Telugu Women Writers, 1950-1975 Andhra Pradesh, India
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Telugu Women Writers, 1950-1975 Andhra Pradesh, India A Unique Phenomenon in the History of Telugu Fiction (A Critical Study) Nidadavolu Malathi 2013 © Malathi Nidadavolu All Rights Reserved Email: [email protected] No part of this book may be reprinted without express permission from the author. Contact author for permission at [email protected] ii Contents Foreword by Nidadavolu Malathi ....................................................................................... iv In Her Own Words by Sarayu Rao................................................................................... vii Ending the boilerplate Literary History by Kalpana Rentala................................... ix 1. WOMEN WRITERS .......................................................................................................... 1 2. FAMILIAL STATUS and SOCIAL CONDITIONS ............................................. 15 Education ................................................................................................................................... 16 Marital status ........................................................................................................................... 18 Familial status ......................................................................................................................... 18 Economic status ...................................................................................................................... 20 Weekly and monthly magazines....................................................................................... 22 Magazine editors and magazine circulation numbers .............................................. 23 The academy ............................................................................................................................ 24 Female scholars’ perspective in the academy ............................................................ 26 Discerning readers outside the academy...................................................................... 27 Andhra Pradesh Sahitya Akademi ................................................................................... 28 Women writers as a target of ridicule ............................................................................ 31 Use of pseudonyms ............................................................................................................... 32 3. THEMES ............................................................................................................................... 35 4. CRAFTING THEIR STORIES ..................................................................................... 58 5. CULTURE AND HUMOR..................................................................................................... 82 6. CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 91 WOMEN WRITERS, 1950-1975 (Partial list) ......................................................................... 95 WORKS CITED: ..................................................................................................................... 97 INTERNET SOURCES ............................................................................................................. 99 ABOUT THE AUTHOR ........................................................................................................... 100 iii Foreword by Nidadavolu Malathi In the history of Telugu fiction, one quarter of a century following the achievement of our independence in 1947, from 1950 to 1975, stands out as unique for women’s fiction writing. Contrary to the popular belief that women’s writing suffered for want of “a room of her own” and/or lack of economic resources, Telugu female writers wrote and published their fiction with extraordinary success. Sitting quietly in their kitchens or on the back porch, they wrote and rose to a level where they could dictate their terms to magazine editors and publishers, demand contracts without submitting complete manuscripts, and were paid higher than their male counterparts. Using female pseudonyms by male writers became common during this period. To the best of my knowledge, this is unique and happened only in Andhra Pradesh. In the past several centuries, women writers were quiet and anchored in religion. Present day writers are highly vocal and anchored in their ideologies. Historically positioned between these two groups, approximately one hundred women created distinctive fiction for a period of two and a half decades. This book is an attempt, however small, to examine their contributions contextually, and demonstrate that they, quiescent on the surface, had raised potent questions and expressed unconventional views powerfully in their fiction. I started out with a couple of premises: first, in our culture, which evolved over a period of several centuries, the demographics have played a vital role in formulating the familial and societal values. Secondly, women in the past had created their own world imbued with rituals, stories and songs, anchored in religion. Their literature was conformational. Starting in the eighties, women writers have labeled themselves as feminists, created a world of their own with separate magazines, organizations, literatures and websites, and are anchored in their ideologies. Their fiction and poetry are confrontational. Positioned between these two groups, the women writers of the fifties and sixties created fiction, taking a significant part of the past tradition in expressing their views yet deviated from the beaten path and laid the ground for later writers. It was a period of silent revolution. By that, I mean, they had departed from the traditional past in their choice of themes and language, while continued to cherish the traditional values in real life. Owing to the democratic principles put in place in 1947, the female writers were able to set a new trend and evolve a new culture, and enlist the support of men in the process. This book addresses one more need. During the nineties, two major works, Women Writing in India (1993) and Knit India through Literature by Sivasankari (1998), have been published on women’s writing in India. Both the volumes set Telugu women’s writing in the larger context of Indian literatures. This book, on the other hand, offers exclusively an in- depth analysis of Telugu women’s writings. This is a product of my personal knowledge and experience, and my standing as a writer from the period under discussion. Some of my friends in the United States asked me why I had chosen this particular period for my study. The one simple answer is, as a writer, I belonged to that generation, and therefore, am interested in examining how they/we had fared in the history of Telugu fiction. However, more importantly, lack of an all-encompassing critical work on this segment of Telugu literature, namely, the fiction by women writers during the period, 1950- 1975, and, thirdly, the fear that it might disappear completely in course of time if somebody had not brought it to the fore. Yet another reason is, while the academic studies are focused iv on the literature of the past, and the current literature is featured in magazines and the media extensively, a well-balanced critical analysis of the fiction by women writers of the immediate past is sadly missing. I must admit that this book raises more questions than provide answers. Due to severe constraints of resources, financial as well as academic, this book is nowhere near being complete. Nevertheless, it provides valuable information and lays the ground for further research. I have put forth a few of my arguments and raised a few questions, with the pious hope that our Telugu scholars will continue to explore and examine this area of study further. I attempted to trace the familial, social, and economic conditions that contributed to the success of women writers during this period; also, various stages in the development of women’s fiction—from encouragement and praise at home and in the society to reward, and later to ridicule and even to damaging criticism in the final stage. This is also a personal journey for me. For that reason, I chose the style of narrative nonfiction in this book. The intended audience for this book is non-native speakers and non- Telugu readers. In that, I may have given more details than necessary in explaining the cultural nuance at times. Organization: I started out with a brief history of women’s writing identifying the areas where their values came from, and discussed their familial and social conditions. In chapter 3, I gave the synopses for a few short stories and novels in order to familiarize the readers with our fiction. My assumption is that the readers are not knowledgeable in Telugu language, and thus not in a position to read the original texts. The synopses are intended to facilitate further discussion in the next chapter. In chapter 5, I gave a brief note on culture and humor and my conclusions in chapter 6. Originally, I planned to include a few stories in translation, in support of my views on the fiction under discussion. However, while finalizing this manuscript for self-publishing, I realized that it would serve my purpose better if I made the stories in translation available separately. I urge readers to visit my website, www.thulika.net, for stories discussed in this book and several other stories. Data gathering: I started on this project nearly twenty-five years