91. Abdullah Abdul Hameed

Abstract 91
Abdullah Abdul Hameed                                                                                                                         

Mappila Literature from Bhakti to Feminism: Facets of Resistance, Counter Aesthetics, and Construction of Identity

Mappila literature is arguably characterised by an anti-colonial spirit. Recent studies on Mappila Literature explored this evolution of anti-colonial phase in the 18^th and 19^th centuries from the religious and spiritual phase of early writings in 17^th century like the mālappāttus. But one can see a lack of celebration of this literary tradition beyond this anti-colonial phase while Mappila literature is recently welcomed into the academic arena in the regional and national sphere. Newer perspectives are being developed on Mappila literature by some recent feminist studies by exploring certain narrative strategies of the writers, both male and female, among the Mappila. Serious explorations could be made to see how Mappila literature characterises itself beyond spiritual and anti-colonial or modernist realms. There is, one can register, a resisting voice or an aesthetics characterised by dissent which always lead Mappila literary tradition ahead. From its evolutionary bhakti to the recent feminist writings on/and exploration of writings by the Mappila women, this presence of the voice of resistance has been a connecting thread among the literary works in Mappila literature, be it in Arabic, Arabimalayalam, or Malayalam. ‘Resistance’ or ‘dissent’ as a phenomenon could be observed as an underlying force in almost all writings in Mappila literature in a close reading of Mappila writers across ages. The proposed paper envisages exploring and analysing representative works in Mappila Literature, which established an alternative literary mission in Arabimalayalam for nearly four centuries, to identify the construction of a minority community’s identity through different narrative strategies of the Mappila writers, of which, this paper sees, resistance/dissent as a dominant phenomenon. This paper will also survey representative Mappila literary works from early 17^th century to the present to analyse the interconnecting thread of dissenting voice among them.