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Authorship, History, and Race in Three Contemporary Retellings of the Mahabharata: The Palace of Illusions, The Great Indian Novel, and The Mahabharata (Television Mini Series)

Kalugampitiya, Nandaka M.,
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1462188638

Abstract Details

2016, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts).
In this study, I explore the manner in which contemporary artistic reimaginings of the Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata with a characteristically Western bent intervene in the dominant discourse on the epic. Through an analysis of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions (2008), Shashi Tharoor’s The Great Indian Novel (1989), and Peter Brook’s theatrical production The Mahabharata (1989 television mini-series), I argue that these reimaginings represent a tendency to challenge the cultural authority of the Sanskrit epic in certain important ways. The study is premised on the recognition that the three works of art in question respond, some more consciously than others, to three established assumptions regarding the Mahabharata respectively: (1) the Sanskrit epic as a product of divine authorship; (2) the Sanskrit epic as history; and (3) the Sanskrit epic as the story of a particular race. In their engagement with the epic, these works foreground the concepts of the author, history, and race respectively in such a manner that the apparent stability and unity of those concepts disappear and that those concepts become sites of theoretical reflection. In this sense, the three works could ultimately be seen as theoretical statements or discourses on those concepts. Given that the concepts in question are inextricably linked to the Sanskrit epic and the dominant discourse on the epic, the success and importance of each of the contemporary works as an approach that challenges the cultural authority of the Mahabharata depends upon the extent to which it complicates the concept that it engages with and foregrounds that concept as a site of theoretical reflection.
Vladimir Marchenkov (Committee Chair)
William Condee (Committee Member)
Brian Collins (Committee Member)
Ghirmai Negash (Committee Member)
219 p.
Asian Literature; Asian Studies; Comparative Literature; Fine Arts; Literature; South Asian Studies
Bakhtin; dialogism; intertextuality; The Palace of Illusions; The Great Indian Novel; Peter Brook; Mahabharata; Sanskrit epic

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Kalugampitiya, , N. M. (2016). Authorship, History, and Race in Three Contemporary Retellings of the Mahabharata: The Palace of Illusions, The Great Indian Novel, and The Mahabharata (Television Mini Series) [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1462188638

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Kalugampitiya, , Nandaka. Authorship, History, and Race in Three Contemporary Retellings of the Mahabharata: The Palace of Illusions, The Great Indian Novel, and The Mahabharata (Television Mini Series). 2016. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1462188638.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Kalugampitiya, , Nandaka. "Authorship, History, and Race in Three Contemporary Retellings of the Mahabharata: The Palace of Illusions, The Great Indian Novel, and The Mahabharata (Television Mini Series)." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1462188638

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.