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Sahitya Akademi plans literary programmes in Puducherry

PUDUCHERRY: You could soon be attending a poetry recitation or story-telling event or even get to listen to a critic’s views of a literary work at Puducherry, with the Sahitya Akademi’s Southern Regional Office at Bangalore planning to hold such programmes for literary bugs in the Union Territory.

Its Regional Secretary Bala Gurumurthy told The Hindu that the National Academy of Letters, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, would soon conduct literary programmes, such as ‘Kavi Sandhi’,  216;Katha Sandhi’ and ‘Through my Window’, in Puducherry.

Speaking on the sidelines of a one-day symposium on ‘Women’s writings in Tamil literature’ on Tuesday, he said, “We are speeding up all our programmes like conducting National- and regional-level seminars, workshops and publishing books. The Akademi, which is the largest publisher of books in the world, brings out books in 24 languages. We even have a sales outlet here. We request the Government of Puducherry to give us a bigger place so that we can stock more books.” Mr. Gurumurthy said.

Mr. Bala Gurumurthy added that the Sahitya Akademi would conduct at least one programme a month, and sought collaboration from literary associations.

Earlier at the seminar, writers including Padmavathi Vivekananthan, Malathi Maitri, Thilakabama, Ilampirai, Madanacalliani and Senkamalathayar debated on the need for a discussion on women’s writings in Tamil, and on how such works evolved.

Madanacalliani said the action of Karaikal Ammaiyar in shunning her body and writing various religious works was an act of revolt against her husband, who had left her. Malathi Maitri said women’s writings were a way of establishing a new identity for women and also to register their dreams, freedom, thoughts and feelings.

She condemned male writers who were choosing women’s names as pen names.

Storyteller Ki Rajanarayanan said folklore and various songs, including the ‘oppaari’ that we passed down from mother to daughter, were the basis for women’s writing.

Mr. Rajanarayanar also pointed out that most of the songs and tales always portrayed the sadness and difficulties in the lives of women. Ms. Padmavathi said that a history for women could be constructed from folklore.

Sudharshan, Director of Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture, which hosted the symposium, said that there were 41 women poets in Sangam literature, and that they had penned 177 songs, which comprised about 10 percent of the songs.

In his concluding remarks, K. Panjangam, General Council Member, Sahitya Akademi, said every piece of literature must be discussed by academics and the public. This would help bring a change in societal attitudes.

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Sahitya Akademi plans literary programmes in Puducherry

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