Translating Difference: Reflections on the Interface between Novelistic Discourse and World Literature

E. V. RAMAKRISHNAN

Central University of Gujarat

Page 016-030

Abstract: The present essay examines two moments from the evolution of the modern Malayalam novel, in relation to the reception of two classics in world literature, namely Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables translated into Malayalam between 1925 and 1927 and García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude translated in 1984. The translation of Hugo’s novel energized the scene of Malayalam fiction by infusing new modes of representation and widening the intellectual horizons of writers in general, and novelists in particular. The echoes of Les Misérables could be heard in Malayalam fiction well into the 1950s. The struggles against colonial and feudal authorities in Kerala, provided a fertile context for the imaginative interpretation of Hugo’s humanist vision. The paper illustrates this point through close readings of critical essays, autobiographical narratives and debates on the nature of translation. The fascination of Malayali readers with García Márquez has resulted in the translation of his entire corpus into Malayalam. Magic realism as pioneered by García Márquez liberated the Malayalam novelistic narrative from social realist and modernist dogmas. The colonial disruption of oral narratives, the consequent cultural amnesia and the struggle to reclaim one’s forgotten past are themes that struck a chord in Malayalam writers of fiction. Through a detailed discussion of the novel, Moustache by S. Hareesh, the interface between novelistic discourse and world literature is mapped in the latter part of the essay.

Keywords: Malayalam literature, translation, difference, world literature, magic realism, caste, resistance

DOI: 10.53397/hunnu.jflc.202401002

• download  PDF 文件