Word, Sound, Image, the Life of the Tamil Text

Word, Sound, Image, the Life of the Tamil Text, with interactive CD Bhairavi Varnam (1995, Oxford, Washington, Berg Publishers; 2020, Routledge)

This original and radical book challenges dominant parameters of literacy by comparing the oral tradition of the Tamils in South India with the Western culture of printed text. In India, traditional texts are always performed; as a result, form and meaning can change depending on the occasion. This is the opposite of Western communication through publication which is a static representation of knowledge. Full text can be accessed at: www.academia.edu/15575469

Substantiation of the ’multimedial genius’ of this Tamil oral tradition was cast in the innovative technology of interactive CD (Philips Media, Eindhoven, The Netherlands), inserted int he Book Publication. Unfortunately, the hardware to support CD-i- software did not last. Excerpts from this early multimedial product are accessible now only in the Marapu Curriculum.

 

Reviews

The Hindu, 2001, Devesh Soneji

Oideion - Performing Arts Online. Issue 2. September 1998. Review by Dirk Nijland

Anthropological Research. Volume 53, Number 1. Spring 1997. Review by Stephen A. Tyler

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