Name of the Author: Ashique Rashul Research Scholar, Dept.

of English Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh Contact: +91-9359566840 E-mail: ashiquerashulamu@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Translating Myth into Metaphor: Reading Mahasweta Devis Breast-Giver

Mahasweta Devis (1926- ) current reputation as a writer rests largely on her own selfprojection as champion of the tribal cause and decrier of class prejudice. Her literary image has also been reshaped by the efforts of Gayatri Chakravarty Spivak, whose translations and theoretical formulations seek to place Mahasweta in an international frame of theoretical postulations. Especially the subaltern studies by Spivak on Mahasweta Devis work gained her international fame which covers a large discourse on postcolonial criticism. In many of her works Mahasweta Devi has written on the subordination of women in Indian society. The idea of motherhood is a major theme in many of her writings. In the story Breast-Giver she translates and recreates the myth of mother Jashoda drawn from Mahabharata, completely altogether in a new light in the post-colonial India. The present paper is concerned with the study of Devis idea of motherhood, the mythical significance and how a mother stands as a metaphor for the nation, India.