Cast Me Out If You Will: Stories and Memoir (Gender culture politics)
by Laḷitāmbika Antarjjanaṃ
Category: Indic fiction (English)

Offering a rich account of women's lives in twentieth-century Kerala, these stories and the accompanying autobiographical fragments give invaluable insights. Lalithambika Antherjanam's stories throb with the tormented reality of Namboodiri illam (Brahmin households): unbearable social restriction, rigid sexual mores, lives ruled by the maintenance of ritual purity, the extreme oppression of widows. The selections include the disturbing early story 'The Admission of Guilt' ('Kuttassammatham') where the accused woman gives an account of her trial and ostracism on charges of sexual misdemeanour, the classic 'The Goddess of Revenge' (Praticaradevata), and the passionately felt accounts of the trauma of Partition in Bengal and Punjab. The introduction places Lalithambika Antherjanam in the cultural history of modern Kerala.