SEMESTER IV
Paper XIV: EL.541 : Kerala Culture and Literature
(Core Course 11 : 6 Hours/week)
Aim
This course aims to familiarize students with the social /political /historical formations of the
culture and literature of Kerala, and equip them to make creative, theoretical and socio-political
interventions in this area.
Course Objectives
• Introduce the politics of socio-cultural formations within Kerala
• Make students realize the sense of plurality and its contradictions within Kerala
• Shift the focus of academic exercises to empirical everyday
• Form a critique of the patterns of power that shaped the knowledge/culture/social
systems
• Mark resistance as a key to the formation of histories.
Course Outcome
The student would have
CO1: Understood the socio-cultural specificities and nuances that shaped Kerala
CO2: Understood the inherent ironies and contradictions within Kerala and imbibe a sense of
everyday critique
CO3: Learned from lived everyday experiences
CO4: Developed a sense of creative and critical thinking
CO5: Understood the socio-cultural plurality that defines Kerala through divergent
historical/cultural formations.
Module I: History and Historiography
Module Outcomes
The student would have
MO1: Comprehended the multiple formations of History.
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MO2: Comprehended the historical narratives of resistance to dominant historiography.
MO3: Comprehended the pluralistic formation of history, society and culture
Unit 1
Kesavan Veluthat: ‘The Keralolpathi as History’ The Early Medieval in South India. OUP 2009.
(129- 146)
Unit 2
Satheesh Chandra Bose: ‘Re construction of ‘the Social’ for Making Modern Kerala: Reflections
on Narnarayana Guru’s Social Philosophy.’ Kerala Modernity, Idea, Spaces and Practices in
Transition. Ed. Satheesh Chandra Bose and Siju Sam Varughese, Orient Blackswan, 2015 (59-
73)
Pradeepan Pampirikunnu: ‘Nationalism, Modernity, Keralaness: A Subaltern Critique’ No
Alphabet in Sight. Ed. K. Satyanarayana and Susie Tharu, Penguin Books. 2011 (557-569)
Module II: Contemporary Interventions
Module Outcomes
The student would have
MO1: learned to critique the socio-cultural narratives of power.
MO2: Equiped oneself so as to resist patriarchy, caste, neo-liberal policies and other similar
contemporary hegemonies in the socio cultural everyday.
MO3: Comprehended the need to assert a sense of plurality in the understanding and formation
of history, culture amd knowledge.
Unit 3
Rekharaj; ‘Rajani’s Suicide’ No Alphabet in Sight, Ed. K. Satyanarayana and Susie Tharu,
Penguin Books. 2011 (572-574)
Nitheesh Kumar K.P: ‘Historical view of Tribal Land Alienation in Kerala’
Module III: Poetry and Drama
Module Outcomes
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The student would have
MO1: Read literary Narratives as Historical Commentaries
MO2: Understood regional poetry in its relation to socio-cultural history.
MO3: Conveyed the importance of translations and re-telling in the vernacular.
Unit 4
Poykayil Appachan: ‘The Song’
Sree Narayana Guru: ‘Casteism’ https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/casteism/
Edasseri Govindan Nair: ‘Kuttippuram Bridge’
Kadamanitta Ramakrishna Pillai: ‘Shanta’
Satchidanandan: ‘Gandhi and Poetry’
https://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/koyamparambath_satchidanandan_2012_9.pdf
Balachandran Chullikkad: ‘Where is John?’
M. R Renukumar: ‘Will go on Hugging’
https://www.modernliterature.org/malayalam-poetry-m-r-renukumars-poems/
V.M Girija: ‘Marital Life’
https://www.modernliterature.org/malayalam-poetry-m-girijas-poems/
Ashalatha: ‘Please Come, Oh Flood’
https://www.modernliterature.org/panopticon-poems-by-ashalatha/
Aleena: ‘Transplorers’
https://www.modernliterature.org/three-poems-by-aleena-translated-by-ra-sh/
G.Sankara Pillai: Wings Flapping, Somewhere (Play)
Module IV: Prose and Fiction
Module Outcomes
MO1: Read literary Narratives as Historical Commentaries
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MO2: Comprehend the narrative development of Short Fiction
MO3: Comprehend the paradigm shifts in form, content and narrative in literary history
Unit 5
Karoor Neelakanda Pillai: ‘A Packet of Rice’
Lalithambika Antharjanam: ‘The Goddess of Revenge’
Basheer: ‘Poovan Banana’
Kamala Das: ‘Scent of the Bird’
Paul Zacharia: ‘Bhaskara Pattelar and My Life
Priya A.S: ‘Onion Curry and the Table of Nine’
E.Santhosh Kumar: ‘Hills Stars’
K R Meera :’ Yellow is the Colour of Longing’
Unit 6
Narayan: Kocharethi: The Araya Woman
O.V.Vijayan : The Legends of Khasak
Sara Joseph : Othappu: The Scent of the Other Side
Benyamin: Goat Days
Recommended Reading
Antharjanam, Lalithambika. Agnisakhi. VasanthiSankaranarayanan (Trans) Delhi: OUP, 2015.
Asher, R.E. and V. Abdulla Wind Flowers Penguin. 2004
Bahuaddin, K.M. Kerala Muslim History: A Revisit, Other Books: Calicut,2012.
Basheer, Vaikom Muhammed, Poovan Banana and Other Stories, Orient Black Swan 1994.
Bhattathirippad, V.T. My Tears, My Dreams. Sindu V. Nair (Trans) Delhi: OUP, 2013.
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