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With centuries of literary and cultural legacy, Indian mythology has seen a steady yet revolutionary evolution of Radha. This paper explores the feminist interpretation of Radha embodied in Finding Radha: A Quest for Love (2018) in contrast with intersectionality, gender constructs, and socio-political realities. The study is concerned with moral/ethical judgment that has been bestowed upon women, as imagined in classical Indian society, and whether Radha’s character supports or subverts such ideologies. This article discursively analyses the performance of cross-dressing as a feminist ideal, challenging the application of queer theory to analyse agency, performativity, and transgressing ideas of gender. In addition, it explores erasure of their female counterparts in gendered ways and historical silencing, examining how Finding Radha reworks this narrative.
Ms. Merrishka Makinen, and Prof. Lokdeshwar More. “Radha and the Feminine Mystique: Reinterpreting Myth in Finding Radha: The Quest for Love by Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal through the Lens of Intersectional Feminism.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 2, Apr. 2026, pp. 920–945. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n2.59.
Open Access · CC BY 4.0 · Crossref DOI ·
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