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Uravugal (novel)

From Tamil Wiki

இந்தப் பக்கத்தை தமிழில் வாசிக்க: உறவுகள் (நாவல்)

Uravugal

Uravugal (1975) was a realistic Tamil novel written by Neela Padmanabhan, that employs the stream of consciousness technique. It progresses through a son's memories of his father creating a detailed character sketch.

Creation, Publication

Neela Padmanabhan himself raised money to publish Uravugal in 1975 through a publishing company called Jaikumari Stores, Nagercoil.

Synopsis

The protagonist Rajagopal, on hearing about his father's ill health, comes to Trivandrum and spends the next eighteen days with him. The narration jumps between providing sketches of Rajagopal's memories of his father and detailing about the countless relations he has inherited from him. The novel ends with Rajagopal's realization of the relations he has inherited and the death of his father.

Literary Significance

Writer Nakulan says about Uravugal, "There hasn't been a character that has been so meticulously dissected and analyzed in Tamil literature." The novel while talking about the father-son relationship does not follow the conventional Freudian method of psychoanalysis. It simply narrates the son's fond remembrances of his father. However, this outward fondness during his father's final days is a mere façade to compensate for the estrangement. Through this façade he reinvents a conventional father-son relationship. "Pretty soon, he would drive out his father's image from his everyday life by deifying him with garlands and offerings. He would retain only the relations and traditions that benefit him. This fondness is actually a compensation for the clashes between the father and son. Rajagopal's issue is that he doesn't know how to deal with the relations and the guilt with which his father had left him. Neela Padmanabhan has accurately portrayed Rajagopal's fondness, his self-deception and his self-centered attitude towards relations" says writer Jeyamohan. The novel narrates, in a simple and natural style, the various inner layers in a father-son relationship without resorting to an analytical style or stating things from an omniscient third person narrative.

Award

  • Raja Annamalai Chettiar Award 1977 (for Uravugal novel)

References


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