Feminist Narratology and Gendered Reimagining of the Mahabharata in Kane’s work Karna’s Wife: The Outcast’s Queen

Abstract

This research undertakes a critical exploration of narrative voice and silence in Kavita Kane’s Karna’s Wife: The Outcast’s Queen, with particular emphasis on the fictional character of Uruvi- a creation absent from the canonical Mahabharata yet instrumental in Kane’s retelling. By situating Uruvi at the narrative’s center, the study examines how her voice, emotions, and agency are meticulously woven to destabilize entrenched patriarchal hierarchies and to reframe the epic through the lens of feminist narratology. The analysis focuses on narrative strategies such as focalization, interiority, and character construction to reveal how Kane reimagines the Mahabharata not merely as a tale of war and dharma but as a stage where silenced female subjectivities find articulation.
The fictional insertion of Uruvi emerges as a deliberate act of counter-narration, one that unsettles the monolithic, male-oriented structure of the epic and compels a reconsideration of myth as a living, adaptable form of cultural memory. In foregrounding the silences and unspoken resistances within epic tradition, this study highlights how mythological fiction becomes a site for negotiating gendered histories and reclaiming marginalised voices. Ultimately, the research contributes to broader literary debates on gender, voice, and reinterpretation by demonstrating how feminist re-visioning transforms silence into speech, absence into presence, and myth into a canvas for contemporary cultural critique.