Bama is a Tamil Dalit feminist writer and novelist. Her autobiographical novel Karukku, which chronicles the joys and sorrows experienced by Dalit Christians in Tamil Nadu, catapulted her to fame. As a prolific writer, she has experimented with all kinds of genres, such as novels, short stories, poems, autobiographical writing, children’s literature, and discursive essays. This book presents a dedicated study of Bama’s work as a writer and activist and situates her in the context of Dalit literature in general and Tamil Dalit literature in particular. It recognises Bama as writer of great relevance especially in bringing to the fore the problematics of Dalit issues and their possible modes of aesthetic articulation through a new Dalit language.
Part of the Writer in Context series, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of Indian literature, Dalit Literature, Dalit Studies, Tamil literature, English literature, comparative literature, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, Green studies. global south studies and translation studies.
List of Figures
Preface to the Series
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
RAJ KUMAR and S. ARMSTRONG
SECTION I: Documenting Many Dalit Worlds: Fiction by Bama
Excerpts from novels
1. Karukku
TRANSLATED BY B. MANGALAM
2. Sangati
TRANSLATED BY B. MANGALAM
3. Vanmam
TRANSLATED BY B. MANGALAM
4. Manusi
TRANSLATED BY B. MANGALAM
5. Viruchanglagum Vithaigal
TRANSLATED BY S. ARMSTRONG
Selected Short Stories
6 Pongal
TRANSLATED BY S. SURESH KUMAR AND M. LEEMA ROSE
7 Dhavani
TRANSLATED BY D. VENKATARAMANAN
8 Ponnuthayi
TRANSLATED BY N. RAVI SHANKER
9 Rapscallion
TRANSLATED BY S. SURESH KUMAR AND M. LEEMA ROSE
Selected Short Stories for Children
10 The Ichi Tree Monkey
TRANSLATED BY N. RAVI SHANKER
11 Identity
TRANSLATED BY SUPALA PANDIARAJAN
12 The Yellow Butterfly
TRANSLATED BY KARTHIRAVAN ANNAMALAI
13 Durga and I
TRANSLATED BY P. PADMINI VISWANATHAN
SECTION II: Poems by Bama
14 Born to Burn
TRANSLATED BY BAMA
15 Death
TRANSLATED BY S. SURESH KUMAR AND M. LEEMA ROSE
16 Hope beyond Hope
TRANSLATED BY S. SURESH KUMAR AND M. LEEMA ROSE
17 Maternal Fragrance
TRANSLATED BY S. SURESH KUMAR AND M. LEEMA ROSE
18 Fiery Frolics
TRANSLATED BY S. SURESH KUMAR AND M. LEEMA ROSE
19 Yearning
TRANSLATED BY S. ARMSTRONG
SECTION III: Voices of Dissent and Protest: Critical Essays of Bama
20 Writing as Healing
BAMA
21 Dalits as Artisans of a New Humanity
BAMA
22 Life, as though He Knew it was Historic
BAMA
23 Through Solitude to Solicitude
TRANSLATED BY S. ARMSTRONG
SECTION IV: Bama in Interviews
24 “A Dalit Woman Writer Writes Back”
JAYDEEP SARANGI
25 “Letters are always Life-giving Angels”
S. ARMSTRONG
SECTION V: In the Public Gaze: Bama in Criticism
Critical Reading of Karukku
26 Space and Caste: Mapping the Physiognomy of Bama’s Karukku
P.P. AJAYKUMAR
27 Karukku and Beyond: Bama’s Literary Journey
V. GEETHA
28 Can a cātik kuṭi ever become a tiṇaik kuṭi again? A Reading of Karukku
NIRMAL SELVAMONY
Intersectionalities of Caste, Class and Gender
29. Dialogics of the Oppressed: A Study of Caste, Gender, Textuality, and Corporeality in Sangati
NISHAT HAIDER
30. The Sociological Self as Palimpsest: Caste, Class, Religion and Gender in the Select Writings of Bama
BASUDHARA ROY AND JAYDEEP SARANGI
31. Negotiating Spatial Autonomy and Personal Agency: A Reading of Bama’s Manusi
B. MANGALAM
Bama Making History
32. A Publisher’s “Bama” Faustina
MINI KRISHNAN
33. The Deep Vernacular History of Casteless and Anti-Caste Indians
GAJENDRAN AYYATHURAI
Bama, the Narrator
34. Bama, the Nature Teacher
K. SUNEETHA RANI
35. Bama’s Stylising of Ballad Narrative
R. AZHAGARASAN
Appraisals of Bama by Her Teacher and Brother
36. Bama as I Know Her
MARK STEPHEN
37. The Way I Think about Bama’s Writings
RAJ GAUTHAMAN
SECTION VI: Bama’s Evolving Life
a. A bio-Chronology
b. Citations from Awards
c. Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
Biography
Raj Kumar is Professor in the Department of English, Delhi University. His book, Dalit Personal Narratives: Reading Caste, Nation and Identity has been published by Orient BlackSwan, New Delhi in 2010. His English translation of Akhila Naik’s Bheda, the first Odia Dalit novel is published in 2017. His book Dalit Literature and Criticism was published in 2019.
S. Armstrong is Professor and Head, Centre for Endangered Languages, University of Madras, Chennai. He is a former Fulbright and Shastri Indo-Canadian Fellow and authored Voice of the Voiceless (2013) and edited three books. He is currently working on Blue Humanities and Literatures.
