Hariyā Hercules kī Hairānī: Reading the Novel Through the Lens of the Kumaoni Community

The paper aims to investigate Manohar Śyām Jośī’s fourth novel Hariyā Harkyūlīz kī hairānī in a postmodern take, lending particular attention to the role of the kumāūṁnī community. Firstly I introduce the author, moving then to the concept of postmodernism and particularly to the related debate within the Hindī literary field. The following section consists of a synopsis of the plot and of an analysis of the most relevant postmodern aspects of the novel: the importance of plurality and ontological instability, the break with the three basic narrative unities (story, characters, places) and the presence of irony to recover the past in an innovative way. Finally, I will focus on the role of the kumāūṁnī community within the novel. Every episode is, in fact, seen from the viewpoint of this specific social group and any external account is considered unreliable. I will therefore discuss the influence of this community both on the content and linguistic level, including a brief section about the Kumāūṁnī language.