Father May Be an Elephant, and Mother Only a Small Basket, but...
Summary
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Father May Be an Elephant, and Mother Only a Small Basket, but... by Gogu Shyamala
Dalit feminist stories of a south Indian village that dissolve the borders of realism, allegory and political fable. A young girl is sent away to school to save her from being declared the sexual property of the village's upper-caste men. The village water tank laments to a passing child. A Brahmin boy is considered 'polluted' by the touch of a Dalit girl - the same action that saved his life. Rendered with idiomatic vitality, humour and lightness, these stories revel in rural childhood without nostalgia or romanticism, forcing the reader to question their expectation of violence in the representation of certain lives, and of what the short story can be and do. Shifts in tone and perspective reveal relationships - between the different castes that make up a village, between an individual and the wider community, between identities and the seasonal rhythms of the land. Imbued throughout with a Dalit feminist philosophy that is above all a philosophy of life, to be lived with wit, ingenuity, and defiance.K. Purushotham is an academic writer and translator. Gita Ramaswamy is a social activist, writer, and translator. Gogu Shyamala is a social activist and a creative and academic writer.
Mini Krishnan is an editor of literary translations from Indian languages into English.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781911284741 |
| ISBN 10 | 1911284746 |
| Title | Father May Be an Elephant, and Mother Only a Small Basket, but... |
| Author | Gogu Shyamala |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Tilted Axis Press |
| Year published | 2022-03-31 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |