IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 23, Issue 10, Ver. 2 (October. 2018) 55-63 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0837-2310025563 www.iosrjournals.org 55 | Page An Analysis of Devi in the Graphic Novels of India: A Feminist Case Study. Supriya Banerjee Center for Comparative Literature Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan. Corresponding Author: Supriya Banerjee Abstract – This paper proposes to examine an existential pastiche „Devi‟ in India as a point of departure, and construct a continuum which interfaces with the lived lives of Indian women. The Devi is a popular and venerated motif in literature. She is the space upon which the contestations of woman‟s empowerment and identities are reconfigured in the present day India. However constructed upon binaries which make her central and essential in all her discourses also fragments her into an open unrestrictive discursive field, which remains a simulacrum. Furthermore, the all-pervading popular rhetoric of 'Devi' is a part of the male hegemonic discourse, and the modern day paradox lies in the desirability of a Devi, aka „superwoman‟, in terms of recognizable roles, images and models.Not only is an attractive and desired self-image of women constructed, it also provides a normative model of citizenship for the gendered female. Key words – Graphic novels, popular culture, feminism, deconstruction, representation, women, digitalization. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date of Submission: 24-09-2018 Date of acceptance: 11-10-2018 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. INTRODUCTION Recent development in social thoughts have heightened our awareness of how theories of emancipation can be blind to their own dominating, exclusive and restrictive tendencies and how feminism is not innocent of such tendencies (Foucault, 1984; Grimshaw, 1993).For instance, in India, the discourses which featuredstrong women also taught them to maintain self-discipline necessary to maintain their feminity while pursuing individual wish fulfillment in a predominantly masculine world. The paper proposes to explore the representation of the Indian superwoman Devi in the graphic novel series Devi produced in the year 2006-2008 by Virgin Comics. Located within the framework of recent developments in the social, economic and political areas in India, the Devi embodies the idea of “perfectness” within changing hegemonic assumptions and p ower centers of India. The framework of the research paper is approached by its foci on difference, deconstruction and decentering as its theoretical framework. As resistancesoccurred within the feminist discourse of emancipation, it alsocreated new power centers that politicized the domains of gender formations, gender roles and gender expectations. The millennium year which heralded a digitalized, internet savvy India, several confrontations and negotiations occurred simultaneously. This was the time in which a new morality was in the process of being negotiated, women were beginning to try on new social roles, gender boundaries were getting permeable and within various forms of literature, young, fearless, unmarried women were attaining prominence gradually.This narrative created pronounced and untenable schism for women who were unable to negotiate the structures that maintained the status quo. The plot of the graphic novel Deviproduced by Virgin comics in the year 2006-2006. This series is produced by Shekhar Kapoor, the noted film and documentary maker. The plotis based on a fictional character Tara Mehta, a young Indian girl, who transforms into a Devi through certain circumstances. The background of the story situates Devi, a goddess, created by the gods to fight a renegade god Bala in the second century of man. The Devi on the instruction of the supreme lord Bodha captures, blinds and imprisons Bala in volcanic craters for eternity. However, Bala escapes in a bat like form and enters the earth in the present day. With the return of Bala in the present day universe as a criminal bat like form, the Devi is recalled again. This time she takes the form of Tara Mehta, a young, single woman living in Sitapur, India. The evil lord Bala in in the quest of a „source‟ which is a sacred power channel through which the prayers of the humanity on earth is channelized to „Aakashik‟ or the story‟s representation of heaven. This replenishes the power of the gods and makes them even more powerful and purer. The present day Devi, who is Tara Mehta, lives with her boyfriend. The boyfriend Iyam is the agent of the evil lord Bala. However as soon as she awakens to her powers as a Devi, Iyam shows Devi his true colors and becomes her opponent. An Apsara named Kratha is hired to kill her. Kratha is a mercenary and carries her