Sarah Joseph (author)

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"Sara Joseph" redirects here. For other uses, see Sarah Joseph.
Sarah Joseph
Sara Joseph - Malayalam Writer and Activist.jpg
Sarah Joseph
Occupation Writer, feminist
Genre Novel, short story, essay
Literary movement Feminist literature
Notable works Aalahayude Penmakkal, Puthuramayanam, Oduvilathe Suryakanthi

Sarah Joseph (born 1946) is a novelist and short story writer in Malayalam. She won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award for her novel Aalahayude Penmakkal (Daughters of God the Father).[1] She also received the Vayalar Award for the same novel.[2] Sarah has been at the forefront of the feminist movement in Kerala and is the founder of Manushi (organisation of thinking women).[1][3] She and Madhavikutty are considered among the leading women writers in Malayalam.[4] She joined the Aam Aadmi Party in 2014 and contested the 2014 parliament elections from Thrissur.

Early and personal life

Sarah Joseph was born into a conservative Christian family at Kuriachira in Thrissur city in 1946 to Louis and Kochumariam.[1][4] She was married at the age of 15 when she was in class IX. She attended the teacher's training course and began her professional career as a school teacher. Later, she received her B.A. and M.A. in Malayalam as a private candidate and joined the collegiate service in Kerala. She served as a Professor of Malayalam at Sanskrit College, Pattambi. She has since retired from government service and lives at Mulamkunnathukavu in Thrissur district. Her daughter's name is Sangeetha Srinivasan.

Sarah Joseph is also a well-known social activist and was at the forefront of several agitations in Kerala. She was an ardent left-sympathiser[5] but joined the Aam Aadmi Party in January 2014[6] and was fielded by the party as a candidate from the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency in the 2014 parliament elections, but lost to C. N. Jayadevan of Communist Party of India.[7]

Literary career

Sarah Joseph's literary career began very early, when she was in high school. Many of her poems appeared in Malayalam weeklies. She was also good at reciting her poems at poets' meets which was much appreciated by poets like Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon and Edasseri Govindan Nair.[1] After a short period of uncertainty she took to fiction and began writing short stories. Her collection of short stories Paapathara is considered a milestone in feminist writing in Malayalam.[3]

She has published a trilogy of novels which includes Aalahayude Penmakkal, Mattathi, and Othappu. Her works are essentially liberalistic and convey the sentiments of various oppressed groups.[8] The novel Othappu is about a woman's yearning for a true understanding of spirituality and her own sexuality.[9] Othappu has been translated into English by Valson Thampu under the title "Othappu: The Scent of the Other Side".[10][11] Her novel Aalahayude Penmakkal won her three major awards – the Kerala Sahitya Academy Award, the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award, and the Vayalar Award.[2] In 2011, Sarah won the Muttathu Varkey Award for her collection of short stories titled Papathara.[12] On 10 October 2015, She returned the Sahitya Akademi Award based on her political perception that there is "fear and lack of freedom under the present government."[13]

She has won much critical acclaim for her Ramayana Kathakal, a subversive reading of the Ramayana. An English translation of this work has been published by the Oxford University Press.[14][15][16]

In 2012 she won the Padmaprabha Literary Award.[17]

Selected works

Short stories
  • Manassile Thee Matram (1973)
  • Kadinte Sangeetham (1975, anthology of short stories)
  • Paapathara
  • Oduvilathe Suryakanthi
  • Nilavu Nirayunnu
  • Puthuramayanam
  • Kaadithu Kandaayo Kaanthaa
  • Nanmathinmakalude Vriksham (anthology of short stories)
Novels

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ "Kerala opens up to AAP, writer-activist Sara Joseph to join Arvind Kejriwal". India Today. 11 January 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  6. ↑ "Sara Joseph joins AAP". The Hindu. 13 January 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  7. ↑ "AAP fields author Sara Joseph against Chacko". The Hindu. 2 March 2014. Retrieved 2 March 2014.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  13. ↑ http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/now-kerala-writer-sarah-joseph-to-return-sahitya-akademi-award-1230505
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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