ISSN 2319-3263 tIcf k¿°m¿ kmwkvImcn-I-h-Ip∏v tIcf kmlnXy A°m-Zan {]kn-≤o-I-cWw SAHITYALOKAM Vol. 44 Issue.5-6December 2016 Rs. 60/- RN 17137 / 69 hmfyw 44 e°w 5˛6 2016 Unkw-_¿ Printed and published by Dr. K.P.Mohanan on behalf of Kerala Sahitya Akademi and printed at Carmel Printers, Thrissur for Santhibhavan Offset Printers, Kannamkulangara, Thrissur, Kerala-680 007 and published at Kerala Sahitya Akademi, P.B. No.501, Thrissur, Kerala-680 020. Editor: Dr. K.P.Mohanan MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY DECEMBER 2016 KERALA SAHITYA AKADEMI Thrissur 680 020, Kerala Malayalam Literary Survey A Quarterly Publication of Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur Vol. 36 No. 4. October - December 2016 Single Issue : Rs. 40/- Annual Subscription : Rs. 160/- Editorial Board Vayshakan - President Dr. K.P. Mohanan - Secretary & Editor V.N. Asokan - Sub editor Cover Design : Vinaylal Type setting : Macworld, Thrissur Printed and Published by Dr. K.P. Mohanan on behalf of Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur 680 020 and Printed at at Carmel Printers, Thrissur for Santhibhavan Press, Kannamkulangara and Published at Thrissur, Thrissur Dist., Kerala State. Editor : Dr. K.P. Mohanan Proof : Soumya Murukesh Reg. No. 29431/77 Phone : 0487-2331069 [email protected] www.keralasahityaakademi.org Articles published in this journal do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi. The Editorial Board cannot be held responsible for the views expressed by the writers Editor’s note Malayalam Literary Survey always brings attention of readers to the current social scenario. This issue is especially dedicated to the representations of contemporary political and social issues in literature. Hence, Anand becomes the major focus of discussion. Anand is one of the eminent writers in Malayalam focusing his attention on the crisis in history and power structures. His works always deals with the questions of individual v/s society and make them a social urgency. Aalkoottam is one such. E.V Ramakrishnan’s article reveals the postmodern trends is Anand’s Fiction. U. A Khadher is a contemporary writer who foregrounds themes from folk tradition especially of northern Kerala and uses them for his works. His expressions in regional and folk language makes his narration unique. Dr. Reeja’s article on his narrative techniques contributes much to the readers. The politics of rituals are rarely a topic of discussion even in the contemporary cultural studies. The literature of Padayani provides a rich stuff yet to be explored. The article of Soumya Murukesh discusses how resistance becomes a thematic tool in one episode of Padayani. The translated literary pieces will touch and awake the aesthetic feelings of the readers and surely be of delight. Dr. K.P. Mohanan Secretary & Editor Contents Ethical Imperatives for an Embattled Nation: A Reading of Anand’s Fiction E.V.Ramakrishnan ............................................................7 ‘The History of other Beings’ Book Aymanam John .............................................................15 Narration as Resistance in U.A Khadher’s Thrikkottoor Thattakam Dr. Reeja V.....................................................................19 Biriyani Santhosh Aechikkanam .................................................23 Circle P.N. Gopikrishnan ........................................................... 29 Two Poems Lopa .............................................................................. 31 Ten Thumb Sized Stories P K Parakkadavu ............................................................33 The Colour of Truth Manambur Rajan Babu .................................................. 36 Rejection, Acceptance and Negotiation in Resistance: The Politics of the Literature of Pulavritam in Padayani Soumya Murukesh ......................................................... 37 Sands of time John Samuel ................................................................. 41 6 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY Ethical Imperatives for an Embattled Nation: A Reading of Anand’s Fiction E.V.Ramakrishnan During the 1960s, Malayalam literature went through a major shift in sensibility. In reinventing itself from a new perspective, the Malayalam novel moved away from the ideological baggage of the earlier Romantic-Progressive phase. The realistic mode that had held sway over the narratives of Malayalam The modernist novelists in novels from the nineteen thirties, now gave Malayalam effected a clean break way to a more subtle and searching style with social realist mode and all that it that probed the complex inner worlds of stood for. They were sensitive to the characters. The massive social changes sweeping the world. By transformations that followed in the wake of 1956, the socialist dreams of a social reforms and subaltern movements in generation were deeply unsettled by the first half of the twentieth century had the revelations of the purges of Stalin lost their immediacy by the time India and the Soviet invasion of Hungary. became independent. The post-colonial India had brought more anxieties than hopes, and in the emerging reality, Gandhian values rooted in asceticism and emancipation of the soul and Nehruvian vision of a modern India were at odds with each other. A new generation of young writers in the 1950s, among whom the prominent ones were M.T.Vasudevan Nair, T.Padmanabhan, N.P.Muhammad and Madhavikutty (Kamala Das for English readers), scripted a new narrative about loss, alienation and disillusionment. Instead of MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY 7 representing the society in black and white terms with an accent on social change, they sought the hidden motives behind actions and explored the mindscapes of characters from a non-judgemental perspective. M.T.Vasudevan Nair and Kamala Das were pioneers in psychological realism, and did not subscribe to political stereotypes about social transformation. They were the precursors of the great modernists who stormed into Malayalam fiction with an imaginative sweep and range that stunned the readers. O.V.Vijayan’s Khassakkinte Ithihasam (The Legends of Khassack) published in 1968, was a cultural event that altered the very grammar of narrative in Malayalam fiction. The modernist novelists in Malayalam effected a clean break with social realist mode and all that it stood for. They were sensitive to the changes sweeping the world. By 1956, the socialist dreams of a generation were deeply unsettled by the revelations of the purges of Stalin and the Soviet invasion of Hungary. Modernist writers were sceptical of ideological positions and found belief writing of the times. Their language was systems on the left and right equally refreshingly free from sentimentality and bankrupt. In most of the modernist works of pretentious verbalism. It often explored the nineteen sixties and seventies we forbidden domains of experience, creating an confront the lonely, disoriented young men ambience that was both innovative and haunted by a sense of the absurd as they experimental. What distinguished these feel trapped in their lives without any exit. The writers was a concern with the human existentialist literature of the post-World War condition in the modern age, and a faith in Europe was a major influence in shaping the ability of art to confront the limits of their attitudes to life and society. But to language and imagination in representing characterise modernist Malayalam fiction as the contingent and the contemporary. In the derivative would not do justice to the genuine remaining part of this paper I would discuss sense of metaphysical unease these writers the works of Anand as a representative figure conveyed regarding the destiny of modern of modernist Malayalam fiction. man. Through emotionally charged P.Satchidanandan who writes under the narratives they opened up the world of name of Anand was born in 1936 in Malayali to horizons of experience that were Irinjalakkuda in central Kerala, in a middle universal and philosophical. Writers such as class family where his father was a school O.V.Vijayan, Anand, M.Mukundan, teacher. After graduating in Engineering, he Kakkanadan, Punathil Kunhabdulla, Sethu served in central services till 1994, which and Methil Radhakrishnan brought included a four year stint in the army. Having Malayalam fiction closer to the international seen the length and breadth of India, 8 MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY particularly the Gangetic plains in the years of its turmoil in the post-Nehruvian era, Anand’s major fictional works, set outside Kerala, consistently pursue issues and subjects related to India’s modernity. He is concerned with questions of social justice, limits of freedom, denial of equality and the subterfuges used by the nation-state to conceal its ruthless acts of oppression in the name of democracy. Apart from the novels and short stories he has published many works of essays where he debates Anand’s fictional works are contemporary issues related to characterised by a deep sense of communalism, relevance of Gandhism, history. He has been greatly decline of values in public life and the influenced by the history of the struggle for social justice and equality by Gangetic plains where saints, marginalised sections of society. His role in pilgrims, and travellers traversed clarifying the liberal positions against the land in search of solutions fundamentalism has been seminal in Kerala. while marauding armies laid What sets him apart from modernist writers waste entire stretches of land, of his generation is the consistent intellectual