The Boneless Tongue: An Investigation Of Oral Literature Of Bhutan Through Memory Studies

Abstract

The present paper is an attempt to investigate the role of oral literature of Bhutan in its process of becoming and rebecoming as a nation using the theoretical framework of memory studies. This youngest democratic and modernized nation has a rich repository of oral literature symbolizing the fluidity and adaptability of its socio-cultural memories. These memories invested and preserved in oral narratives have affected the designing and fabricating of Bhutanese value systems and destabilized the grand narratives of history and power. The concept of the boneless tongue underscores the political interplay of the continuing presence of the past in the present through the folk voices manifested in the oral literature of the country. These voices have been politically curated for the conscious memory-making of present-day Bhutan, which has been scrutinized in the present research to interrogate how these voices represent the collective memory of the country, how they act as cultural resources to shape the social and historical identities, and how they are used to privilege particular readings of the past and subordinate other. Overall, the paper will explore the intersection of memory, cultures and identities substantiated in the oral literature of Bhutan to examine the construction of the national identity of Bhutan.