Menstruation: Myths, Mythology and Taboos in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Palace of Illusions

Abstract

This world has always belonged to males, and none of the reasons given for this has ever seemed sufficient. By reviewing prehistoric and ethnographic data in the light of existentialist philosophy, we can understand how the hierarchy of the sexes came to be. 

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Chitralekha Banerjee, 1956) is a famous Indian American author who has gained repute in the literary world as a poet, short story writer, novelist and essayist. She is an award-winning and best-selling author and teacher of writing. Her work has been published in over 50 magazines, including the Atlantic Monthly and The New Yorker, and her writing has been included in over 50 anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Prize Stories and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. Her books have been translated into 29 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Bengali, Russian and Japanese, and many of them have been made into films and plays. Divakaruni has autobiographical elements in most of her works