Volume IV Special Issue III March 2024

Name of Author : Maria Rincy

Title of the paper : From Epic Silence to Narrative Voice: Rewriting Myth, Gender, and Marginality in Kavita Kanes Karnas Wife: An Outcasts Queen

Abstract: This paper examines the revisionist reinterpretation of myth in Kavita Kanes novel Karnas Wife The Outcasts Queen, which revisits the epic narrative of the Mahabharata from the perspective of marginalized and previously silenced characters. Traditional mythological narratives often reflect patriarchal and hierarchical social structures that limit the representation of women and socially marginalized figures. Through the technique of revisionist mythmaking, contemporary writers reinterpret these narratives to challenge dominant ideological frameworks. Kavita Kanes novel foregrounds the voice of Urvi, a fictional wife of Karna, thereby providing an alternative perspective to the well known epic. By narrating Karnas life through Urvis viewpoint, the novel explores themes of caste discrimination, gender inequality, loyalty, and moral conflict. The study analyses how Kane reconstructs the mythological narrative to highlight the emotional struggles, social humiliation, and heroic resilience of Karna while simultaneously foregrounding female agency. Drawing on theoretical perspectives on myth and feminist revisionism, the paper argues that such retellings transform epic narratives into spaces for questioning entrenched power structures and recovering suppressed voices. The novel reimagines myth as a dynamic cultural form capable of addressing contemporary concerns about identity, justice, and representation.

Keywords : Revisionist mythmaking, Feminist reinterpretation, Mahabharata retelling, Marginalized voices.

DOI :

Page Number : 52-56