‘Application of the Literary Term in the context of the Retelling of Myth’
Paper-3 Assignment
Research Scholar Name: Gohil Namrata Rasikbhai
Assignment topic: ‘Application of the Literary Term in the context of the Retelling of Myth’
Guide: Dr. M. B. Gaijan Sir
Ph.D. Registration No.: 1929 (16th May 2019)
Assignment Submitted to: The Dept. of English-MKBU
M.K. Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar-Gujarat (India).
Mail ID: gohilnamrata1992@gmail.com
Introduction:
The Ramayana and The Mahabharata are the base of the Hindu culture of India. In other words, they are the mirror of India because the most of the Hindu People follow them in their day to day lives. The Other religion people also take interest to know about the epics. It is the best example of the covid-19 lockdown. Because the most of the people of India liked to watch Ramayana of Ramanand Sagar in Door darshan Channel. It is interesting that the younger generation of India takes interest to watch it with their grandparents. The story of epics forwarded by one generation to other generation. It will also be forwarded by like that. In the present, people choose television to watch the epics rather than reading. The writers of India (Men and Women) solve the situation about present generation because they have started to write the retellings of the myths which deals with the present perspectives, especially women writers choose feminine perspective. There are many writers of retellings of myths but the women writers shine like the stars. They are Kavita Kane, Pratibha ray, Shashi Deshpande, Mahashweta Devi, Chitara Banerjee and so on. In simple way, I can say that the epics are the part of our lives in the present and also in the future. Retelling myths is a way re-centring women into the narratives, especially given that these stories are told by a male narrator and the female perspective is very small, if at all existent. When myths are retold by women, it places the reader at the perspective of the marginalised woman. Talking from the margins allows for intimate details to shine through – the emotional processes, the physical constrictions, and the political implications, which were all hidden till then. The authors of the retellings apply many terms like Deconstruction, Post Structuralism, Formalism, Post- Modernism and so on. But Deconstruction has become the most important term for writing retellings so I explain it. Here, I try to describe in this assignment with example of Volga’s the Liberation of Sita.
Deconstruction
as a Term:
Deconstruction, as applied in the criticism of literature, designates a theory and practice of reading those questions and claims to “subvert” or “undermine” the assumption that the system of language is based on grounds that are adequate to establish the boundaries, the coherence or unity, and the determine meanings of a literary text. Typically, a deconstructive reading sets out to show that conflicting forces within the text itself serve to dissipate the seeming definiteness of its structure and meanings into an indefinite array of incompatible and undecidable possibilities.
Deconstruction is a poststructuralist theory, based largely on the writings of the Paris-based Jacques Derrida. It focuses upon a close and critical reading of a written text to uncover the ways of thinking that constraint’s out impressions of the world. Deconstruction asserts that meanings, metaphysical constructs and hierarchical oppositions are always rendered unstable by their dependence on ultimately arbitrary signifiers.
Deconstruction viewed all writing as a complex historical, cultural process rooted in the relations of texts to each other and in the institutions and conventions of writing. According to Gale Cengage, Deconstruction embraced;
Derrida argued that ‘there is no meaning outside of the text’. All that we know is constructed of signs in relation to one another. Deconstructionist literary critics believe that language is inadequate to express the true meaning of a literary work. The believe that the author cannot fully control the meaning of the text. They attempt to show how interpretations that are regarded as truths are conditional and inconsistent. The deconstructionist critic does not view literary work as art. For him, language is inadequate to extend the true meaning of what is being represented by the work. The important Critics of the Deconstruction:
In Short, ‘Difference’ is an important concept in Derrida. According to Derrida, there is no fixed meaning in the text. The text is described as always in a state of change providing only provisional meanings. Meaning can point to an indefinite number of other meanings. For Example, ‘bed’ signifies:
This process continues endlessly, as the signifiers lead a chameleon like; existence, changing their colours with each new context. The result is that the meaning is always deferred. Derrida coined the word ‘difference’ thereby both the constant ‘deferral’ (to defer) to signifiers and the ‘difference’ (to differ) that distinguishes the various signifiers in the system from each other. So, there is no stable, fixed or final meaning, because it remains suspended between ‘defer’ and ‘differ’ without settling into one or the other.
Daisy
Johnson’s Views of Deconstruction and Retellings:
Daisy Johnson also interested about deconstructing a myth. He says that;
"...whatever that might mean. And so perhaps my interest in retllings comes from a place of terror, too. To write from scratch feels, to me, like digging into concrete with a spoon to make a space I can lie in without being trodden on. And - at the very least - with retelling there is half a hole there to begin with".
As
Clair vaye watkins says:
"Let us burn this motherfucking system to the ground and build something new".
Daisy Johnson says that
"I want to speak about retelling as a way of rewriting old construct, of talking texts and forming other texts from their bones. I want to also speak about a new style of writing that might emerge from the wreckage, and what it might look like."
In
The Laugh of the Medusa, Helene Cixous calls for "Ecriture Feminine "
or "Women's writing". She calls for a new style of written word,
separate from patriarchal language. A style where the female body - and here
let us now say all marginalized bodies are put into the text. Daisy Johnson
also shares his experience and says: "When I first began thinking of how
to explore these ideas, it wasn't as an essay but a story. A retelling, of
course. It seemed right that it would be a
retelling from a beginning. From the beginning.
Modern
Retellings and Deconstruction:
Modern retellings of the myth are simply part of the long tradition of interpreting and reinterpreting the Ramayana across the subcontinent. In some instances, this myth has travelled with diasporic populations and has found homes outside the subcontinent and taken on different meanings in these contexts. Richman's study of a Ramlila mounted in Greater London by the South Asian and African Caribbean diasporic community in Southall, which tackled themes of racism, socio-economic contexts and local and national politics, is an example of this. Another example is Nina Paley's 2008 movie, Sita Sings the Blues. Told in the form of an animated musical romantic comedy, and liberally peppered with 1920's jazz numbers, the movie mocks the monolith status that the Ramayana has obtained in the Hindu mythos by cleverly bringing out the inaccuracies and the misogyny, and by questioning the notions of the 'ideal man' and the 'ideal woman.'
My primary analysis consists of two such contemporary additions to the long tradition of alternative retellings of the Ramayana—Ambai's 'Forest' and Volga's The Liberation of Sita. Both are feminist retellings, and comment on and subvert the themes and teachings of the canon. The first subversion is the shift of focus from Rama to Sita and her story and the way power is gendered through the assignment of certain roles to characters is interrogated. The institution of marriage is portrayed as oppressive, the structures of Brahmanical patriarchy are mocked and attacked, and the need for an independent identity for Sita is called for. The portrayal of Rama as the ideal man, or purushottam, is questioned, as is the notion of the ideal wife, the pativratā. I now examine each text in turn.
Volga's The
Liberation of Sita:
Originally written in Telegu by feminist writer and poet, Volga, Vimukta, The Liberation of Sita is a short novel. As in 'Forest,' the novel begins after the banishment of Sita. Each chapter focuses on a female character from the Ramayana (Surpanakha, Ahalya, Renuka, Urmila) and how they have broken out of the roles written for them, and thus aid Sita in attaining her own liberation. What Volga attempts through these stories is a compelling exercise in 'revisionist myth-making.' This revision is not only the simple act of looking back, but rather an active re-making of the past and a re-invention of tradition. Volga thus does not merely use the re-visioning strategy to subvert patriarchal structures embedded in mythical texts but also as a means to create a vision of a liberated life for women. Instead of yet another man, it is other female characters who help Sita on her path. Thus, a community of women is created by representing myths from alternate points of view and by establishing a notion of a universal 'sisterhood.'
The novel uses the women of the myth as a device to systematically deconstruct and eventually, discard the inherent ideology of Brahmanical patriarchy. Surpanakha in her story, 'The reunion,' tackles the question of beauty and fulfillment that does not adhere to the male gaze. Rather than conforming to the 'good woman'/'loose woman' binary that dominant narratives use as a tool to justify control of women's sexuality, Volga turns the story on its head and frames Sita and Surpanakha as just two women who had to face violence from men in different forms. 'The music of the earth' is a retelling of the Ahalya story. In Volga's story, Ahalya meets Sita and talks about how the core issue is not of female fidelity or the lack of it, but of man's power to put it to test. Sita brushes this aside and only understands the implication of this argument when she is forced to go through the agnipariksha, and yet again when her chastity is under suspicion and she is banished. In the next story, 'The sand pot,' Renuka further pushes Sita to question other aspects of her pativratā dharma or marriage and motherhood. She likens a woman's pativratam to a sand pot—fragile to the extreme. A fleeting desirous glance at a gandharva makes her an adulteress in her husband's eyes—a husband who then orders her own son to behead her. It is, therefore, futile for a woman to anchor her identity in her marital status or her motherhood. The next chapter, 'The liberated,' presents the story of Urmila, Lakshmana's wife, who was left behind and undertakes a fourteen-year-long self-imposed penance. After being abandoned by her husband, Urmila withdraws into a self-imposed exile out of rage and spite. Eventually, however, this rage turns into a quest for the truth and she ultimately achieves inner peace. Later, when Sita contemplates going back to the royal household with her sons, it is Urmila who gives Sita the final push to decide to liberate herself from Rama. Sita's liberation from Rama is her real emancipation.
The final chapter, 'The shackled,' is Rama's inner monologue. Sita has gone back to the Earth, and he is back in Ayodhya with his sons. As always, he is 'shackled' to his dharma and his throne. Held captive by the prison of patriarchy and Arya dharma, he has no personal freedom. The only time Rama could just be himself was his period of exile in the forest, which to him was more of a boon since it freed him from the rigid frames of royal power. After that, at every stage, he is forced to treat Sita in a certain way and keep asking her to prove her purity because of his dharma as husband and king. Rama's self-awareness about his duties and the decisions he's forced to take, such as ordering Sita's trial by fire, can be seen as more of a test of Rama than of her. Except, as a king and an upholder of dharma, he was no longer seen as someone capable of familial attachment, affection, or even love. Thus, Volga's depiction of Rama is not shallow, wherein he is just a bad husband who treats Sita cruelly. Rama is portrayed as one systematically and ideologically compelled by his dharma. He is merely a puppet of the Brahmanical patriarchy of the time. Finally, the burden of protecting the Arya dharma robbed him of all the happiness in his life. David Shulman, in his close reading of Valmiki's and Kampan's versions, takes a similar stance. Volga goes a step ahead and subverts the narrative by depicting Sita as free, and Rama as trapped and in need of rescue. Sita had liberated herself, but there was no liberation for Rama.
Conclusion:
It is the only way to describe the Deconstruction term from my Side with this example of the retellings. The present generation is liked to read retellings then original epics. Because retellings give them answers of their personal life. Retelling is the solution of the present generation because it gives the answers in the modern way. Retellings of epic gives the answers when original epic gives the questions. The Liberation of Sita presents modernisation and gives answers of the present generation women which is meaningful.
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