Politics of Literature : Contemporary Telugu Katha (original) (raw)

This paper maps the politics of the contemporary Telugu Katha. It is an attempt to locate the history of Telugu katha in order to contextualize the politics of anthologizing literature over a period of time. With the advent of print culture the literary and cultural forms of oppressive social groups such as Dalits, women, adivasis, Muslims got marginalized and literary elite who happened to be brahminical class managed to establish their social experience and their literary imagination as 'the Telugu literature' in whatever the form it be. With intensified struggles of these submerged groups, there comes a new literary consciousness with the emergence of middle classes from these sections. It will focus on how the struggles of society marked the literature, and especially in contemporary times from the late eighties. On the one hand they are resisting the brahminical hegemony and on the other questioning the existing abstract idea of 'class' and 'progressive' literature by enriching their literature with the concrete life experiences/struggles. This paper argues that there is a need to redefine 'progressiveness' contextually by explaining through diverse claims of 'best short story' in Telugu literature. It concludes that the methods of evaluation of the 'best story' has to be changed by considering specificity of the problems faced by particular social group and their unique style of expression rather generalising.