Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature

Towards an Aesthetic of Dalit Literature
Author: Śaraṇakumāra Limbāḷe
Publisher:
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2004
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

"This book, the first critical work by an eminent Dalit writer to appear in English, is a provocative and thoughtful account of the debates among Dalit writers on how Dalit literature should be read. This book includes an extensive interview with the author, an exhaustive bibliography, and a critical commentary by the translator. Originally published in Marathi, this is the first English translation of the book."--Provided by publisher.

Writing Resistance

Writing Resistance
Author: Laura R. Brueck
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2014-06-10
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0231166044

Writing Resistance is the first close study of the growing body of contemporary Hindi-language Dalit (low caste) literature in India. The Dalit literary movement has had an immense sociopolitical and literary impact on various Indian linguistic regions, yet few scholars have attempted to situate the form within contemporary critical frameworks. Laura R. BrueckÕs approach goes beyond recognizing and celebrating the subaltern speaking, emphasizing the sociopolitical perspectives and literary strategies of a range of contemporary Dalit writers working in Hindi. Brueck explores several essential questions: what makes Dalit literature Dalit? What makes it good? Why is this genre important, and where does it oppose or intersect with other bodies of Indian literature? She follows the debate among Dalit writers as they establish a specifically Dalit literary critical approach, underscoring the significance of the Dalit literary sphere as a ÒcounterpublicÓ generating contemporary Dalit social and political identities. Brueck then performs close readings of contemporary Hindi Dalit literary prose narratives, focusing on the aesthetic and stylistic strategies deployed by writers whose class, gender, and geographic backgrounds shape their distinct voices. By reading Dalit literature as literature, this study unravels the complexities of its sociopolitical and identity-based origins.

Dalit Text

Dalit Text
Author: Judith Misrahi-Barak
Publisher: Routledge India
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2019
Genre: Dalits in literature
ISBN: 9781138494572

This book, companion to the much-acclaimed Dalit Literatures in India, examines questions of aesthetics and literary representation in a wide range of Dalit literary texts. It looks at how Dalit literature, born from the struggle against social and political injustice, invokes the rich and complex legacy of oral, folk and performative traditions of marginalised voices. The essays and interviews systematically explore a range of literary forms, from autobiographies, memoirs and other testimonial narratives to poems, novels or short stories to foreground the diversity of Dalit creation. Showcasing the interplay between the aesthetic and political for a genre of writing that has 'change' as its goal, the volume aims to make Dalit writing more accessible to a wider public, for the Dalit voices to be heard and understood. The volume also shows how the genre has revolutionised the concept of what literature is supposed to mean and define. Effervescent first-person accounts, socially militant activism and sharp critiques of a little explored literary terrain make this essential reading for scholars and researchers of social exclusion and discrimination studies, literature, especially comparative literature, translation studies, politics, human rights and culture studies. accounts, socially militant activism and sharp critiques of a little explored literary terrain make this essential reading for scholars and researchers of social exclusion and discrimination studies, literature, especially comparative literature, translation studies, politics, human rights and culture studies.

Untouchable Fictions: Literary Realism and the Crisis of Caste

Untouchable Fictions: Literary Realism and the Crisis of Caste
Author: Toral Jatin Gajarawala
Publisher: Fordham Univ Press
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2013
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0823245241

Untouchable Fictions considers the crisis of literary realism--progressive, rural, regionalist, experimental--in order to derive a literary genealogy for the recent explosion of Dalit ("untouchable caste") fiction. Drawing on a wide array of writings from Premchand and Renu in Hindi to Mulk Raj Anand and V. S. Naipaul in English, Gajarawala illuminates the dark side of realist complicity: a hidden aesthetics and politics of caste. How does caste color the novel? What are its formal tendencies? What generic constraints does it produce?

Dalit Literature

Dalit Literature
Author: Amar Nath Prasad
Publisher: Sarup & Sons
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2007
Genre: Dalits in literature
ISBN: 9788176258173

Dalit Text

Dalit Text
Author: Judith Misrahi-Barak
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2019-06-18
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1000006964

This book, companion to the much-acclaimed Dalit Literatures in India, examines questions of aesthetics and literary representation in a wide range of Dalit literary texts. It looks at how Dalit literature, born from the struggle against social and political injustice, invokes the rich and complex legacy of oral, folk and performative traditions of marginalised voices. The essays and interviews systematically explore a range of literary forms, from autobiographies, memoirs and other testimonial narratives, to poems, novels or short stories, foregrounding the diversity of Dalit creation. Showcasing the interplay between the aesthetic and political for a genre of writing that has ‘change’ as its goal, the volume aims to make Dalit writing more accessible to a wider public, for the Dalit voices to be heard and understood. The volume also shows how the genre has revolutionised the concept of what literature is supposed to mean and define. Effervescent first-person accounts, socially militant activism and sharp critiques of a little-explored literary terrain make this essential reading for scholars and researchers of social exclusion and discrimination studies, literature (especially comparative literature), translation studies, politics, human rights and culture studies.

When I Hid My Caste

When I Hid My Caste
Author: Baburao Bagul
Publisher:
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2018-07-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9789386702951

'Jevha Mi Jaat Chorli Hoti (When I Hid My Caste) was hailed as "the epic of Dalits." These brilliant stories gave Dalits the strength to face the painful and humiliating experiences of their wretched lives...'--K Satyanarayana and Susie Tharu Baburao Bagul's debut collection of short stories, Jevha Mi Jaat Chorli Hoti (1963), revolutionized Dalit literature, bringing to it raw energy and a radical realism--a refusal to understate or dress up gritty, brutal reality. Through the lives of people on the margins, Bagul exposed the pain, horror and rage of the Dalit experience. The unnamed young protagonist of the title story risks his life and job, and conceals his caste from his fellow workers in the hope of bringing about social change. Damu, the village Mahar, demands the right to perform a religious masque--a preserve of the upper castes--thus disrupting the village order. Jaichand Rathod revolts against his parents' wishes and refuses to take up the caste-enforced task of manual scavenging. Years of repressed maternal love begins to resurface when, in the face of death, Banoo calls out to her estranged son. And behind Savitri's desire for revenge lies the gruesome pain she suffered at the hands of her husband. Utterly unsparing in its depiction of the vicious and inhumane centuries-old caste system, this landmark book is now finally available in English, in a brilliant new translation by the award-winning author and translator Jerry Pinto.

Joothan

Joothan
Author: Omprakash Valmiki
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2008-07-02
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0231503377

Omprakash Valmiki describes his life as an untouchable, or Dalit, in the newly independent India of the 1950s. "Joothan" refers to scraps of food left on a plate, destined for the garbage or animals. India's untouchables have been forced to accept and eat joothan for centuries, and the word encapsulates the pain, humiliation, and poverty of a community forced to live at the bottom of India's social pyramid. Although untouchability was abolished in 1949, Dalits continued to face discrimination, economic deprivation, violence, and ridicule. Valmiki shares his heroic struggle to survive a preordained life of perpetual physical and mental persecution and his transformation into a speaking subject under the influence of the great Dalit political leader, B. R. Ambedkar. A document of the long-silenced and long-denied sufferings of the Dalits, Joothan is a major contribution to the archives of Dalit history and a manifesto for the revolutionary transformation of society and human consciousness.

Poisoned Bread

Poisoned Bread
Author: Arjuna Ḍāṅgaḷe
Publisher: Orient Blackswan
Total Pages: 390
Release: 1992
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

This Important Collection Is The First Anthology Of Dalit Literature. The Writers-More Than Eighty Of Them-Presented Here In English Translations Are Nearly All Of The Most Prominent Figures In Marathi Dalit Literature, Who Have Contributed To This Unique Literary Phenomenon.

The Oxford India Anthology of Malayalam Dalit Writing

The Oxford India Anthology of Malayalam Dalit Writing
Author: M. Dasan
Publisher: OUP India
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2012-01-26
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780198079408

With 55 selections from songs, poems, short stories, excerpts from novels, biographical sketches, plays, and critical writings, this volume represents the work of 36 writers and 19 translators. With all, save three, pieces specially translated for this anthology, the selections arranged chronologically present a worldview and vocabulary of the Dalit movement in Kerala built on rebellion and a struggle for identity and recognition.