Feminist Rewritings of the Ramayana and the Matter of Britain: Differences in Approach and Execution
Abstract: Using the recently-published anthology Breaking the Bow: The Speculative Ramayana, Nina Paley's film Sita Sings the Blues, and various Arthurian retellings, particularly Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, as starting points, this paper will compare re-envisionings of two cultural myths / tales � the Arthurian saga, also known as the Matter of Britain, and the Ramayana, which is both religious text and epic tale. I hope to offer a preliminary analysis of some of the differences in approach, particularly in terms of feminist retellings, between South Asian and British approaches to re-envisioning these oft-told tales. As part of the analysis, I'll discuss my own choices in rewriting Sita's story for my story, "The Princess in the Forest," which was published in Breaking the Bow.