LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 16:3 March 2016
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Silence: Anything But Nothing
A Reading of Ananthamurthy’s Bhava

Sruthy B., Ph.D. Research Scholar

Abstract

This paper discusses the role of silence in U. R. Ananthamurthy’s novel Bhava. He uses the concept silence in his novels to represent different perspectives – social, cultural, racial, and gender. He portrays round characters in the background of postcolonial Indian villages. Acculturation and assimilation bring a state of liminality and how the individual confronts it is the main thread of his works.

Keywords: Silence, U. R. Ananthamurthy, Bhava.

Introduction

Silence is a celebrated concept in philosophy and literature from time immemorial. In earlier days, it was associated with absence and mostly silence was given a negative connotation in culture and literature. Most of the writers especially women and postcolonial writers use ‘absence’ to indicate negativity, passiveness and death. Steven Pinker considers silence as a mode of communication; he gives the status of language to silence. He says that people hear language but not sounds. During 1990s, theoreticians like Jacques Lacan, Van Manen, Bilmes developed the metaphorical meaning of the silence as absence. According to Lacan silence is the absence of signifier; Manen adheres that, “speech rises out of silence and return to silence” (qtd. in Ephratt 1911) and Bilmes’ saying is interesting: “where the rule is speak not speaking is communicative,” and “conversational silence is the absence of talk (or of particular kinds of talk) where talk might relevantly occur” (qtd. in Ephratt 1911). Connotations of silence are developed philosophically and theoretically, and in literature, it associates also with the negative aspects like, suppression, oppression, marginalisation etc. and in the case of women’s writing, double marginalisation is portrayed through silence. In social and cultural norms silence of women represents their obedience and chastity.

U. R. Ananathamurthy, a post colonial writer in Indian literature, introduces powerful women characters in his works. He uses the concept silence in his novels to represent different perspectives – social, cultural, racial, and gender. He portrays round characters in the background of postcolonial Indian villages. Acculturation and assimilation bring a state of liminality and how the individual confronts it is the main thread of his works. His heroines, like Chandri from Samskara, Saroja from Bhava and Gouri from Awasthe are not vulnerable but they are powerful and consistent than heroes. Their silence could be anything; other characters interpret, describe and manipulate the heroines’ silence in their own way but they are living as examples of real women. Ananthamurthy gives ample space to readers to interpret them as equal as he does. This paper concentrates on one heroine’s silence, Saroja from Bhava, and analyses its depth and possible phases of meanings. Postcolonial writers usually use the concept silence to represent suffering, oppression and marginalisation but Ananthamurthy, being a postcolonial writer, not only concentrates on these themes but gives or uses higher phase of silence, that is nothingness. Joy Nozomi Kogava, Japanese Canadian writer, uses silence as a metaphor for transcendence. In Kogava’s work, Obasan, silence associates with a state which leads to real self. It is connected with Buddhism and its concept of nothingness.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Sruthy B
Research Scholar
Faculty of English and Foreign Languages
Gandhigram Rural Institute – Deemed University
Gandhigram 624 302
Dindigul
Tamilnadu
India
sruthybharathan25@gmail.com
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