VOICES OF DEFIANCE: A CROSS-CULTURAL COMPARATIVE STUDY OF FEMALE RESISTANCE IN ROYAL HISTORIES, TAMIL EPICS, AND SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY

This study undertakes a cross-cultural and comparative analysis of female resistance as represented in three symbolic figures: Velu Nachiyar from South Indian royal chronicles, Lady Macbeth from Shakespearean tragedy, and Kannagi from the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram. This study examines how each figure articulates female agency within distinct socio-political and literary frameworks by drawing on feminist historiography, postcolonial theory, and memory studies.While Velu Nachiyar embodies anti-colonial sovereignty and martial leadership, Lady Macbeth dramatises the psychological and moral costs of female ambition within patriarchal power structures, and Kannagi transforms widowhood and grief into cosmic justice.The study highlights how genres such as epic, tragedy, and chronicle shape not only narrative form but also cultural memory.The very factor also determines whether female resistance is celebrated, pathologised, or mythologised.By juxtaposing these figures across historical and literary terrains, this study reveals convergences in courage and agency while tracing divergences in representation and afterlife, ultimately contributing to feminist and postcolonial debates on gender, power, and narrative authority.