Modern Tamil Literature 2
Sornam Sankara
indran) writes:
>
>``Akbar Sastry'' is a collection of stories written by Thi Janakiraman.
>In the acknowledgements, Thi Janakiraman refuses to call them short
>stories. He opines that there may not be even ten people in the
>world literature who can write genuine short stories. So he prefers to
>call the stories in that collection `scenes' or by `some other name'.
>
>
>It is hard to come up with the definition of a genuine short story.
>Ka Naa Su says ``any definition (of a good short story) is as
>good as any other. The proof of the story is the story itself..... A
>critic measures the success of the short story by the inevitability of
>the form the writer has given to it. If it looks as if the story could
>be cast in another mould, the story invariably seems to fail''.
>
>
>A short story does not have the luxury of the novel for an elaborate set
>up. While subjective, form, content, and style are three major
>characteristics of a short story. The human life is filled with so many
>phases of experiences. A good short story may capture one of these
>phases and without the author explicitly saying anything, should make
>the reader feel it in him.
>
>
>It is generally accepted that V V S Aiyar, who was an excellent
>literary critic, was also responsible for introducing the short story
>in Tamil. The Manikkodi group did draw inspiration from him.
>
>
>
>There were basically two groups in the '30s. One was the popular group.
>Kalki, T. N. Subramaniyan, Rajaji are three of the prominent members of
>this group. The other was the Manikkodi group. While there were several
>fine writers in this group, I'll just mention Pudumaippittan, Ku Pa Ra,
>and Mowni.
>
>
>The philosophy of the popular group was to write stories for
>entertainment values, and to achieve the political agenda of the
>Congress. Their style of writing appealed to a large number of audience.
>It must be admitted that Kalki was responsible for getting a large
>number of people into the reading habit.
>
>
>On the other hand the aim of the Manikkodi group was to create literary
>awareness, in addition to political awareness, in that period.
>The financially strapped, short
>lived-revived-and short lived magazine Manikkodi started off with
>political commentaries and literary experiments and then turned
>into a magazine of purely literary experiments. Many members of the
>group were influenced by the writings of Maupassant, Tolstoi, Gorki,
>Shelley, Keats, to name a few. The group experimented freely, as we can
>see from their writings. There were diferences among the members of the
>group as to the nature of literature itself, outlook towards society,
>life etc. The output was, however, some of the best short stories in the
>world. Pudumaippittan was creative genius personified. Ku Pa Ra
>experimented and succeeded with form. Mowni was called by Pudumappittan
>as ``the Thirumoolar of the Tamil short story''.
>
>
>
>What is the contemporary situation? Popular magazines like Kumudam,
>continue to dominate the scene. Serious short story
>writers (there are a good number of them) still depend on small
>magazines with limited circulation. It has been quite a while since I
>came to US and I have been told by some of my friends that the popular
>magazines nowadays do occationally publish some serious short stories.
>I don't know if this is a new trend or merely a sign of the editors
>of these magazines temporarily reacting to the constant criticism
>against them.
>
>
>
>As promised earlier, I will try to post some of the stories in the
>collection I mentioned in one of my earlier postings. Those stories
>will speak for themselves, though the translations do take away
>something from the originals.
>
>
>--
>Kuppusamy Ravindran ra...@hilbert.math.ksu.edu
>Department of Mathematics ra...@matt.ksu.ksu.edu
>Kansas State University ra...@ksuvm.ksu.edu
>Manhattan, KS 66506 (913) 532-6750
Mr. Ravindran, I appreciate your excellent postings and expect you to
continue the spirit. Though I am not so knowledgeable, I regain the fine
feeling I had when I was reading a few of those writers. I wish to make a few
comments relevent to the discussion, but certainly not to divert from your
coherent writing.
Literature has an important purpose of picturising the constructions of a
society with realism. Language is only a medium of portrayal. Literature is
not purely language sake nor for the sake of entertainment.
Tamil has a melody with rhyming words but our ancient literature had a
social fabric along with the melody (though realism is not common in all of
them). For the last 3-4 decades, poetry is misconstrued as a mere jugglery of
sentences.
Similarly, novels or short stories are not meant for just entertainment.
They should reflect the reality in the society. For example, Chola regime, in
spite of being called as the golden period, had created many social
inequalities in Tamil nationality. Caste and class hierarchies were
institutionalized. "Devadasi" system of sexual iltreatment of women came into
existence and it shaped into a caste basis. Wars were glorified and Chola
kings were behind bloody wars with many kingdoms. It is true there were many
good aspects of Chola regime. But the historical novels enter into
"anthappuram" and glorify private fantasies without even having a concern for
the malaise of the system.
The powerful skill of writing in Tamil helped the popular writers. No
doubt, they were very talented in writing in Tamil So they satisfy the reader
only with the language and entertainment. They do not reflect the social
structure nor they create any social thoughts.
The popular weeklies have established a wrong (irreversible ?) taste among
the readers. All the true literature were published in short lived small
magazines. A few writers became popular through small magazines and have
gotton entry into popular magazines very recently. Mr. Ravindran probably
refers them in his last paragraph. Ki.Rajanarayanan was writing mainly in
small magazines especially cultural magazines run by radical-left wing
magazines. After a few years he became popular among the common people because
of simplicity and the literary value of his writings. He has got recognition
in Ananda Vikatan publications. Here again, the popular magazines go for
business only.
Lastly, I have to mention a few very good magazines which presented good
Tamil literature (apart from other features) and some of them
disappeared after a few issues. "Puthuyugam", "Ini" and "Mana Osai" were very
important among them. There are a few others like "Palam", "Layam" etc.
"kanaiyali" is averagely successful among most of the small magazines. " Mana
Osai" was becoming very good in content and circulation, but a couple of months
back, it was stopped because of politcal pressure.
The publishers/editors of these magazines and literature start with full
enthusiasm, lose all their money and end up with frustration. I have
personnally seen some people suffering like this. Unless an awareness is
created among the Tamils, any effort will be incomplete.
The above are just my thoughts and I do not want to enter into any
discussion till Mr.Ravindran completes his series.
S.Sankarapandi
ssan...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
Kuppusamy Ravindran
Sundara Pandian
> Literature has an important purpose of picturising the
> constructions of a society with realism. Language is only
> a medium of portrayal. Literature is not purely language
> sake nor for the sake of entertainment.
There are two views here .
(1) To measure all literary works with realism.
(2) To seperate the literature into two categories,
(a) Works for light reading
(b) Works for serious reading
and measure the category (b) with realism.
I have met many critics in India who share the view (1).
They discard works of Kalki, Saandilyan as unrealistic, that
they don't reflect social values inherent. Sankarapandi gives
an impression that he shares view (1) with them.
I have view (2). I classify books as light books and
serious books and judge serious books by my own standards .
In one of my earlier articles where I noted Pudumaippithan,
I added that Pudumaippithan leaves other writers far behind
Kalki notwithstanding. That is with reference to category (b).
I wrote another article on Kalki's "Ponniyin Selvan". That is
with reference to category (a). Considered as light reading,
Kalki's "Ponniyin Selvan" is an interesting work. The story
has a lot of twists and the author always keeps his readers in
suspense. My aasaan mocks at books like these as
"parisu cheettu yaarukku ?"
I think that our reading will become very limited if we
restrict ourselves to category (b). ( Manikkodi works belong to
this category ). Not just that, light reading is also a part of
Literature. Devan's "Thuppariyum Saambu", "Kalyani", etc. are
not serious works. That is no reason for us to ignore them.
The author does not claim that he has written a serious work,
which will change Tamil literature. The author is modest and
admits that his works carry only humor values. When the author
himself doesn't make any pretentious claims, I don't see any
reason why we should demand him to write a realistic work.
But category (a) is not enough. The kernel of a language
rests on category (b). Unfortunately , for Tamil, people take
light works seriously and serious works lightly. I plead guilty
for the same. I have not read many serious works and I failed
terribly to read La.Saa.Raa's "Puthra". The book was too hard
and I made no attempts to read it again. It is hard to cultivate
an interest in serious works.
Jeyakanthan is one of those writers who float between the
two categories. I like his short-stories , "Gurupeedam" etc.
His books ( in his early period ) carry social values. It is hard
to name Tamil writers who write with realism. Not that there are
only a few. I have not read many serious books.
> Tamil has a melody with rhyming words but our ancient
> literature had a social fabric along with the melody ( though
> realism is not common in all of them ). For the last 3-4
> decades, poetry is misconstrued as a mere jugglery of sentences.
>
Not at all. The ancient Tamil literature that we have is
mostly written and preserved by ruling class. You won't find
many books on class struggle. They were lost.
I also classify poems into the two categories as above,
and I read poems with some nice wordplay. What's wrong with this ?
"Muththaithiru paththithiru..."
However I admit that "kavithai"s these days are mostly prose and
I fail to see any poetry in them, let alone realistic values.
>S.Sankarapandi
>ssan...@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
S.Pandian
s...@cec1.wustl.edu
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