Summary Of Githa Hariharan's A Ram Or A Sita

Chapter – II

Demythification

Widely different sources, from fairy tales and myths, jokes and witticisms, from folklore, that is from what we know of the manners and customs, sayings and songs of different peoples, and from poetic and colloquial usage of language (Freud)

Post modern fiction uses the narrative technique of mixing the myth and History. The post modern novelists create their works by reshaping the past to make the readers to understand the present. Post modern novelists have established themselves from the issues related to modern techniques so they tend to revision the past. Indian women novelists were highly educated and they were highly experienced to deal with the problems of women in the Indian society. Githa Hariharan uses

Loving brothers are still a Ram-Laksman, an idle couple is still a Ram – Sita or a Laxmi – Narayan... old stories, carry a weight of meaning, which, most of those who are familiar with the stories, would immediately comprehend.(2003: 88)

Lot of values embedded in mythological stories and myths are an integral part of the life. It can’t be segregated from the historical traditions and religious beliefs.

In Githa Hariharan’s debut novel The Thousand Faces of Night, she uses the technique of demythification, as a process of networking among the women of different ages through the re-presentation of myths. The stories were closely interlocks the stories of three women from different generations, Devi, Sita & Mayamma. “These stories explore the various hues of darkness” (Tripathi 175). The stories were knit with the stories from myths. The mythological figures represents as a tool to pacify the psychological wounds. Githa Hariharan herself tells:

I used this approach to enlarge the limited space of women’s lives. The background of the “mythical figures from Sita to Kali can help us to understand Indian women’s lives, instead of just seeing that they are hammed in.”