In Search of the Fragments of Recollection: Cultural Memory and Identity in Select Travel Narratives of Tahir Shah

Divyasree  J S; B.  Sajeetha

doi:10.35684/JLCI.2023.10103

Authors

Divyasree J S Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sree Ayyappa College for Women, Tamilnadu, India
B. Sajeetha Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sree Ayyappa College for Women, Tamilnadu, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.35684/JLCI.2023.10103

Keywords:

Culture, Cultural memory, Identity, Storytelling, Morocco

Abstract

Culture, memory, and identity are intricately connected terms. Memory is not just an individual experience but plays a prominent role in the establishment of both individual and cultural identity. Jan Assmann, in his essay “Collective Memory and Cultural Identity”, has defined cultural memory as “the characteristic store of repeatedly used texts, images, and rituals in the cultivation of which each society and epoch stabilizes and imports its self-image; a collectively shared knowledge of preferably (yet not exclusively) the past, on which a group bases its awareness of unity and character” (15). Storytelling is a universal act of preserving the cultural aspects of a community. The works selected for the present study are The Caliph’s House and In Arabian Nights written by the travel-writer Tahir Shah. This paper intends to analyze the connection between cultural memory and cultural identity as presented in the selected works from two levels. Firstly, it studies how the author reaffirms the cultural identity of Morocco by exploring the cultural elements and the art of storytelling, and secondly, how he ascertains his personal identity through his explorations and experiences as a traveller.

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Author Biographies

Divyasree J S, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sree Ayyappa College for Women, Tamilnadu, India

Divyasree J S is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Sree Ayyappa College for Women, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari District, Tamilnadu. She is currently pursuing her doctoral research (Part-time) at the Department of English and Research Centre, Sree Ayyappa College for Women affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli. She has presented papers at various international and national seminars and conferences and has published papers in books. Her areas of interest are Travel Literature, Linguistics, Communicative English, and ELT.

B. Sajeetha, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Sree Ayyappa College for Women, Tamilnadu, India

Dr. B. Sajeetha is an Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Sree Ayyappa College for Women, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari District, Tamil Nadu. She has more than fifteen years of teaching experience. She has presented many papers at various international and national seminars, and has published scholarly articles in reputed journals and books. Her areas of interest are Canadian Literature, Communicative English, Literary Theory, and Indian Literature in English.