Dalit Bildungsroman: A Modernist Perspective into the Poetics of Self in Jhoothan

Abstract

This article analyses the incompetency of Indian philosophy of ‘Absoluteness’ and Western genre of classical Bildungsroman to analyse the process of self-formation in an odyssey of a Dalit. The modern contemporary era negotiates post-colonial and postmodern approaches to provide a heuristic view to the subjected self of a Dalit. The modernist approach takes Dissensual Bildungsroman into consideration. Om Prakash Valmiki’s Jhoothan narrates an experience of a subjugated and unheard voice and his journey of self-acculturation. The paper pre-eminently concerns with unique and experimented form of self which can provide a tantamount status to the pariah community and their culture compared with the elite Hindu community and among its wide range of readers and audience.