Narrative Refusal: Mahasweta Devi’s Characters Who Refuse Redemption

Abstract

Mahasweta Devi has occupied a singular position in Indian English literature for her uncompromising engagement with political injustice, gendered violence, and state oppression. Unlike conventional narratives that move towards reconciliation, healing, or moral closure, Devi's fiction persists in resisting redemption. This paper argues that Mahasweta Devi constructs characters who refuse sympathy, transformation, or ethical resolution to disturb the dominant expectations of narration. This study proposes "narrative refusal" as a conscious aesthetic and ethical strategy rather than a failure of narration, through a close reading of Draupadi, Stanadayini (Breast-Giver), and Rudali. Her protagonists do not emerge as redeemed victims or triumphant survivors but confront the readers with unresolved trauma, bodily exhaustion, and moral discomfort. Denying catharsis and closure, Devi places the onus of ethical responsibility on the reader, compelling confrontation rather than consolation. The paper draws on insights from narrative ethics, feminist theory, and anti-redemptive literary frameworks to demonstrate how refusal is converted into a radical political tool in Devi's writing. The study furthers existing scholarship on Devi by going beyond resistance-centred and empowerment-based approaches to position her as one of the writers of anti-redemptive political aesthetics within Indian feminist and subaltern literature.