Before Bharathi, Tamil writers considered writing in a way readers cannot understand as a mark of punditry. It was almost a tradition to employ a difficult style to explain even a simple matter. After showing the readers how involuted and difficult the styles of writers before Bharathi were, Vallikannan discusses the innovative features of Bharathi and the impact they made on his successors. He discusses the individualistic features of several great writers of Tamil fiction and their contribution to the development of Tamil as a language reflecting modernity and capable of coping with the knowledge explosion witnessed up to the present day.
The book discusses the works of the stalwarts of Tamil fiction: Kalki, Puthumaipithan, Ku. Pa. Rajagopalan, La. Sa. Ra., Mouni, Jayakanthan, Sujatha and many more including a few Sri Lankan Tamil writers. Apart from these, Vallikannan has made an incisive study of the oratorical style of C. N. Annadurai, one of the most accomplished statesmen of Tamil Nadu.
This book will help students, researchers, academics and Tamil literature enthusiasts get a good understanding of the Tamil writers discussed and the development of Tamil prose through the major part of the twentieth century.
Mission Statement
Preface
1. Growing Prose Style
2. Before Bharathi
3. C Subramaniya Bharathi
4. Va. Ve. Su. Iyer
5. Va. Raa
6. T. K. Chidambaranatha Mudaliar
7. U. V. Swaminatha Iyer
8. Prose Style Experts
9. ‘Kalki’ Ra. Krishnamurthy
10. On the Way …
11. Puthumaipithan
12. Ku. Pa. Rajagopalan
13. Mouni
14. Pichamurthy
15. C. N. Annadurai
16. La. Sa. Ramamirtham
17. Colloquialisms in Written Tamil
18. La. Sa. Ra. and Mouni
19. About Colloquial Style
20. Ci. Su. Chellappa
21. Different Kinds of Style
22. Jayakanthan
23. Neela Padmanabhan
24. A. Madhavan
25. Sujatha
26. Sri Lankan Tamil Writers
27. Younger Generation
Biography
Vallikannan (given name R.S. Krishnasamy, 1920-2006) was born in Rajavallipuram, a village in the karisal region of Thoothukudi district. He started his career as a government employee but soon gave it up for literary writing. His prolific literary output includes innumerable journal articles, writings for children, essays, poetry, short stories, novellas and novels. Among the awards won by him the Sahitya Akademi Award (1978) for his critical work Puthukavithaiyin Thotramum Valarchiyum (The Origin and Growth of Modern Tamil Poetry) and the Tamil Development Council Award for his short stories (2002) stand out. His other noteworthy publications are Bharathidasan Uvamai Nayam (1946), Saraswathi Kaalam (1986) and Thamizhil Siru Pathrikaigal (1991).
Tamil Prose after Bharathi reveals his insightful reading and provide the readers with a comprehensive view of the writer’s style and philosophy.
S Thillainayagam is retired professor of English, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli. His papers presented in International and National Conferences have been published as Feminist Literary Essays. He has edited Sundara Ramasamiyin Thernthedutha Katturaigal (Selected Essays of Sundara Ramasamy) for the Sahitya Akademi and a handbook The Status of Women in India for M.S. University. His translation Pichamurty’s Selected Short Stories (Sahitya Akademi) won him the Nalli-Thisai Ettum Award for the best Tamil-to-English translation of the year 2019. He has also authored a book containing simple, precise meaning for the Thirukural couplets in Tamil and English. His other translations from Tamil to English are A.K. Chettiar’s In the Tracks of the Mahatma, Kalaignar Karunanithi’s Ponnar-Sankar, A. K. Perumal’s A History of South Kumari and A. Muttulingam’s Password and other Stories.
