Myth as a Narrative Vehicle in R.K.Narayan’s The Man Eater Of Malgudi

Abstract

R.K.Narayan’s special position as interpreter of the contemporary Indian cultural scene needs to be understood in terms of his cultural values- particularly literary values- from India’s past. His art expresses a genuine, formal as well as contextual continuity with the best efforts of Indian literature. He is also expressive in the English idiom, so sophisticated and sensitive to the western literary tastes that we are rightly struck by his affinities to the large tradition of western literature. And yet it can’t be said of Narayan that he is a man whose sympathies and ideals separate him from his own society and its history.