Devdutt Pattanaik's The Pregnant King as A Postmodern Mini Narrative

<p>The Pregnant King, written by<br>Devdutt Pattanaik in 2008, is a novel that<br>is lauded for its unique narration and plot.<br>There are many elements in the novel with<br>regards to narrative style that can be<br>analysed to arrive at a closer meaning of<br>the text. This research work will explore<br>Devdutt’s novel as a postmodern mininarrative. The Pregnant King is based on<br>The Mahabharata and has traditional<br>tropes and elements, but the novel takes a<br>unique approach to these elements. This<br>research will show how this approach<br>makes the novel a mini narrative. This<br>article will discuss how the gender-based<br>and societal binary oppositions within the<br>text mark the move away from<br>metanarratives that rely on such binaries to<br>provide meaning. It will also discuss the<br>inherent intertextuality and hyperreality as<br>an important feature that juxtaposes grand<br>themes and character arcs with more<br>ordinary, unheroic ones. The paper will<br>attempt to analyse the novel as a<br>postmodern mini narrative by using the<br>concepts of Lyotard and Baudrillard.</p>