The Need for Subaltern Literature
Importance of subaltern literature- a teleological approach
Dear and Rev. Father Principal, respected staff, my beloved students, friends, ladies and gentlemen. I feel a bit circumscribed in to stand before you to deliver this keynote address. I feel so, because I am not a literature student, nor am I in any way connected to literary world except as a lay person who loves literature and its richness in bringing out human emotions, values, and worldviews. But at the same time, I am honored to be here because this will help me in some way or other and indeed, did help me to pore over some solid literature works to learn more about what literature is and how I can get more involved and interested in literature. To this effect, I must thank Rev. Fr. Paul Rajkumar for having invited me to enter into the portals of literary forts and collect some pebbles to twist my tongue to tune to the richness of literature. I also am sure that if I have the patience to dive deep into the literary ocean, I can find the finest pearls that I can treasure. I only wish that I have the patience and bent of mind for such extravaganza of the intellectual thirst for literature, the mirror of human motions and emotions. I would like to share with you something on “subaltern literature”, as it makes more sense than any other literary form today, to make literature relevant and an instrument for social change.
Pondicherrry has been in the limelight, for more than two centuries as regards subaltern thinking and making impact upon the life of the marginalized. At the turn of the last century, great personalities like Bharathi, Bharathidasan, and the then political fugitive turned philosopher, Sri Aurobindo all of whose writings both in prose and poetry forms in Tamil as well as English added beauty and splendor not only to the literary world but also to Pondicherry and whose literary genre fostered the realization of, and gave an orientation to freedom struggle and rendered a platform to work
Dear and Rev. Father Principal, respected staff, my beloved students, friends, ladies and gentlemen. I feel a bit circumscribed in to stand before you to deliver this keynote address. I feel so, because I am not a literature student, nor am I in any way connected to literary world except as a lay person who loves literature and its richness in bringing out human emotions, values, and worldviews. But at the same time, I am honored to be here because this will help me in some way or other and indeed, did help me to pore over some solid literature works to learn more about what literature is and how I can get more involved and interested in literature. To this effect, I must thank Rev. Fr. Paul Rajkumar for having invited me to enter into the portals of literary forts and collect some pebbles to twist my tongue to tune to the richness of literature. I also am sure that if I have the patience to dive deep into the literary ocean, I can find the finest pearls that I can treasure. I only wish that I have the patience and bent of mind for such extravaganza of the intellectual thirst for literature, the mirror of human motions and emotions. I would like to share with you something on “subaltern literature”, as it makes more sense than any other literary form today, to make literature relevant and an instrument for social change.
Pondicherrry has been in the limelight, for more than two centuries as regards subaltern thinking and making impact upon the life of the marginalized. At the turn of the last century, great personalities like Bharathi, Bharathidasan, and the then political fugitive turned philosopher, Sri Aurobindo all of whose writings both in prose and poetry forms in Tamil as well as English added beauty and splendor not only to the literary world but also to Pondicherry and whose literary genre fostered the realization of, and gave an orientation to freedom struggle and rendered a platform to work