Colonizing the Realm of Words

Colonizing the Realm of Words PDF Author: Sascha Ebeling
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438432011
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
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—the emergence of the Tamil novel.

Colonizing the Realm of Words

Colonizing the Realm of Words PDF Author: Sascha Ebeling
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438432011
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
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—the emergence of the Tamil novel.

Studies in Tamil Literature and History

Studies in Tamil Literature and History PDF Author: Ramachandra Dikshitar
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781376203486
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description


Tamil

Tamil PDF Author: David Shulman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674974654
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
Spoken by eighty million people in South Asia and a diaspora that stretches across the globe, Tamil is one of the great world languages, and one of the few ancient languages that survives as a mother tongue for so many speakers. David Shulman presents a comprehensive cultural history of Tamil—language, literature, and civilization—emphasizing how Tamil speakers and poets have understood the unique features of their language over its long history. Impetuous, musical, whimsical, in constant flux, Tamil is a living entity, and this is its biography. Two stories animate Shulman’s narrative. The first concerns the evolution of Tamil’s distinctive modes of speaking, thinking, and singing. The second describes Tamil’s major expressive themes, the stunning poems of love and war known as Sangam poetry, and Tamil’s influence as a shaping force within Hinduism. Shulman tracks Tamil from its earliest traces at the end of the first millennium BCE through the classical period, 850 to 1200 CE, when Tamil-speaking rulers held sway over southern India, and into late-medieval and modern times, including the deeply contentious politics that overshadow Tamil today. Tamil is more than a language, Shulman says. It is a body of knowledge, much of it intrinsic to an ancient culture and sensibility. “Tamil” can mean both “knowing how to love”—in the manner of classical love poetry—and “being a civilized person.” It is thus a kind of grammar, not merely of the language in its spoken and written forms but of the creative potential of its speakers.

Tamil Literature

Tamil Literature PDF Author: K.V. Zvelebil
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004492984
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description


Literary History in Tamil

Literary History in Tamil PDF Author: Kārttikēcu Civattampi
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literature and history
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
Papers presented at a seminar held at the Tamil University, Thanjavur, Aug. 7-8, 1982.

Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature

Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature PDF Author: K.V. Zvelebil
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004493026
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
There is a number of problems connected with the study and teaching of any Oriental literature in general and of Tamil literature specifically which have to date been mostly ignored, although they are indispensable for solid knowledge and correct interpretation and understanding of the literature in question. These include problems of authenticity and authorship, of transmission and tradition, writing tools and materials, of relationship of orality to literacy, of Sanskrit to Tamil, the prehistory of Tamil written literature, the numerous texts that have been lost, scholarly lineages and the rediscovery of ancient Tamil literature etc. The book deals with all these problems as well as with some specific Tamil cultural phenomena such as the concept of "threefold Tamil" or the relationship of literature ('marked') to grammar ('marker'), with the derivation of the term "Tamil" and with the history of Tamil literary historiography. It will be indispensable as an introduction to the study of the more than 2000 years of Tamil literary history. By addressing questions which have thus far been almost completely neglected, it has also decisive impact on the interpretative comprehension of Tamil literature and on the teaching of this very rich heritage of verbal art.

History of the Tamils

History of the Tamils PDF Author: P. T. Srinivasa Iyengar
Publisher: Asian Educational Services
ISBN: 9788120601451
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 706

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Book Description


Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature

Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature PDF Author: Kamil Zvelebil
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9789004093652
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
The book addresses problems and topics which have so far been largely ignored, in spite of being of fundamental importance for successful teaching and correct understanding of Tamil literary heritage which spans some 2000 years of development.

Literary Cultures in History

Literary Cultures in History PDF Author: Sheldon Pollock
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520926730
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 1104

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Book Description
A grand synthesis of unprecedented scope, Literary Cultures in History is the first comprehensive history of the rich literary traditions of South Asia. Together these traditions are unmatched in their combination of antiquity, continuity, and multicultural complexity, and are a unique resource for understanding the development of language and imagination over time. In this unparalleled volume, an international team of renowned scholars considers fifteen South Asian literary traditions—including Hindi, Indian-English, Persian, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Urdu—in their full historical and cultural variety. The volume is united by a twofold theoretical aim: to understand South Asia by looking at it through the lens of its literary cultures and to rethink the practice of literary history by incorporating non-Western categories and processes. The questions these seventeen essays ask are accordingly broad, ranging from the character of cosmopolitan and vernacular traditions to the impact of colonialism and independence, indigenous literary and aesthetic theory, and modes of performance. A sophisticated assimilation of perspectives from experts in anthropology, political science, history, literary studies, and religion, the book makes a landmark contribution to historical cultural studies and to literary theory in addition to the new perspectives it offers on what literature has meant in South Asia. (Available in South Asia from Oxford University Press--India)

CULTURAL ASPIRATIONS Essays on the Intellectual History of the Colonial Tamil Nadu

CULTURAL ASPIRATIONS Essays on the Intellectual History of the Colonial Tamil Nadu PDF Author: A. GANGATHARAN
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1387050257
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description
The construction of the past, as a historical agenda, figured prominently in the attempt of intellectuals to modernize society. They realized the importance of being sensitive to their past, which had been misrepresented by colonial rule. The investigation of the past to perceive the present and to conceive a future became integral to their intellectual endeavour. To use K.N. Panikkhar's words, "the intellectual quest in colonial India, engaged in an enquiry into the meaning of the past and thus in an assessment of its relevance to contemporary society, was an outcome of this awareness''. The construction of the past, was initially viewed as pre-requisite to reform. It subsequently turned out to be part of an ant-colonial agenda to retrieve a lost identity. This agenda become very vocal as the national movement reached its mass phase.