Colonizing the Realm of Words by Sascha Ebeling

Colonizing the Realm of Words by Sascha Ebeling

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 is a major contribution to the study of Tamil literature … The book gives a wonderful, detailed picture of the biographies, writings and contexts of some of the most important authors in Tamil of the nineteenth century" — Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception

"…[Ebeling] provides a detailed philological study of the Tamil texts, especially the poetics of Minatcicundaram Pillai and the Pulavars and the emergence of the Tamil novel. The transliterated Tamil texts following the epilogue make this book valuable indeed." — CHOICE

"This is a pathbreaking study of textual materials that have not been examined before in an English-language publication. It fills a major gap in our understanding of nineteenth-century literary culture in South India specifically and in India generally." —Srilata Raman, author of Self-Surrender (Prapatti)to God in Śrīvaiṣṇavism: Tamil Cats and Sanskrit Monkeys

"This book is impeccably grounded in philological expertise, and the author displays mastery of the language and the complex texts that he discusses. The entire book is conceived with great elegance." — Indira Viswanathan Peterson, coeditor of Tamil Geographies: Cultural Constructions of Space and Place in South India

Sascha Ebeling is Assistant Professor of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781438432007
ISBN 10	1438432003
Title	Colonizing the Realm of Words
Author	Sascha Ebeling
Series	Suny Series In Hindu Studies
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	State University of New York Press
Year published	2011-07-02
Number of pages	379
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.