“Aagay Samundar Hai” in the context of Oral History, Identity Crisis and Emotions

Abstract

Oral history of every region coincides with its culture. The pursuit of “Oral History” has a very rich tradition, so viewing, analyzing and documenting history with this facet is a new tool to explore and deciphering history. It not only discloses new facts about the past but these telling facts figure out explication about those things and ideas which are derelict, overlooked, and remained unexplored by traditional and political historians as well as connects us with popular culture and tradition. The canvas of subaltern studies could be expanded by adopting this interpreting approach to study and analyze history. While studying this we come across humongous societal crises among them identity crisis is one. This article ascertains the tradition of ‘Oral History’ in a novel, ‘Aagay Samundar Hai’, an identity crisis which has occurred right after partition. It also reconnoiters emotions which are agglutinated with oral tradition; enable us to delineate strong linkages between literature and history and, thus, narrativizes history through it.

Keywords

• oral history, oral tradition, popular culture, thing theory, identity crisis, emotions, literature