Locating Indian Literature: Texts, Traditions, Translations

Locating Indian Literature attempts to explore the category of ‘Indian literature’ in relation to emerging discourses of marginality, region, resistance and the role of translation in the making and unmaking of literary traditions. Interrogating theoretical positions that present Indian literature as an essentialist category, it emphasises the pluralistic and performative elements of Indian literatures. In its first section, E.V. Ramakrishnan articulates the project of ‘provincialising “Indian literature”’ and explores the dialogic interfaces between the abstractions of law and the evaluative role of criticism. It also interrogates the claims of history and the reticence of memories, and the dialectics between the dialect and the region. The second section presents readings of Malayalam literary texts that concretise the plurality of literary traditions. The third section argues for a new approach to the study of texts and traditions with translation forming the fulcrum of cultural and political mediations. Interdisciplinary in its approach, the volume will be of relevance to students and scholars in culture studies, social sciences and humanities.