Imagining the Dalit Identity: An Analysis of Narrative Techniques in Select Dalit writing
Open Access
- 30 October 2022
- journal article
- Published by Perception Publishing in The Creative Launcher
- Vol. 7 (5), 69-85
- https://doi.org/10.53032/tcl.2022.7.5.06
Abstract
This paper analyses the narrative techniques of two Dalit texts; an autobiography called Joothan by Omprakash Valmiki and a novel called Koogai: The Owl by Cho. Dharman. Through this analysis, the paper presents an account of the changing socio-political conditions of the Dalits in India after independence. Using the theoretical framework of narratology, the paper argues that the two very different narrative styles present in these two texts are reflective of the respective conditions within which their writers found themselves in and the larger socio-political questions that the Dalit emancipation movement was dealing with during those periods. Another aspect that the paper covers is how these two texts present the inherent conflicts and contradictions within the Dalit identity. It then asks the question whether these contradictions should be flattened to present a more homogeneous conceptualisation of what it means to be a Dalit or whether the identity should be imagined alongside these contradictions.Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Tamil Dalit Literature: Aesthetics, Politics, and Life NarrativesBiography, 2017
- Literary Criticism and TheoryPublished by Taylor & Francis Ltd ,2014
- Democracy against DevelopmentPublished by University of Chicago Press ,2013
- Changing educational inequalities in india in the context of affirmative actionDemography, 2008
- Hindi Dalit Autobiography: an Exploration of IdentityModern Asian Studies, 2007
- Bama’s Karukku: Dalit Autobiography as TestimonioThe Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 2006
- Is India Becoming More Democratic?Journal of Asian Studies, 2000