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@article{173739,
        author = {Tuhina and Dr. Shivani Vashist},
        title = {From Village Tales to Urban Realities: Oral Traditions and Identity in Meera Syal’s Anita and Me},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2025},
        volume = {11},
        number = {10},
        pages = {1186-1194},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=173739},
        abstract = {This study examines Anita and Me by Meera Syal through the lens of cultural hybridity and postcolonial theory, focusing on oral traditions, cultural memory, and identity formation in diasporic contexts. Set in the fictional British town of Tollington, the novel follows Meena Kumar, a first-generation Indian immigrant navigating dual identities in 1970s Britain. Syal employs oral storytelling—folktales, family narratives, and communal rituals—as a means of bridging generational and cultural gaps between immigrant parents and their children. These oral traditions preserve cultural heritage while enabling hybrid identity negotiation in shifting diasporic landscapes. The study argues that oral storytelling in Anita and Me functions as both a resistance to cultural erasure and a tool for adaptation. By contextualizing Syal’s novel within broader migration, memory, and identity discourses, the paper highlights storytelling as a site of cultural negotiation. The novel intertwines rural Indian narratives with urban diasporic realities, emphasizing the persistence of oral traditions in shaping transnational identities. Ultimately, this research underscores the significance of storytelling in maintaining cultural continuity and fostering belonging in a globalized world.},
        keywords = {Oral traditions,  Cultural memory, Identity formation, Migration and memory   Transnational identities, Generational divides},
        month = {March},
        }