Oral tradition and theater
Like the rest of India, Kerala has naturally seen the spread of the Râmâyana and the Mahâbhârata, the two most important mythological epics of Hinduism, both of which pre-date our era. However, it has also developed its own culture, reusing and even innovating the legacy of oral tradition on stage. So it's hardly surprising that Kutiyattam, usually performed by actors from the Chakiar caste and musicians from the Nambiar caste (as well as Nambiar women!), is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site: a highly codified theatrical genre that has kept its customs intact for over 2,000 years. More recent but just as demanding, both in practice and in respect for rituals, Kathakali is adorned with sublime make-up and other impressive masks to embody the characters of the 101 stories of the classical repertoire, as well as more modern plays inspired by Shakespeare or... the Bible. In the coastal state of Kerala, trade and commerce encouraged contact with territories that were sometimes very far away! Without aiming to be exhaustive in terms of traditional arts, we might also mention Mohiniattam, a dance performed by women in homage to the god Vishnu, or Tolpava Koothu shadow theater, using the Tamil version of the Ramayana by Kamban, a late 12th-century author from the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu.
Nevertheless, it was Malayalam that came to the fore in Kerala, thanks to three precursors - Cherusseri Namboothiri, Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan and Kunchan Nambiar - born in the 15th, 16th and 18th centuries respectively. A court poet, the former composed Krishna Gadha, considered the inaugural work in Malayalam. The latter modernized the language, adding an alphabet and translating the Râmâyana, originally written in Sanskrit. While he is regarded as the father of Malayalam literature, his successor is credited with adding a more subjective touch: Kunchan Nambiar's writings, which were widely reprinted at Thullal (traditional dance) performances, were indeed neither lacking in humor nor critical spirit. But they were already moving into a genre with which we are far more familiar, that of the novel.
From Malayalam to English
In 1887, Appu Nedungadi (1863-1933) published Kundalatha, the first Malayalam novel, although some consider Indulekha, published two years later, to be far superior. As proof, this title has been constantly reprinted for over 130 years! Be that as it may, Indulekha is undeniably the symbol of an era: in this portrait of an educated woman who rejects the man for whom she is destined to marry her suitor at heart, from another caste, it's hard not to discern more globally the questioning of a country facing a veritable clash of cultures, one that pits ancestral traditions against modern Western mores. The author, O. Chandu Menon (1847-1899), oscillated between these two influences: having received a classical Indian education, he went on to work for the British government. Eleven years his junior, C.V. Raman Pillai was also a pioneer - literarily and politically speaking - for, although he liked to delve into the historical vein in his novels (including Marthandavarma), he was also an incisive journalist, creating the newspaper title The Kerala Patriot in 1882, and a social critic in his satirical farces(Dharma Raja, Doctorkku Kittiya Micham, etc.).
The twentieth century opened with a bang with the birth in 1908 of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, a writer who was equally committed - he campaigned for independence - celebrated - he is available in French from the fine publishing house Zulma(Grand-père avait un éléphant, Les Murs et autres histoires (d'amour), Le Talisman), and innovative, since he added a strong autobiographical accent to his works by evoking his loves... as much as his stays in prison. From then on, Kerala authors became truly international in scope, as witnessed by the increasing number of translations confirming their influence. The first novel by O.V. Vijayan (1930-2005), although written in Malayalam, marked a real turning point in Indian literature: published in 1968 and still available from Fayard under the title Les Légendes de Khasak, it is set in an imaginary village in Kerala, but is intended as a realistic fresco of the consequences of communism. Vijayan not only possessed a sharp pen, but also a sharp pencil, which he put to good use by becoming a press cartoonist, while pursuing his eclectic writing activities (essays, short stories, memoirs...). Kamala Surayya (1934-2009) became involved in the defense of women's rights, writing editorials, poems(Summer in Calcutta, The Descendants) and novellas(Le Témoin, Syros jeunesse), before turning to autobiography(L'Histoire de ma vie, éditions Kailash, unfortunately out of print), all in English and Malayalam.
Indeed, although Maniyambath Mukundan and Khadija Mumtaz continued to revolutionize Malayalam literature - the former drawing on the postmodernist trend for his many novels, which he liked to set in Mahé, in the enclave of Pondicherry, the latter excelling in the psychological approach of her characters - more and more writers are using English, the country's second official language after Hindi. A natural choice for Shashi Tharoor, born in London to parents from Kerala in 1956, but less expected of Arundhati Roy, who has moved around a lot but never left India, where she started out working in the film industry. Her first novel, The God of Small Things, was awarded the Booker Price in 1997 and celebrated by the New York Times, before being translated into French by Gallimard the following year. This international bestseller, the story of twins separated by tragedy and inspired by her own childhood, was followed by another work of fiction, The Ministry of Supreme Happiness, and, above all, numerous essays(L'Écrivain-militant, Mon cœur séditieux, Azadi, etc.). Anita Nair(Compartiment pour dames, Dans les jardins du Malabar, L'Abécédaire des sentiments) and Anees Salim(Vanity bagh, Les Descendants de la dame aveugle) also favor the international language, but Malayalam has not said its last word, if the popularity of titles published by K. R. Meera, born in 1970 in Sasthamkotta.
