Styles: Week 3 Project

Topic: My Storybook topic is going to be the representation of women within Indian epics.  My goal is show four different examples within the Ramayana and the Mahabharata that demonstrate women being underestimated and mistreated due to their gender.  One story that I will be focusing on will be Sita’s trial by fire within the Ramayana.  Another story, I want to include is Ahalya’s story of being turned to stone by her husband.  I believe that both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have several examples of women who are degraded because of their gender.  While I do believe that each is only defining the role of women within that culture and time period, I believe that it is not right.  I have not yet decided if each story should have a different female character or possibly the same character such as Sita. 

Bibliography:

Narayan, R. K. (1972) The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic.

Sutherland, Sally J.  “Sita and Draupadi: Aggressive Behavior and Female Role-Models in the Sanskrit Epics.”   Journal of the American Oriental Society 109.1 (1989): 63-79.  Web. 30 Jan. 2015.                

Possible Styles:

Women as Storytellers: One possible way to tell this story is to give each of the women a voice because the Ramayana gives practically no firsthand accounts from females.  By doing this,
it would allow the reader to see firsthand how these women feel about being mistreated and how they have practically no choice to do so.  I feel that this would be the most powerful writing style in conveying my point. 

Men as Storytellers:  I know that this may sound odd, but these instances of women being treated poorly due to social customs could also be done through their oppressors.  I think I could write these stories with the men describing what an ideal woman is and how each woman does or does not live up to it.  By doing this, the reader will be able to see the blatant mistreatment of women.

Contemporary Comedy Version: I know this choice is kind of broad, but I was thinking about having each of the characters being friends and telling these horror stories of relationships to each other.  It is kind of cheesy, but I was thinking about having them sit around while eating, like The Golden Girls or Sex and the City, and telling these stories.  I think it would be hilarious and a refreshing change to the original story.

Contemporary Drama Version: Instead of doing something funny like my previous post, I was thinking about writing these stories from the views of contemporary women who are struggling to be seen as more than a woman.  These women could all be in the same working profession and struggling to be taken serious by their male coworkers and bosses.  By making it more serious and even heartfelt, it would show these women as really struggling against female stereotypes.

Sita and her son Lava.  Source:  Wikipedia