authors
KAMALDEEP, KAUR
- Abstract
This paper attempts to offer a deconstructive analysis/comparison of two very popular myths in the Indian and Western tradition from the point of view of gender and narratology. The female protagonists in The Penelopiad and The Palace of Illusions remain largely silent in the face of an overwhelming patriarchal set up in the canonical texts. The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood deconstructs the Odyssey, a seminal text of classical literature believed to be written by Homer.1 With a pen dipped in irony and self-deprecating humour, Atwood deftly exposes Odysseus, a celebrated Greek hero to be anything but that. The novel is written in the first person and captures the dilemmas and struggles of Penelope (wife of Odysseus) as she is left to fend for herself while Odysseus fights the Trojan War. The Palace of Illusions by Divakurni is more a re-telling of the tale of Draupadi by Draupadi where she gives her account of her woeful fate. Despite being married to the five brave brothers, the Pandavas, Draupadi describes her painful life of public humiliation. Both Penelope and Draupadi suffered cruelly at the hands of their husbands and despite being queens were virtually powerless. This paper attempts to compare the lives of Draupadi and Penelope and tries to locate points of similarity and points of rupture in their turbulent lives. This is a study of mainly two aspects of the books. The first is a comparison of the narrative structure. The second question pertains to the perception of marriage in the two texts.
- Subjects
ATWOOD, Margaret, 1939-; DECONSTRUCTION; CLASSICAL literature; GENDER; COMPARATIVE studies; PALACES; NARRATOLOGY
- Publication
Caesura: Journal of Philological & Humanistic Studies, 2019, Vol 6, Issue 1, p25
- ISSN
2360-3372
- Publication type
Article