• Loyangamba Naorem
• Syed Mehataj

This paper examines how myth and folklore function as tools of postcolonial cultural identification in Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and Ben Okri's The Famished Road. In order to depict the complex sociopolitical landscapes of postcolonial civilizations, both novels use magical realism, including indigenous mythology and folkloric aspects into their stories. The setting of The Famished Road is post-independence Nigeria, within which the spirit child Azaro oscillates between the realms of the living and the supernatural. Okri resorts to Yoruba folklore to build a story that transcends the boundaries of the flesh and time, reclaiming an African spiritual and cultural self under the shadow of the colonial legacy. Similarly, in One Hundred Years of Solitude, Márquez weaves mythological Colombian myths with factual historical material to describe how colonialism has affected Latin American identity, and the composition of a world where the myth blurs into reality within the magical town of Macondo, symbolizing Indigenous memory surviving Western domination. Drawing from Homi Bhabha's theories of hybridity and the ‘third space’, this essay asserts that both authors create myths that resonate as a form of resistance against colonial erasure. They posit myth and folklore as a way of cultural survival and life adaptation. Ultimately, this study will show how these authors, by putting folklore in the narrative, redeem the post-colonial identity but more crucially critique the continued effects of the instigation of colonialism on the people's consciousness.

myth, folklore, postcolonial, One Hundred Years of Solitude, The Famished Road

"Myth and folklore as tools of postcolonial cultural identity in The Famished Road and One Hundred Years Of Solitude", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.11, Issue 12, page no.a729-a734, December-2024, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2412066.pdf

"Myth and folklore as tools of postcolonial cultural identity in The Famished Road and One Hundred Years Of Solitude", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.11, Issue 12, page no. ppa729-a734, December-2024, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2412066.pdf