As memory scholars navigate towards a third wave in memory studies, recent debates have redefined how communities remember and re-narrate the past. Folklore, as a living form of cultural expression, offers a vital space in which to examine these processes of remembering. This article adopts an integrated framework, focusing on a folk phenomenon to explore how collective and individual memories interact, revealing their coordination and conflict through oral tradition. Drawing on the theoretical concept of entangled memory, the study examines the legend of Kadamattathu Kathanar to trace its polyphonic, transcultural, and adaptive features within Kerala’s narrative landscape. The article demonstrates how entangled memory informs the evolution of folk narration, generating multiple variants and reinterpretations. In doing so, the article shows that memory-making within folklore is shaped by individual, socio-political, cultural, and geographical factors and positions this legend as a dynamic site of cultural negotiation.
K et al. (Fri,) studied this question.