REIMAGINING FOLKLORE IN INDIAN ENGLISH LITERATURE

Abstract [English]

The paper will discuss how oral traditions and folklore have influenced the narrative structures and thematic issues of Indian English literature. Although the literary medium of English in India developed in a colonial context, most Indian authors have used the rich oral storytelling traditions to re-pattern the language and shape of their writing. The study uses Raja Rao Kanthapura, Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, and The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh to argue that oral traditions are not simply being preserved but are actively being changed in these texts. These changes enable authors to bargain with issues of memory, identity, and cultural continuity within a postcolonial setting. The paper illustrates how oral forms of narration challenge linear narration, reconfigure linguistic expression, and challenge the dominance of written forms linked to colonial power using theoretical insights by Walter J. Ong, Alan Dundes, and postcolonial critics like Homi K. Bhabha and Ngugi wa Thiong’o (Ong 36). Finally, the paper places Indian English literature as a locus where orality and literacy meet, producing hybrid narrative forms that mirror the intricacies of Indian cultural experience.