| Summary: | Abstract
Myths and mythology have always attracted critical attention. As the first creative faculty of the human mind,
authors use them as framework for their writings. Myths are ideology-laden narratives, with a deep
psychological impact. They are the living embodiments of India’s cultural consciousness, tales Indians live by
and breathe on a daily basis. Critics acknowledge their power as sources of information, while feminists bring
out their hidden politics. Myths maintain a master-slave, superior-inferior relationship between men and
women. A feminist perspective deconstructs the male dominance and foregrounds the suppressed female
voices in these tales. The present paper focuses on Snehalata Reddy’s revisionist writing of the fire-test
episode from the Ramayana told from Sita’s point of view in the play with the same name. The play
foregrounds the agony and humiliation of Sita and unmasks, step by step, the hegemonic strategies adopted
by patriarchy to keep women in subordinate position. Derrida’s deconstruction theory and feminism’s idea of
‘ecriture feminine’ are used as methodological frameworks for this analysis. Foucault’s ideas on the production
of truths and Baudrillard’s hyperreal world will be also referred to.
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