Professor Garret

Title Significance – Land : Women’s Breath and Speech The title Land: Women’s Breath and Speech is translated from Tamil Title “Nilam: Penkalin Moochum, Peachum”.  The title delineates the crux of the essay. Throughout the essay P.Sivakami talks about the term “Land”. She Interrogates “Can we measure a colossal force by a narrow term ‘Land?” As the main title suggests she talks primarily about the term “Land”. She associates the term with Thinai which includes not only the land but also the living organisms and plants. She negotiates the culture of naming the land based on the plants growing there. Then she traces the history of naming the land and proclaims it was named after the language is spoken by a man and his linage. Term and Naming of Lands After discussing the term and naming of land, she surveys how man possessed the right to hold private property. She traces it back to the beginning of Human civilization when human beings began to appropriate lands. She suggests ...

Palanimuthu Sivakami  (born 1957) is an Indian writer writing in  Tamil . Palanimuthu Sivakami was born in Tamil nadu. Her education took her away from her home and in her acquiring of BA in history and MA she became confident and independent. She went on to serve in the Indian administrative service for about 22 years and now is part of the Indian political scenario.   Dalit women writers are like these diamonds, those who are born and brought up in misery, discrimination and adversity and come out stronger through their books and activism. Their writing gives an in-depth view of their struggle. Women across the world and especially in rural India have met challenges to get themselves educated and for a dalit woman it’s doubly hard. The few women who got themselves educated and wrote came out with work in forms of books which were to a great extent autobiographical, slanting towards feminism and also were considered mainly as a movement of the women to come out of...

Literature as a Mirror Introduction (Literature as a Mirror) Literature is a mirror of society. Literature indeed reflects the society, its good values and its ills . In its corrective function, literature also mirrors the ills of the society with a view to making the society realize its mistakes and make amends . It also projects the virtues or good values in the society for people to emulate. Literature, as an imitation of human action, often presents a picture of what people think, say and do in the society. It is important to negotiate whether Literature represents gloomy side of life than pleasant side of it. The essay focuses on how the mirror reflects darker side of society than its binary opposition, brighter side of society. Representation of Reality vs Fiction Realism refers to any attempt to portray life accurate. Realism in literature chronicles the lives of ordinary people--farmers, shop keepers, waitresses, construction workers. Realism literature is a reacti...