Rhetoric and the Translation: Deciphering the Controversy Surrounding Perumal Murugans One Part Woman

Name of Author : Guhan Priyadharshan P

Abstract: Perumal Murugans Madhorubagan was translated into English as One Part Woman, he was surrounded on all sides by controversy. Nevertheless, the authorial preface in the Tamil source text situates the text in the realms of history. In contrast, the exclusion of the same in the English version implies that the work accommodates the imagination of the readers, notwithstanding the rhetoric embedded in the text. However, this should not have provoked the controversy, so this requires the attention to situate the translated text in the context of rhetorical criticism to disclose what went wrong at the level of rhetoric. As court cases beleaguered the author, the arguments in S. Tamilselvan vs. The Government of Tamil Nadu complement the understanding of the implied rhetoric of the author in the translated text, which goes beyond the content of the authorial preface in the source text. This paper situates the translated text in the context of the arguments surrounding the court cases and the authorial preface of the Tamil source text to delineate the roots of the controversy outside the mainstream understanding that the text misrepresented history.

Keywords : Translation Studies, Law and Literature, Rhetorical Criticism and Chicago School of Criticism

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