International Journal For Multidisciplinary Research

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A Widely Indexed Open Access Peer Reviewed Multidisciplinary Bi-monthly Scholarly International Journal

Call for Paper Volume 7, Issue 4 (July-August 2025) Submit your research before last 3 days of August to publish your research paper in the issue of July-August.

Post-Truth Literature and the Politics of Belief: Interpretation, Manipulation, Fictiocracy, and Incredulity in Contemporary Indian Narratives

Author(s) Mr. A. Rajesh Kannan, Dr. P. Nainar Sumathi
Country India
Abstract Abstract:
Contemporary Indian literature has become an important space for questioning the intricate web of belief, truth, and narrative construction in the post-truth world. The study explores critically the ways literary narratives engage with post-truth practices such as linguistic manipulation, pseudofactuality, fictiocracy, and reader incredulity to mirror and critique the epistemic uncertainty of contemporary Indian society. Through the calculated use of fractured narration, metafictional techniques, and allegorical criticism, these texts expose the processes by which truth is fabricated, disputed, and frequently militarized within dominant ideologies. Through a reading of influential works by Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Geetanjali Shree, Perumal Murugan, Meena Kandasamy, and Samit Basu, this research examines how literature resists the epistemic erasure inherent in post-truth discourse, providing alternative forms of knowledge production that contest both historical revisionism and media-facilitated distortions.
Positioning itself in the larger debate about narrative epistemology and post-truth politics, this research contends that literature is not simply a reflection of post-truth realities but an active agent that intervenes within them, serving as a location of epistemic resistance. Fictions like The Ministry of Utmost Happiness and Tomb of Sand subvert narrative stability to reveal the vulnerability of truth, whereas Poonachi and Exquisite Cadavers challenge fictiocratic hierarchies that control political and social realities. In addition, speculative and dystopian fictions like The Wall and Chosen Spirits foster an incredulous mode of reading, which forces the audience to scrutinize the artifice of "truth" both in fiction and reality. By applying textual analysis in conjunction with critical theory, the research brings into prominence the contributions of Indian literature to the predicaments of the post-truth era, shedding light on how narrative fictions of literature traverse the fault lines separating fact, fiction, and ideology.
Keywords Keywords: Post-truth literature, linguistic manipulation, pseudofactuality, fictiocracy, incredulity, epistemic resistance, narrative epistemology, historical revisionism, ideological frameworks, metafiction, speculative fiction, Indian literature, narrative construction.
Field Arts
Published In Volume 7, Issue 4, July-August 2025
Published On 2025-07-29
DOI https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i04.52347
Short DOI https://doi.org/g9vpn7

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