Re-writing History and Myth as Re-creating Identities: A Study of Jibanananda Das's Narrative Technique.

Both history and myth are perceptive creations of human imagination. History often retains the source of mythological narratives. Similarly, the narratives of myth represent history, tradition, culture and, of course, the knowledge of a particular language, region, and country; therefore, akin to history, myth can be considered a source of knowledge as well as a systematic form of art- narrative technique and an essential element in the formulation of native knowledge system. Jibanananda Das, in his writings, rewrites regional history and myths that show the cultural affinities and cognizant values of Bengal and India in general. With this perception, based on historical and mythological significance, representing identical values, Das's poems "I have Seen the Face of Bengal" (1934), "The Chariot of History" (1946), and "Banalata Sen" (1935) are the most authentic manifestation of mythological as well as historical values of Bengali people. At the same time, Das's prose fiction and mythological references provide precise historical documentation, such as Sutirtha (1948), representing the contemporary Partition crisis. The quintessential mythological narratives in each poem of Das and the references to the contemporary historical contexts in his prose fiction provide readers with magnificent sources of knowledge and perspectives to internalise the self-history narrative, culture, and tradition (of Bengal). This research paper aims to study Das's re-interpretation of history and myth in his selected poems and a novel, adding a new path to look into the existing mythological sense and historical discourse in academia. The study also intends to explore Das's re-interpretation of history and myth as a distinctive literary technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]