Colonizing the realm of words
Subtitle: the transformation of Tamil literature in nineteenth-century South India
By: Sascha Ebeling.
Series: Suny series in Hindu studies
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 355
ISBN-13: 9781438431994
Subjects: Tamil literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Literature and society -- India, South -- History -- 19th century
Description: Details the transformation of Tamil literary culture that came with colonialism and the encounter with Western modernity. A true tour de force, this book documents the transformation of one Indian literature, Tamil, under the impact of colonialism and Western modernity. While Tamil is a living language, it is also India's second oldest classical language next to Sanskrit, and has a literary history that goes back over two thousand years. On the basis of extensive archival research, Sascha Ebeling tackles a host of issues pertinent to Tamil elite literary production and consumption during the nineteenth century. These include the functioning and decline of traditional systems in which poet-scholars were patronized by religious institutions, landowners, and local kings; the anatomy of changes in textual practices, genres, styles, poetics, themes, tastes, and audiences; and the role of literature in the politics of social reform, gender, and incipient nationalism. The work concludes with a discussion of the most striking literary development of the time{u2014}the emergence of the Tamil novel.
Notes: Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--Universität zu Köln, 2005.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Mapping the universe of the pulavar; title: Pulavars and potentates : structures of literary patronage at the Zamindars' courts and beyond; title: Towards the modern Tamil author : the colonial critique of the "vernacular" and mayuram; title: The emergence of the Tamil novel; title: Epilogue.