Poverty, Social Problems
and Cultural Diversity in
R. Tagore,
Narayan
and Salaam Bombay
Kate Liu, Fu Jen
Background
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Caste system
Religious Conflicts
 Language Differences and
Illiteracy
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 Social Problems--poverty, internal
migration, slums in Bombay, government
inefficiency
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Colonialism -- in the background
Tagore: “Flute Music”
1. A man
in poverty-compared to a lizard;
save the cost of light
his office
his girl
2. The function of flute music
R. K. Narayan-biography
Pinchia Feng
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born in Madras in 1906
full name: Rasipuram Krishnaswami
Ayyar Naranayanaswami-->1935
Graham Greene
the Sahitya Akademi Award (1960)
A. C. Benson Medal (The British Society
of Literature, 1980)
R. K. Narayan-biography
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in the U. S.--The English
Speaking Union Book Award;
Fellow of the American
Academy and Institute of Arts
and Letters (1982)
a member of the Rajya Sabha,
the upper house of the Indian
Parliament (1989)
Narayan the Writer
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V.s. Naipaul (1999): “He wrote
about people in a small town
in South India: small people,
big talk, small doings. That
was where he began; that was
where he was fifty years later.
To some extent that reflected
Narayan’s own life. He never
moved far from his origins.”
(“The Writer in India”)
Narayan the Storyteller
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“I’d be quite happy if no more is claimed
from me than being just a story-teller. Only
the story matters, that is all. If readers read
more significance into my stories than was
meant originally, then that’s the reader’s
understanding of things. But if a story is in
tune completely with the truth of life, truth as I
perceive it, then it will be automatically
significant.”
“Annamalai”-narrative
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narrative time and technique: How
does the story start? How does it
end? Does the story follow a
chronological order?
narrative point of view
letters within the story: What do
they tell us?
“Annamalai”-regional color
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How does Narayan characterize
Annamalai and the peasant community
in (southern) India ?
Can we call “Annamalai” a story of
regional color?
Can you think of any example in
Taiwanese literature that is similar to
this story?
“Annamalai”-language
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language and class
linguistic hegemony: English
vs Tamil
Salaam Bombay: The
migrants in a city (1)
I. Chaipau:
 his name (Krishna)
 his family and home
address
 his “family” in the
city
Salaam Bombay: The
migrants in a city (2)
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Manju’s family
Chillum
The ghetto boys -- sleep
by the railroad station
Salaam Bombay: a
series of betrays
Baba
1.Chillum -- a
drug pusher
and addict
His wife
& Manju
Krishna
The Sweet
Sixteen
Salaam Bombay:
survival
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How do Krishna and the
other kids survive?
Skin chicken,
rob an old man,
serve in a rich man’s
wedding party
Salaam Bombay: social
factors
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State intervention: Chiller
Room
drug, prostitution and
Bollywood
traces of collonial influence:
cricket, tourists, statues,
movies
Religion: helpless. E.g.
Ganesh