Paper short abstract:

The paper will analyse G. Kalyana Rao’s novel Untouchable Spring that was originally published in Telugu with the title Antarani Vasantam in 2000. It will discuss the novel’s representation of subaltern art forms and explore the novel’s reception as a translated text.

Paper long abstract:

The paper will analyse G. Kalyana Rao's novel Untouchable Spring that was published in English by Orient Black Swan in 2010, translated from Telugu by Alladi Uma and M. Sridhar. This novel narrates the history of a Dalit family and community over several generations and in the process draws on and interrogates the narrative conventions of novel and history writing, of myths and oral story-telling. The paper will focus on analysing the way in which regional and Dalit art forms are represented in the text. It will also discuss the politics of translation and the text's reception by my undergraduate students in a postcolonial module at Nottingham Trent University.