Exploring the Connection Between Space, Time, Character and Reader in Select Malayalam Novels

ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 18, 2020 AESTHETICS OF PLACE: EXPLORING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN SPACE, TIME, CHARACTER AND READER IN SELECT MALAYALAM NOVELS Jayalekshmi . J Assistant Professor, Department of English, Mannam Memorial NSS College, Kottiyam, Kerala E-mail: [email protected] Received: 14 March 2020 Revised and Accepted: 8 July 2020 ABSTRACT: The singularity of literature to dramatize fictional narrators‟ and characters‟ attempts to understand, accommodate, and finally perhaps resign themselves to the complexities of space and time. The ways in which a writer represent, defamiliarize, deconstruct or fantasise a place leaves a remarkable impact on the readers throughout the reading and conception of the text, and they tend to sympathize or empathize with the attempts of narrators and characters to come to terms of with these problems, because they echo their own pangs and pathos and their own struggles to reconcile with their circumstances. Although the relationship between narrators and characters on the one hand, and space and time on the other, can assume a variety of forms, this study will argue that the narrative presentations of space in the novels under consideration are interestingly related to each other, thus indicating significant points of connection between the narrator, characters, and readers and establish their life as a continuum of time and space. This article excavates how the writers like MT Vasudevan Nair, Benyamin, Thakazhi, Malayatoor Ramakrishnan and M Mukundan have transported their readers to an unheard or unseen land of beauty, charm, myth, fantasy, and horror, a world of their own imagination and familiarize their readers with a locale that lingers in their mind for ever as a character and not as a backdrop of events. KEYWORDS: space, time, desire, love, nostalgia, chaos I. INTRODUCTION The article “Des espaces autres” by Michel Foucault claimed that a historical viewpoint had dominated the nineteenth century but that the twentieth century would be the century of space (752). His prediction has adequately been fulfilled: the end of the twentieth century witnessed a spectacular “spatial turn” in humanities. This may perhaps partly be ascribed to the sensibilities of scholars in an age of ever increasing globalisation. The important notion of space as „lived‟, that is to say as experienced and valued by the narrator or (one of the) characters in an ideological, emotional, experiential relation to society and power, not as a number of coordinates on a geographical map. The inner space of the house, the outer space in the city (or village), the private space of females, experienced as peaceful and intimate, the latter is the public space of men, experienced as dangerous and threatening. Literature replicates not just an author's observation or experience about a locale as a background but sometimes it foregrounds the characters and leaves an impression in the mind of the readers and hauntingly fascinating for them even after reading the literary work. Sometimes it reflects the textuality of space as something that is created a fantastic world of imagination outside the Text. But sometimes it brings the reader to enjoy a locale as a real world he has not seen, enjoyed or experienced in his life. Literature cannot reflect life experiences of the characters without throwing ample light on the significance of the place. Place, as has been suggested, is a central feature of literature in so far as it sets a writer's work within a specific location or milieu without which he cannot echo his character's excitement, emotional turbulence or psychological trauma and cannot evoke his readers curiosity to visualize a place. William Zinsser takes a Similar position when he states that "every human event happens somewhere, and the reader wants to know what that' somewhere' is (88). Some examples of the use of place in literature are novels. biographies, narratives, and short stories. Place serves as a channel or as a catalyst to transport the reader to somewhere the writer intends him or her to be mentally, and often gives the reader some insight into the history, the terrain, the people, the customs of a community, and so forth. From Milton‟s Pandemonium in Paradise lost, Kafka's 3382 ISSN- 2394-5125 VOL 7, ISSUE 18, 2020 Metamorphosis to Zora Neale Hurston's Jonah's Gourd Vine, from John Niehardt‟s Black Elk Speaks to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, readers are aware of the writer's task in creating a land of their own imagination to meet the purpose. If anyone has read Hurston's Jonah's Gourd Vine, the writer transports him or her to life on southern plantations and at work camps, to churches, and to social events in a manner that brings the reader to the specific locations through written communication. The place can also evoke an emotional response in the readers as Louise Rosenblatt's thesis states that literature should "arouse the reader's response" (42). The emotional response of the reader cannot be elicited without the writer's use of language in a specific manner and flavour. Richard Wright seems to make this point when he notes that he "strove to master words to make them disappear, to make them important by making them new, to make them melt into a rising spiral of emotional stimuli. " (22). Most of the gems in Indian Literature are published in regional languages and that regional flavour and narrative add the real charm to these works. Today regional language authors from diverse backgrounds, writers from rural areas, oppressed castes, minority religion, eco-activists and women are all coming into Indian Literature in a big way, telling new stories from innovative perspective. Locale and the language of a text have an intricate and intimate connection. It is necessary to examine the use of language and literary tropes in order to discuss the locale of a literary work because the author‟s intent in using certain words or tropes to describe the settings is indicative of a lot of other interpretations. These descriptions say much about the settings and / or the characters who inhabit them. Kerala has carved itself a niche position in the literary circles with its profound contribution to lndian Literature with works that often reflect deep introspection through its unprecedented storylines and ingenious narrative styles. From unsophisticated works of legendary Vaikom Muhammad Basheer to microcosmic narratives of O.V. Vijayan and literatures of present- day writers like K.R. Meera and Benyamin, the novelists have never failed to fascinate both readers and critics alike with their talent of constructing extraordinary fictions. The locale of a literary formation also plays a pivotal role as it is not just a background to narrate the events or actions to take place in the life of the characters but has immense contribution to the development of the plot, theme and characters, it may have a direct effect on a character‟s motivation, it may be directly linked to the mood or meaning of the dialogues and the events, it can create an atmosphere that affects the reader‟s response to the work. Therefore, as amply proved by the innumerable examples from the works of M T Vasudevan Nair, Thakazhi Sivasankaran Pillai, Malayatoor Ramakrishnan , Benyamin, M Mukundan - locale has its own merit and significance in the world of literature. II. INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR A SUSTAINABLE LIVING Thakazhi, through Chemmeen brings out the raw life of people who share their entire livelihood with the sea whom they worship as Katalamma. Chemmeen (translated as „Shrimp‟) was published in 1956, and became the first Malayalam novel to win the Sahitya Akademi prize. Chemeen delineates the ordinary life of characters through an exquisite panorama of space and time. In fact, the narrative offers a vivid glimpse of the multi- faceted life of the people residing in the villages and small towns of India. It shows how their life is guided by the ritualistic thinking and traditional beliefs. However, there are people who challenge the prevalent socio- economic and cultural practices of the place and time to new inaugurate new thinking. Chemmeen captures the cultural canvas of deep south in the coastal region of Travancore. Chemmeen narrates the story of star-crossed lovers set against the backdrop of a fishing hamlet in Kerala‟s Alappuzha district. The theme of the novel is a myth among the fisherman communities along the coastal Kerala state in Southern India. The romance between two people of different communities, the breaking of social traditions and how the fishermen community perceives life through long cherished superstitious beliefs are all encapsulated astonishingly in this novel. The events in the gradually developing plot are set in the huts of the fisherfolk who inhabit the Ambalappuzha- Trikkunnapuzha area of coastal Travancore, and the actors are those incredibly brave children of the sea who risk every moment of their lives for a precarious living. The fishing community is a typical group of people geographically located in the coastal areas and have their own distinctive occupational methods. The people belonging to northern Malabar pursue different practices in fishing in comparison to the people belonging to central Kerala. In fact, towards the southernmost part of the coast, occupational methods of the fishing community still vary. But one thing which is common amidst all the regional differences is the holiness attributed to the sea. To everyone, the sea goddess is Kadalamma. Drawing life fuel from this sea-deity, they love and fear its mysterious depths, where lives the goddess of the sea. She is known as an all-seeing arbiter of their destinies. Her bounty goes to the good; however, for the faithless, she unleashes her ferocious wrath to destroy.

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