Reconfiguring Identity Through Historical Consciousness: A Rüsenian Reading of Vishakanya in Roshani Chokshi’s Mythic Fiction

Abstract

Our inherent tendency toward retrospective meaning-making is interrogated through a critical examination of past narratives, which are often shaped by bias and presentist concerns. This paper proposes historical consciousness as an expanded interpretive framework for navigating the present and anticipating the future through engagements with the past. While the transmission of historiography through formal education has been widely examined, comparatively less attention has been paid to the role of fictional narratives in cultivating historical consciousness. Mythic fiction functions as a narrative medium in which myth and history intersect, facilitating the articulation of temporal consciousness while reflecting cultural and historical sensibilities. This study analyses how historical consciousness is mediated through select mythic works by Roshani Chokshi, namely A Crown of Wishes (2017) and the short story “Poison and Gold” from Star-Touched Stories (2018). The analysis centres on the character Aasha, a Vishakanya, to examine the interplay between cultural memory, temporality, morality, and identity formation. Employing hermeneutic textual analysis, the study explores the reinterpretation of the Vishakanya motif within shifting cultural and historical contexts. The application of Jörn Rüsen’s framework demonstrates Aasha’s evolving historical consciousness and its implications for psychosocial and moral transformation, shaped by inherited cultural narratives. The findings suggest that mythic fiction operates as a significant narrative site for reinterpreting cultural memory and fostering historical consciousness in contemporary readerships.