Existential Writings in Malayalam as a Form of Post- Colonial Mimicry and Hybridity: A Reading of M. Mukundan’s Short Stories

Abstract

Regional Literatures from India have been forms of reflection of the post-colonial fledge. They have influenced the making of the nation, both inside and outside the territorial boundary of India. Along with the Indian Writings in English, translations of regional or bhasha literatures have had a huge impact in reflecting the image and nature of the country to the world. Regional literatures also had been the face of de-colonization and regional ethnicity. Short stories and novels by O.V. Vijayan, Vaikkom Muhammed Basheer and T. Padmanabhan are some such works. But M. Mukundan, on the other hand, pointing his feet on a very Indian and Keralite setting, worked on globally appealing themes. This paper analyzes how M. Mukundan’s lenience towards the western and more universal themes like existentialism is an act of mimicry and how his stories produce a hybrid culture out of it, which, in a wider perspective, becomes a postcolonial strategy of resistance just like what Achebe did in the African context. This paper further explores how the translation of his works into many languages helped M. Mukundan to shine brighter among the global readership.