Valmiki's Ramayana is the story of Rama's exile and return to Ayodhya - that of a triumphant king who will always do right by his subjects.
In Volga's retelling, it is Sita who, after being abandoned by Purushottam Rama, embarks on an arduous journey to self-realization. Along the way, she meets extraordinary women who have broken free from all that held them back: husbands, sons, and their notions of desire, beauty and chastity. The minor women characters of the epic as we know it - Surpanakha, Renuka, Urmila and Ahalya - steer Sita towards an unexpected resolution. Meanwhile, Rama too must reconsider and weigh out his roles as the king of Ayodhya and as a man deeply in love with his wife.
A powerful subversion of India's most popular tale of morality, choice and sacrifice, The Liberation of Sita opens up new spaces within the old discourse, enabling women to review their lives and experiences afresh. This is Volga at her feminist best.
VOLGA is a noted feminist writer in Telugu. Her nearly fifty publications include novels, plays, short-story collections, collections of essays and poetry. and translations. Svechcha, Rajakeeya Kathalu, Neeli Meghalu, Charitra Swaralu, and Maaku Godalu Levu are some of her most significant volumes. Among the e many awards she has received are the Nandi Award for the Best Story Writer (the Government of Andhra Pradesh, 1998), the Best Woman Writer Award (Telugu University, 1999), the Suseela Narayana Reddy Award (2009), the Kandukuri Veerasalingam Literary Award (2013), the Lok Nayak Foundation Award (2014), and the Sahitya Akademi Award (2015). She is currently the executive chairperson of Asmita Resource Centre for Women, Hyderabad.
T. VIJAY KUMAR is Professor of English at Osmania University, Hyderabad. He has co-edited Globalisation: Australian-Asian Perspectives (2014) and Focus India: Postcolonial Narratives of the Nation (2007). He has translated into English (with C. Vijayasree, 2002) Kanyasulkam, an early twentieth-century Telugu classic by Gurajada Venkata Apparao. He is one of the founding editors of Muse India: The literary ejournal and a director of the annual Hyderabad Literary Festival.
C. VIJAYASREE (1953-2012) was Professor of English at Osmania University, Hyderabad, and Director, Osmania University Centre for International Programmes. Her publications include Suniti Namjoshi: The Artful Transgressor (2001), Mulk Raj Anand: The Writer and the Raj (1998). Writing the West: Representation of the West in Indian Literatures (2004; editor), Nation in Imagination: Essays on Nationalism, Sub-Nationalisms and Narration (2007; co-editor).
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
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