Tracing the mythological preoccupation in the writings of Arun Joshi: A Study of The Apprentice and Mythic Narratives

Abstract

Mythological associations with literary text are conspicuous in Arun Joshi‘s fiction. His writings have mythic touch both in content and in style. He has tried to modernize ancient myths through his novels. The myths of split personalities which gradually lead to isolation are inter-woven. Arun Joshi‘s The Apprentice is an effort to explore a repentant soul, which strives to find its way in this crooked society. Akin to The Foreigner and The Strange Case of Billy Biswas, the present novel too, Joshi defines the unbearable dilemma of the character. At present, in every walk of life, one is bound to face disorder, bewilderment, dishonesty, insincerity and illogicality. It makes the current man, who is beautifully responsive, feel powerless and estranged not only from the culture and his neighboring but also from himself. He becomes injured party to the ―petrified and frozen‖ society of the contemporary abuses world, which he finds not appropriate for his disposition.