1st Edition
O. V. Vijayan The Critical Insider
List of photographs xiv
Preface to the series xv
Preface xvii
Acknowledgements xix
O.V. Vijayan: The Making of the Critical Insider 1
E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN
SECTION 1
The World According to O.V. Vijayan: A Selection of His Writings 17
(a) Excerpts from Vijayan’s Novels 19
1 The Schools: (From The Legends of Khasak) 21
2 The Conversion: (From The Legends of Khasak) 26
3 The General: (From The Saga of Dharmapuri) 31
4 The Infinity of Grace: (Chapter 24 of the Novel, Gurusagaram) 39
TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY RAMESH MENON AND THE AUTHOR
(b) Two Short Stories by Vijayan 43
5 After the Hanging: (Short Story) 45
6 The Blessing of the Wild-Fowl: (Short Story) 51
(c) A Selection of Vijayan’s Non-Fictional Prose 57
7 Two Wars, Two Finger Prints 59
TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN
8 The Forgotten Book 62
TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN
9 Understanding Divisiveness 64
ESSAY BY O.V. VIJAYAN
(d) A Selection of Vijayan’s Autobiographical Essays 67
10 Bangarwadi 69
TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY K. RAMACHANDRAN
11 Meditation on Words 73
TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY K. RAMACHANDRAN
12 Memory of a Vermillion Mark 76
TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY K.C. MURALEEDHARAN
SECTION 2
The Emergence of a Modern Malayalam Classic: Essays on The Legends of Khasak 83
13 Laughter of Detachment 85
K.P. APPAN
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY K.T. DINESH)
14 The Music of Khasak 93
ASHA MENON
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY K. RAMACHANDRAN)
15 The Paternal Clock 99
P.K. RAJASEKHARAN
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY ARUNLAL MOKERI)
16 Orality, Literacy, and Modernity: A Reading of The
Legends of Khasak 108
E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY DHANESH MANKULAM WITH THE AUTHOR)
SECTION 3
Vijayan’s Oeuvre as a Fictionist: Dissent, Terror, Grace, and Beyond 117
17 O.V. Vijayan: A Sage and an Iconoclast 119
K. SATCHIDANANDAN
18 At the Sign of the Goat 124
DAVID SELBOURNE
19 Vijayan the Sceptic Visionary: A Reading of The Saga of Dharmapuri 126
P. P. RAVEENDRAN
20 The Quest and After: A Reading of The Infinity of Grace (Gurusagaram) 132
V. RAJAKRISHNAN
21 The Rite of Expiation for the Accumulated Guilt: A Reading of O.V. Vijayan’s Thalamurakal (Generations) 136
THOMAS MATHEW
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY K.C. MURALEEDHARAN)
22 From Transgression to Transcendence: A Reading of O.V. Vijayan’s Short Fiction 142
E. V. RAMAKRISHNAN
SECTION 4
Vijayan in the Twenty-First Century 149
23 Vijayan’s Journeys 151
P. PAVITHRAN
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY K.C. MURALEEDHARAN)
24 Vijayan’s Women: Beyond the Deterministic Dogmas 162
G. USHAKUMARI
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN)
25 O.V. Vijayan’s Politics 171
V.C. SREEJAN
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY K.C. MURALEEDHARAN)
26 The Saga of Dharmapuri in the Twenty-First Century 176
AJAY P. MANGAT
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY K. RAMACHANDRAN)
27 Thalamurakal (Generations): The Caste System as Seen through the Cracked Mirror of the Present 181
E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN
SECTION 5
Vijayan in Translation 189
28 Self-Translation as Self-Righting: O.V. Vijayan’s The Legends of Khasak 191
CHITRA PANIKKAR
29 The Writer as Translator: Self-Translation in O.V. Vijayan’s The Legends of Khasak 203
SANJU THOMAS
30 From Text to Performance: Deepan Sivaraman’s Stage Adaptation of Khasak 212
A CONVERSATION WITH DEEPAN SIVARAMAN BY MANILA C. MOHAN
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN)
SECTION 6
Vijayan the Cartoonist 221
31 A Cartoonist’s Workshop 223
O.V. VIJAYAN
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY P.N. VENUGOPAL)
32 Foreword to the Volume, The Tragic Idiom: O.V. Vijayan’s Cartoons and Notes on India 228
BRUCE PETTY
33 He also Cartooned: On the Fading Half of O.V. Vijayan 230
E.P. UNNY
SECTION 7
Vijayan as Seen by His Contemporaries 233
34 The Literary Get-Togethers of Delhi 235
P. GOVINDA PILLAI
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN)
35 Vijayan 1975–2005: Progressive Erosion of Black Humour and Laughter 239
ANAND
(TRANSLATED BY E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN)
36 O.V. Vijayan: Death and Afterlife of a Writer 242
M. MUKUNDAN
37 Remembering My Brother 247
O.V. USHA
38 The Lean Young Man 251
MADHAVIKKUTTY (KAMALA DAS)
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY SHYMA P.)
SECTION 8
Vijayan in Conversation 253
39 ‘We can never accept that the black man can say
something original!’: A Conversation with O.V. Vijayan 255
AKBAR KAKKATTIL
(TRANSLATED BY K.C. MURALEEDHARAN)
40 The Lion in Winter: An Interview with O.V. Vijayan 262
RAJEEV SRINIVASAN
41 ‘Writing in English is like wanting a new set of parents’: A Conversation on Language between O.V. Vijayan and O.V. Usha 268
GOPI NARAYANAN
(TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN)
42 Sorrow of the Traveller 272
S. PRASANNARAJAN IN CONVERSATION WITH O.V. VIJAYAN
SECTION 9
Vijayan in Letters 277
43 Letters by O.V. Vijayan to Anandi Ramachandran 279
TRANSLATED FROM MALAYALAM BY E.V. RAMAKRISHNAN
Bio-Chronology: O.V. Vijayan: His Life and Times 287
Bibliography 299
A Selection of Vijayan’s Cartoons 303
Notes on Contributors 309
Index 315
Biography
E.V. Ramakrishnan is bilingual critic, poet, and translator who writes in English and his first language, Malayalam. He is a former Professor Emeritus and Professor and Dean of Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar. He has been awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his critical study of Malayalam novel, Malayala Novelinte Deshakaalangal (2023) by the National Academy of Letters, New Delhi. He is a recipient of Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, Odakkuzhal Award and fellowships from the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, K.K. Birla Foundation and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Foundation of the Government of Canada. He has delivered lectures in many International conferences held in the Universities in Georgia (U.S.A), Paris at Sorbonne, Vienna, Beijing, Macau, Amman, Kuala Lampur etc. His prominent critical works in English are: Making It New: Modernism in Malayalam, Marathi and Hindi Poetry (1995), Locating Indian Literature: Texts. Traditions, Translations (2011), Indigenous Imaginaries: Literature, Region, Modernity (2017) and Mikhail Bakhtin: A Critical Introduction (2023). Among the scholarly volumes he has edited/co-edited are Interdisciplinary Alter-Natives in Comparative Literature (2013), Bakhtinian Explorations of Indian Culture: Pluralism, Dogma and Dialogue through History (2018), Literary Criticism in India: Texts, Trends and Trajectories (2021) and A Cultural Poetics of Bhasha Literatures: In Theory and Practice (2024). He has published eleven books of critical studies in Malayalam which include Aksharavum Aadhunikatayum (1992, 2001, 2021), Anubhavangale Aarkkanu Peti? (2007, 2022) and Achati Muthal Aagolatha Vare (2022). He is the author of four volumes of poetry in English, the most recent being, Tips for Living in an Expanding Universe (2018).
K.C. Muraleedharan is Associate Professor of English retired from Payyanur College, Kannur University, Kerala. He is an academic and translator whose articles and translations have appeared in various journals like Malayalam Literary Survey of Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Granthalokam, Countercurrents.org, and Modern Literature. He has translated from Malayalam into English the manuscript of Pattom A. Thanu Pillai’s biography published in 2012. He has edited/co-edited seven anthologies for undergraduates of various Indian universities, prescribed in and outside Kerala, a few of them published by Cambridge. He has served as the Chairperson of the Board of Studies and a member of the Academic Council of Kannur University. He has been associated with the SCERT, Kerala as an expert resource for textbook production since 2009.
