A Never-ending Braid: Witch bodies in Indian fiction and popular culture

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I intend to write a novel that recovers the voices of women identified as witches in contemporary India. Drawing upon myth, popular culture and fairy tales, I will re-ground 'Rapunzel' to examine the regulation of women's bodies, with a focus on hair as an embodiment of feminine self-expression. My critical thesis will examine the gap between contemporary literary fiction from India that describes witchcraft accusations and the resultant disempowering of women, and popular culture narratives that communicate witch bodies as non-human and their hair/braids as a source of 'unnatural' feminine power.