Renaissance is Dead?

The times are a changing. This afternoon, I had lunch with my colleagues and we were talking about literature in general and our respective provincial literature too. Maybe I am not a great authority of provincial literature of Tamil. What do you expect from a guy who escaped tough literature course for French Language from the sixth grade. The topic leaned on traditional literature and its continuity. My friend who was Maharashtrian was proud of thriving, inspirational writing in Marathi.

Perhaps it exists in every language. For people who have got educated in the british way like me, it is not something we really cared about. I have read translated work of Sivasankari, Tagore and original literature from Vikram Seth, R.K. Narayan, Shashi Deshpande, Anita Nair and the likes, besides many other foreign writers. So the question is whether in a Global context, is our regional identity getting superceded by modernism. Is writing in regional language a deacying art? Why would we have to live on translated work?

Literature has always had an aura until the late part of 20th century. With IT monopolizing the mind space at leisure and at work for most of us youtube and blogspot have become spaces of human expression. It is the mark of a step change in civilization. This is not the end for literature. The power of writing and the process of getting inspired to reading cannot be replaced by keeping soft copies of videos of great speeches. The process of internalizing writing is different.

Now that I have ruled out the obsolesence of Literature, let us comeback to regionalism and vernacular importance. I have put these in two trains carefully - vernacular focus and regionalism. This is due to the fact that a novel can reflect region and culture immaterial of the language of its production. Our consumption pattern of art might have changed. Language is the vehicle of expression. Culture and civilization are far more deep in the esoteric sense. The reflection of the times and the satire of current state of affairs will always be recorded. The diminished importance of language is a concern for the purists and lovers of language. The vernacular beauty of civilization is getting lost. This is a real, valid and imminent concern.

Being the optimist, I am happy with enlightenment and inspiration happening in the flavor of the underlying regional culture. Swami, Malgudi days and five point someone are glowing examples of our subcultures written in foreign language. Hence as sad as the degeneration of language can be, there will be efforts by purists that will flash the brilliance and keep this fading light. The english writing of local culture is a thing that is going to stay. It is a fallout of our own convent education embracing system. Why rile over that when we sit on heaps of benefit that we reap from the legacy.

Art exists in expression. No matter what vehicle it takes, as long as it inspires, it works. When we rant on this topic, It is like telling renaissance is dead. Cool oxymoron!! Sorry for the little digression. Picasso cannot be born again, so is the case with Tagore or RK Narayan. We cannot discount their works. No matter what their vehicle of expression was. Hence renaissance is about reinventing social structures that appreciate art. This is a consistent metamorphosis. Hence renaissance is cyclical and will never be dead. The possibility of more english writing than vernacular is an imminent reality. But it is not an alarming trend as long as the curse of tower of Babel does not return.