Jul 2026· Social Science Journal for Advanced Research· Vol 6, pp. 1-10· 0 citations· 12 references
Abstract
This article does a comparative study of the narrative strategies of O.V.Vijayan (1930-2005) and R.K.Narayan (1906-2001), two towering figures in Indian Literature who worked in fundamentally different linguistic registers and with divergent aesthetic and political commitments. Vijayan, writing primarily in Malayalam, is positioned here as a practitioner of vernacular modernism whose linguistic experimentation with dialect, myth, and indigenous oral forms constitutes a form of decolonial praxis. His self-translations into English, rather than smoothing the rough edges of the vernacular, are read as acts of rewriting that negotiate the politics of translation and postcolonial representation. R.K. Narayan, by contrast, operated exclusively within the English literary tradition, adopting what might be termed a domesticated realism shaped in part by his relationship with Western publishing and mentorship. This paper argues that while Narayan’s Malgudi fiction performs a subtle resistance to colonial epistemologies through irony and humor, his narrative form remains embedded in Eurocentric realist convention that limits the scope of his decolonial critique. The paper subjects that claim to rigorous factchecking, nuancing the comparison where necessary, and situates both writers within the broader frameworks of postcolonial theory, Global South literary studies, and the politics of literary language.
This essay argues that the Orientalism of nineteenth-century travel writing is carried by literary form, and it demonstrates the claim comparatively. The denial of coevalness — the placing of the observed in a time other than the observer's, in Johannes Fabian's term — is by now a recognized feature of the genre; this essay asks at what level of the text it is produced. Reading two stylistically antithetical narratives — Charles Doughty's Travels in Arabia Deserta (1888), written in a deliberately archaic, biblically inflected prose, and Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad (1869), written in a brisk American vernacular — it shows that both, by opposite formal means, deny the East a present coeval with the observer's. Doughty's scriptural register transposes Arabia into biblical time through diction, syntax, and tense; Twain's modern, ironic voice fixes the East as belated and unprogressive. That two such different styles converge on the same temporal distancing indicates that the effect is a property of the genre's forms — the eyewitness posture, the ethnographic present, the spectacle frame — rather than of individual prejudice. Reading with Said, Fabian, Bhabha, Pratt, and Spivak, the essay further argues that the same close attention to style exposes what those forms suppress: an East differentiated by region, tribe, and sect, in which Eastern voices themselves perform acts of distancing. Beneath the single binary the forms inscribe, the texts preserve the outline of a multiply centered Orient — a finding that connects nineteenth-century travel writing to current world-literary debate about centers and peripheries.
Hussain Waleed Abulfaraj· Journal of Arts, Literature,...· 0 citations
The emergence of Indian English fiction in the post-independence period has significantly contributed to the articulation of postcolonial identities and the interrogation of colonial legacies. Indian novelists writing in English have transformed the language of the former coloniser into a medium for representing indigenous experiences, cultural complexities, and socio-political realities. This article examines three influential Indian English novels—Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things (1997), Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss (2006), and Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger (2008)—through the theoretical framework of postcolonial studies. Drawing upon the concepts of Edward Said, Homi K. Bhabha, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Frantz Fanon, the study investigates how these novels negotiate issues of identity, hybridity, marginalisation, displacement, and resistance. The article argues that these texts collectively reveal the persistence of colonial structures within contemporary India while simultaneously exposing the contradictions of globalisation, capitalism, caste hierarchy, and cultural alienation. Roy explores the intersections of caste and colonial memory, Desai examines the fractured identities produced by migration and globalisation, and Adiga foregrounds class oppression within neoliberal India. Through different narrative strategies, the three novels challenge dominant representations of India and expose the continuing effects of colonial discourse in shaping postcolonial realities. Ultimately, the study demonstrates that Indian English fiction functions as a critical site where the complexities of postcolonial existence are negotiated and reimagined.
Rajni· International Journal of Eng...· 0 citations
In 'primary oral societies', notions of repetition, addition, malleability of characters and agonistic contexts in narrative myths differ markedly from Western notions of time, orthodoxy and tediousness. What Western audiences and image-viewers expect as a consequence of their cultural background does not match the expectations of those who belong to oral societies. InThe Language of Myth and Art, Witelson and Lewis-Williams strive to distance the language of Western myth and art from that of San myths and rock art.
The book argues that Western categories such as 'myth' and 'art' obscure the inner logic of Indigenous San (Bushman) expressive culture. Drawing on performance theory and the principles of orality, they show that nineteenth-century |Xam and related San languages illuminate the chains of allusion and metaphor that pervade everyday speech and performances of myth, ritual, and image-making. By placing language at the center of interpretation,The Language of Myth and Artoffers a new approach to the expressive culture of oral societies, with implications far beyond southern Africa.
Saadat Hassan Manto is one of the greatest Urdu short story writer of the twentieth century in the Indo Pakistan Sub-continent. Born in the colonial period, his literary pursuits reflect the culture, customs, language and traditions of the prevalent society. Manto has the singular honour of being renowned short story writer of colonial as well as postcolonial period. Homi K. Bhabha is a well-known postcolonial theorist and has extensively dilated his concepts of Mimicry, Ambivalence and Hybridity etc. Manto’s short story Farishta has been analyzed under the lens of theory of Bhabha s Mimicry, Ambivalence and Hybridity thus exploring yet another dimension of Manto;s literary works. This is a new vista of critique from Bhabha theory and bi-lingual analysis which further enhances significance of this short story.
R. Paper, Dr. Freeha Nighat, Ph.D Pak et al.· The social science· 0 citations
The review discusses K. Sultanov’s monograph on the evolution and operation of literatures in newly created written languages in Russia, examined in the context of emerging narrative identities. In his study of historic-literary and theoretical aspects, the scholar explores the balance between tradition and innovation as the key factor driving the development of multiethnic literature. The book’s method synthesizes the approaches of philosophy, cultural studies, and literary theory, ensuring the holistic quality of the research. Analyzing works of various local ethnic literatures and Russian literature, the study uncovers processes that guide the transformation of the local ethnic worldview, the role of historical memory, and the risks of ‘hijacking’ history. The book takes a close look at the dialogue between literatures and cultures and examines the importance of maintaining an equilibrium between tradition and modernity amid postmodern relativism. The reviewer suggests that the findings of the study will be helpful for the analysis of ethnic literatures in a global context.
U.R. Ananthamurthy (1932–2014) was a key figure in modern Indian writing. He significantly shaped Kannada and Indian writing with his important novel Samskara. As a leader of the Navya (modernist) movement in India, Ananthamurthy used fiction not only for storytelling but also to explore India's complex ties with tradition, modernity, and morality. The current study explores the expressive dimensions of Indian culture as manifested in his book Samskara, highlighting how the Kannada language—rich with cultural idioms, philosophical concepts, and oral tradition—is used to dramatize ethical dilemmas rooted in caste, ritual, and personal identity. Praneshacharya's spiritual crisis in Samskara prompts critical reflection on complex concepts through real-life experiences. The book possesses a local rhythm, reflecting colloquial speech patterns while employing modern narrative techniques. U.R. Ananthamurthy's broader intellectual and political life—including his role as a critic of religious orthodoxy and nationalist ideologies, and his active engagement in academia and cultural institutions—further contextualizes Samskara as a work of resistance and reform. This study expands the commentary on the central philosophical and moral tensions within U.R. Ananthamurthy’s Samskara, a novel that interrogates the foundational aspects of Indian religious and social life.
Dr. A. Santha Devi, Dr. E. Justin Ruben, Dr. Santhi et al.· International journal of res...· 0 citations
