WHEN DREAMS TRAVEL AND THE PALACE OF ILLUSIONS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY (Pages 57-63) by Ms. Sejal Pancholi in THE ENGLISH RESEARCH EXPRESS / ISSN:2321-1164 (Online); 2347-2642 (Print)

The paper to be presented focuses on two texts When Dreams Travel and The Palace of Illusions of Githa Hariharan and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni respectively from the perspective of culture and traditions. Culture and traditions brought out in the novels help to study the inner hidden potentials of the protagonists. Narrative and deployment of myth helps in the study of culture and tradition imminently. Passing of the days bringing change in the society leaves certain things in tact. The strength of woman remains steadfast. Yet this is unknown to the then society and present day society too. The novels ‘When Dreams Travel’ and ‘The Palace of Illusions’ are different from one another in terms of period, culture and traditions. ‘When Dreams Travel’ also known as ‘The Thousand and One Faces of Night’ is based on the Arabian Night Tales and ‘The Palace of Illusions’ is retelling the age-old saga of Indian epic Mahabharata. Both the novels show autocracy and the difference in culture found in representative periods of the novels is mainly due to their respective religions and resulting cultures and traditions Keywords: culture and traditions, protagonists, myth, autocrat, cultural difference etc.