80. Vennela Rayavarapu venn

Abstract 80
Vennela Rayavarapu venn                                                                                                      

Influence of Modern Telugu Translations in the making of Standard Telugu

Abstract

The period 1920-1960 in Andhra Pradesh was a time when the national struggle combined with a tussle at home for an identity; a unique political and geographical form for the Telugus. The literature of this period comprised of many debates that promoted educational reforms, widow remarriages and denounced other social evils like gender and caste oppression. Many scholars and reformers like G.V. Appa Rao and Veeresalingam worked for women’s education. My paper would be about the literary renaissance promoted by English-Telugu translations during this period. I would also discuss the role the translations of this period play in standardising Telugu, to give it a usable and practical form, at the prospect of language-based state secession.

Many Telugu translations of English and American novels and stories of this period focussed on two things. The stories which were translated were written in Modern Telugu bridging the wide gap between the Modern Telugu and archaic, classical Telugu. Mills and Boon novels were translated by Yaddanapudi Sulochana Rani. Nanduri Rama Mohan Rao, the editor of Andhra Jyothi, translated many works of Mark Twain and Oscar Wild to Telugu. Veeresalingam translated almost 12 plays of Shakespeare. There were more than 80 book reviews and detailed summaries of novels from all over America and England by Malathi Chandur compiled as Navala Manjari.

Women’s readership is the second issue of my paper. These translated books were a part of regional libraries, reading groups which comprised many women. When widow-remarriage and women’s education were still to become established practices in Andhra Pradesh, these stories enabled women to be literate at home.

Many of the author-translators mentioned above wrote for a reading class that is emerging both in initiation and response to the literature that was produced at thit time.

In this paper, I would study the Modern Telugu translation of this period as a backdrop for the readership of women. Further discussion about how the ‘means’ (print media, newspapers) of translation gradually made translation a powerful tool in the making of Telugu language on the threshold of language-based state secession will be a part of the paper. The paper would also examine how translations made during this period also are also an attempt at reviving Telugu readership on the onset of colonial influence, and oppressive educational reforms.