https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i3.043
From Object to Author: Narrative Voice, Divinity, and Discursive Power in Divakaruni’s Mythological Rewritings
ANANYA
Research Scholar
Department of English and Foreign Languages
M.D.U, Rohtak, Haryana
Email: ananya.rs.eng@mdurohtak.ac.in
DR GULAB SINGH
Professor
Department of English and Foreign Languages
M.D.U, Rohtak, Haryana
Email: gulab@mdurohtak.ac.in
Abstract: This paper examines how narrative voice reshapes the representation of divine femininity in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions and The Forest of Enchantments. By positioning Draupadi and Sita as first-person narrators, Divakaruni’s mythological rewritings foreground interiority and self-articulation within figures traditionally mediated through epic narration. Drawing on Gérard Genette’s narratology, the study analyses how shifts in voice and focalisation reorient narrative authority, enabling divine characters to emerge as reflective, self-aware subjects rather than merely symbolic presences. Michel Foucault’s concept of discourse further illuminates how epic traditions function as frameworks that shape what can be spoken and how meaning is produced; within this context, Divakaruni’s narratives expand these discursive possibilities by centring perspectives that remain implicit or underemphasised in canonical texts. Engaging Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s concerns with representation, the paper reads these narrative choices as acts of revoicing that make space for alternative modes of expression without displacing the cultural and religious significance of the originals. Rather than positioning these rewritings as oppositional, the study situates them as interpretive continuities that deepen engagement with mythological traditions. By foregrounding subjective experience, emotional complexity, and ethical reflection, Divakaruni’s narratives invite readers to reconsider how divinity is accessed and understood in contemporary literary contexts. Ultimately, the paper argues that narrative voice functions as a critical locus through which divinity is reimagined, enabling a shift from objecthood to authorship within modern mythological fiction.
Keywords: Narrative Voice, Focalisation, Representation, Mythological Rewritings, Feminist Reinterpretation
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