[ PAPER ID: 51802 ] REDEFINING SELF AND SOCIETY: USE OF MYTH AS A TROPE FOR IDENTITY IN INDIAN LITERATURES IN ENGLISH

ARTICLE INFO: Date of Submission: Jan 02, 2026, Revised: Jan 15, 2026, Accepted: Jan 20, 2026, CrossRef D.O.I : https://doi.org/10.56815/ijmrr.v5i1.2026.163-172, HOW TO CITE: Arun Kumar Mukherjee & Anamika Chowdhury (2026). Redefining self and Society: use of Myth as a Trope for Identity in Indian Literatures in English. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research & Reviews, 5(1), 163-172.

Abstract

Belief in supernatural events, elfs and spirits shaping human destiny and the knack for tracing imprints of imitable ‘ways of life’ by courtesy the ennobling examples set by characters in myths and legends, have been the features of literature(s) from time immemorial and in the Indian context, these have actuated writerly concerns from the time of the epics down to that of the recent pandemic. The repositing of the self in terms of the society which is further built up with a palimpsest of values and cultural inputs accrued in the collective consciousness over generations, forms more or less the crux of Indian literature both in the colonial and postcolonial literature. The ‘worldcreating’ dimension of words in India’s Katha literature as utilized in the works of nationalist writers like Anand and Narayan, the strong ‘spirit of place’ in the novels of Raja Rao, the ‘rootedness’ of Narayan’s Malgudi as a quintessential Indian town in respect of its ‘mythic realism’ and the proliferative use of fables and folktales permeating the warp and woof of literatures of India’s North-east, unmistakably testify to how myths and legends, in overt or oblique ways, are incorporated in the creation of literature. The present article focuses on the role of myth in some major novels of R. K. Narayan and some selective poems of North-east India.