Tradition, Modernity, and Cultural Conflict in Indian and Canadian Literary Narratives

In this research paper, I shall explore the phenomenon in the selected Indian and Canadian literary narratives at micro-level- how tradition coexists with modernity and how cultural conflict emerges amidst a society undergoing social transformation. The study primarily seeks to examine the tensions between inherited traditions and emergent modern identities in writings from India and Canada. The study aims among others to investigate the portrayal of generational conflict, migration and cultural hybridity in the context of social structures undergoing rapid change; to explore the negotiation of identity within these new paradigms. It maintains that, against the backdrop of different historical and sociocultural conditions, literary narratives from both contexts demonstrate similar tensions between cultural heritage preservation on the one hand, and modernization pressures on the other. Theoretically, the study takes on a comparative literary perspective underpinned by cultural and postcolonial theoretical insights. It uses textual analysis to interrogate not only themes, but characterization, narrative strategy and the symbolic representation of cultural ambivalence. The research is predicated on the novel idea that Indian and Canadian literary texts, albeit set in different historical/cultural contexts, speak to similar concerns of identity formation/belonging/cultural continuity under the aegis of globalization and social change. The results illustrate cross-cutting themes which reflect convergences and divergences in these narratives, thereby contributing to larger conversations around cross-cultural literary studies and contemporary literature's dynamics of cultural negotiation.