A Study on the Emergence of Subaltern Counterpublics in Select Malayalam Dalit Christian Narratives

Title

A Study on the Emergence of Subaltern Counterpublics in Select Malayalam Dalit Christian Narratives

Creator

Romeo, Christina

Contributor

Nayar C V, Anupama.

Description

The research A Study on the Emergence of Subaltern Counterpublics in Select Malayalam Dalit Christian Narratives attempts to put Kerala's vernacular Dalit Christian narratives into the scholarly canvas. As statistics do not provide solid data on the quotidian resistance, the narratives reveal the overt and covert struggles of the Dalit Christians. The study problematises the dominant narrative of the State and the Church and provides a way to articulate their voices and the transition from one religion to another. The primary texts for the study include Paul Chirakkarodes Pulayathara, Nostalgia and Eli Eli, Lama Sabach Thani, T.K.C. Vaduthalas Achante Venthinga Inna! and C Ayyapans Ghost Speech. The current study uses the combined frameworks of narratology, Lacanian psychoanalysis and subaltern counterpublics through the method of narrative analysis. Narrative analysis involves analysing stories or narratives to understand their meanings, experiences and values. The research argues that the Dalit Christian narratives become a testimony of subaltern counterpublics, narratology, and resistance tactics, suggesting a counter- narrative effect. They become treasure houses that carry group memory of community life and history. They are enclaved spaces where unfiltered articulations of marginalisation, abandonment, exploitation, rejection, resistance and empowerment occur. They function as proactive spaces that challenge dominant stereotypes and create an ideologically sound public sphere. Alternative discourse arenas become places of empowerment where subaltern counterpublics emerge, thus transforming the narratives into counter-narratives. The study acknowledges the agency of the Dalit Christian narratives to reform, rethink and reinterpret the form and content of Dalit Christian literature from a subaltern perspective. From an epistemological perspective, the Dalit Christian narratives produce knowledge garnered through analysing and interpreting the primary texts as representative of fusing personal and political resources to create a narrative of resistance and survival.

Source

Author's Submission

Date

2024-01-01

Publisher

Christ(Deemed to be University)

Subject

English

Rights

Open Access

Relation

61000391

Format

PDF

Language

English

Type

PhD

Identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10603/598732