ঢাকার শহুরে উপকথা : নগর জীবনের লোককাহিনী ও ডিজিটাল আর্কাইভিংয়ের সম্ভাবনা/ Urban Folklore of Dhaka : Folk Narratives of City Life and the Prospects of Digital Archiving

Abstract

Cities are living repositories of stories, beliefs, and traditions. While folklore studies in Bengal have traditionally focused on rural life, rapid urbanization has transformed the nature of folklore, giving rise to distinct ‘urban legends.’ Dhaka, a 400-year-old megacity, serves as a highly fertile ground for such narratives due to its layered history, social stratification, political trauma (particularly the 1971 Liberation War), and rapid environmental changes. This paper explores the urban folklore of Dhaka, categorizing its narratives and anlyzing their socio-cultural significance. Drawing upon qualitative fieldwork conducted between 2019 and 2024, including in-depth interviews with over 200 informants, digital ethnography of social media platforms, and archival research, this study identifies five recurring motifs: the woman in white, the vanishing passenger, the cursed room, drowning entities, and the restless artisan. By applying Propp's narrative model, Thompson's motif-index, and Foucault's concept of heterotopia, the paper demonstrates how these narratives reflect class inequality, gender vulnerability, economic precarity, and collective memory. Furthermore, it addresses the paradigm shift from oral transmission to digital propagation (Facebook, YouTube, TikTok). Finally, recognizing the ephemeral nature of these digital narratives and the urgent threat of cultural amnesia, this paper proposes a comprehensive framework for a community-based digital archive. Utilizing open-source tools like Omeka and Mukurtu, Dublin Core metadata, and ethical consent protocols, the proposed archive aims to preserve the subaltern voices and historical traumas embedded in Dhaka's urban folklore.