Myth, Memory, and Postcolonial Identity in O.V. Vijayan’s The Legends of Khasak

Registration ID: IJNRD_305896

Published ID: IJNRD2504381

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Dr Sudip Kumar Das

Postcolonialism, Magical Realism, O.V. Vijayan, Khasak, Indigenous Knowledge, Decolonization, South Asian Literature, Myth and Memory

This article explores the postcolonial dimensions of O.V. Vijayan’s The Legends of Khasak, situating the novel as a critical text in South Asian literature that reclaims Indigenous identity through myth, memory, and magical realism. This study examines how Vijayan critiques the residual impact of colonial epistemology—particularly through the character of Ravi, whose psychological journey reflects the alienation of the postcolonial subject. The narrative landscape of Khasak emerges as a cultural palimpsest, where suppressed oral traditions, folk spirituality, and cyclical time challenge the rationalism and historicism imposed by colonial modernity. Utilizing theoretical frameworks from postcolonial studies (Bhabha, Ngũgĩ, Smith), the article demonstrates how magical realism in Khasak becomes not a stylistic flourish but a narrative strategy of resistance. By foregrounding ancestral knowledge systems and disrupting colonial hierarchies of truth, Vijayan constructs a decolonial aesthetics rooted in the sacred and the subaltern. The article concludes that The Legends of Khasak is not only a landmark work of Malayalam literature but a vital postcolonial text that articulates a unique and spiritual path to cultural self-reclamation.

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Dr Sudip Kumar Das (April-2025). Myth, Memory, and Postcolonial Identity in O.V. Vijayan’s The Legends of Khasak. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NOVEL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, 10(4), d509-d513. https://ijnrd.org/papers/IJNRD2504381.pdf

Volume 10 Issue 4, April-2025

Pages : d509-d513

Paper Reg. ID: IJNRD_305896

Published Paper Id: IJNRD2504381

Downloads: 000121986

Research Area: Arts All

Author Type: Indian Author

Country: Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India

Published Paper PDF: https://ijnrd.org/papers/IJNRD2504381.pdf

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