Wednesday, May 21, 2025 – 11:30am – 1pm, Foster 103
Rajesh Venkatasubramanian, Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Mohali, Punjab
Progressivism in art and literature emerged during the interwar years in South Asia with the formation of the Progressive Writers Association in 1936 in Lucknow. The talk will examine the regional trajectory of the movement in Tamil India and Sri Lanka from the 1940s to 1970s. Focusing on the lives of individual writers and critics and scrolling through the pages of literary magazines, the talk will trace the history of muṟpōkkuvātam and muṟpōkku ilakkiyam in the Tamil literature of the 20th century. In a broader sense, the talk is about the Tamil cultural Left’s engagement with art and literature in the context of nationalism, the Dravidian politics in India, and ethnic majoritarianism in Sri Lanka.
