Chelva Kanaganayakam: Histories of Literature and Literary Histories in Tamil
The objective of this paper is to critically examine Professor Sivathamby’s many interventions in constructing a literary history of Tamil literature. Although he devotes one monograph entirely to this topic, his interest in reexamining the conceptual frames that have governed the periodisation of Tamil literature has resulted in a range of studies that are self-reflexive and revisionist. His work encompasses a broad chronological spectrum that moves from Sangam literature to modernism in contemporary Tamil literature. While Sivathamby is clearly a pioneer in this area, his work is by no means conclusive. This paper uses his work as a take-off point to raise a number of questions about the challenges of constructing a definitive literary history in Tamil.
Biographical statement:
Prof. Kanaganayakam is a Professor in the Department of English at the University of Toronto and is also the Director for the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. His research interests are in Southeast Asian literature, contemporary Indian and Sri Lankan writing, literature of exile and postcolonial theory. His major publications include: Moveable Margins: The Shifting Spaces of Canadian Literature (2005); Counterrealism and Indo Anglian Fiction (2002); Lutesong and Lament: Tamil Writing from Sri Lanka (2001); Dark Antonyms and Paradise: The Poetry of Rienzi Crusz (1997); Configurations of Exile: South Asian Writers and Their World (1995), and Structures of Negation: The Writings of Zulfikar Ghose (1993).
