LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 23:11 November 2023
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Studying Bama’s Karukku as a Bildungsroman

Suresh Kumar


Courtesy: www.amazon.com

Abstract

Bama (born 1958) is considered a significant Dalit woman writer from contemporary India. In her seminal work, Karukku (1992), Bama records her most traumatic experiences in the Convent, Church, seminary, and the Christian community that become the centres of discrimination based on caste. Besides the narratives about the separate human settlement in the village, lower caste people working for upper castes on low wages, the tradition of leftover, hierarchical possession over natural resources like water of lakes, rivers or pastures showcase the mindsets of society. This research paper discusses how Karukku is a Bildungsroman while tracing the growth of the protagonist from childhood into maturity imparting moral and social values through this novel.

Keywords: Bama, Karukku, Bildungsroman, discrimination, Convent, Church, seminary, Christian community.

1. Introduction

Bama’s autobiographical novel, Karukku, narrates her experiences starting from a village in Tamilnadu since her childhood where her Christian parents live, revealing the customs and rituals of the village, folktales and myths she listens to from the elders, her experiences in the school, hostel, Convent, Church, at workplace and society at large all contribute to transforming her character.

Bildungsroman, a subclass of a novel, is a German term which originated from two German words: 'Bildung' and 'Roman' meaning 'education'/ 'formation' and 'novel' (yourdictionary.com) respectively which refer to the German tradition of ‘self-cultivation’. This signifies the “novel of formation”. The subject of a bildungsroman is the development of the protagonist’s mind and character in the passage from childhood through varied experiences, often through a spiritual crisis, into maturity. Besides, this process or evolution generally involves the recognition of one’s identity and role in the world around them (Abrams 255). This mode began in Germany with K.P. Moritz’s Anton Reiser (1785-90) and with the publication of Johann Wolfgang Goethe’s Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship (1795-96), the genre came into vogue. Though the genre proliferated in Germany, it influenced writers across the globe rapidly. In England, the term was popularized by Carlyle with his translation of Goethe's classic work into English in 1824 which paved the way for the other English writers to toe the line. It includes Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre (1847), George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss (1860), Charles Dickens's Great Expectations (1861), Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage (1915), and Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain (1924) (Abrams 255). The term was coined by Karl Morgenstern and used by Wilhelm Dilthey who legitimized and popularized it in 1870 and 1905 respectively.

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

Suresh Kumar
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Govt. College Indora, 176401
Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India
Email: vijaysuresh8890@gmail.com
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