A Postcolonial-Feminist Reading of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions

Abstract

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's novel The Palace of Illusions (2008), presents a radical postcolonial-feminist retelling of the Mahabharata. The novel centers Draupadi's voice, which has been ignored, in order to question patriarchal and colonial hegemonies. The purpose of this article is to examine how the novel dismantles epic traditions in order to reclaim subaltern subjectivity, hybrid identities, and gendered spatiality. Additionally, this study engages with theoretical frameworks developed by Spivak, Bhabha, and Said. The narrative of Divakaruni transforms Draupadi from an object to an agency. This transformation is shown in her defiance during the cheer-haran, where she says, I would not let them see me weep. This particular moment exemplifies Spivak's requirement to unlearn privilege whenever subaltern representation is being discussed. The text's historiographic metafiction, which is comparable to that of Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea and Morrison's Beloved, reveals the ideological foundations of canonical myths while simultaneously employing Bhabha's interstitial perspective to negotiate cultural hybridity.