Project MUSE®: Manoa - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in Manoa.daily12026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 11, no. 2 (1999) through current issueLatest Articles: ManoaTWOProject MUSE®Manoa1527-943x1045-7909Latest articles in Manoa. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Editor’s Note
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987237
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For this issue, I wear two hats—editor of the journal and editor of this issue, Touchable/Untouchable: Dalit Literature from India in Translation. I have worked with renowned Dalit Studies scholar and literary critic K. Satyanarayana to bring together five stunning Dalit literary works. It has long been a dream of mine to facilitate a publication of this kind, and it has been instructive as well as immensely pleasurable to work on it with Satya. Dalit literature deserves a wide readership, and I hope this issue enables it to reach many readers previously unfamiliar with it. Since Satya and I have provided a detailed introduction to the issue, I will resist saying more about it here.Included in this issue are two
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallEditor’s Note2026-04-01text/htmlen-USEditor’s Note2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®29752026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01Guest Editors’ Introduction: Touchable/Untouchable: Dalit Literature from India in Translation
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987238
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This issue of Mānoa presents Dalit literature from India in translation to a global audience of readers in English.Why should readers outside India care about Dalit literature? For one thing, contemporary Dalit literature is among the most interesting and vibrant of literary enterprises currently underway in India. Contemporary Dalit literature has at one and the same time borne gripping witness to the centuries-old atrocious institution of exclusion and oppression known as caste, at the bottom of which Dalits are located as the most excluded and the most oppressed, and broken invigorating new literary ground. For these reasons alone, the value of reading Dalit literature should be evident. Dalit literature
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallGuest Editors’ Introduction: Touchable/Untouchable: Dalit Literature from India in Translation2026-04-01text/htmlen-USGuest Editors’ Introduction: Touchable/Untouchable: Dalit Literature from India in Translation2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®140632026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01Artist’s Statement
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987239
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Siddhesh Gautam’s art can be found on the cover and on pages 36, 79, 95, and 122.The images I create are born out of both joy and struggle. Every drawing carries the weight of memory, of histories erased, of voices silenced, and yet the act of drawing—from reading to thinking to analyzing to rethinking and reimagining—itself is a kind of release—a way to breathe, to make space for stories that deserve to be seen through mediums such as poetry, scribbles, collages, and compositions on paper, cloth, mind, and digital screens. There is suffering in revisiting wounds of caste, in holding the pain of our people, and in remembering our own past experiences, but there is also joy in transforming that pain into lines
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallArtist’s Statement2026-04-01text/htmlen-USArtist’s Statement2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®51872026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01Paraya Woman, and: Paraya God, and: The Nakedness of the Pages, and: Possible Sex, and: A Young Language, and: Death, and: Storm Sign, and: Treaty, and: With My Hands Filled with Poems, and: First Kiss, and: A House on My Back, and: Love of Writing, and: The Death of Ancient Words, and: The Forest’s Farewell, and: The Run, and: The Sound of Fire Burning, and: The Valor of Vulvas, and: The Earth, and: A Paratchi Can Commit Murder Too, and: Fresh Blood, and: The Abandoned Tomb, and: My Name Is River, and: A Poem of You and I, and: Returning Home, and: Let’s Kill the Fathers
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987240
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Translator’s NoteThe Tamil Dalit poet Sukirtharani’s first experience of caste happened in second grade when she proffered a piece of store-bought “two cents candy” to a female classmate who had shared a similar sugar treat with her the day before. It was but a reciprocity, and yet, in an act of visible disgust, the girl slapped the offering out of Sukirtharani’s hand and walked away, leaving the gift orphaned on the ground. In Sukirtharani’s retelling, there still linger remnants of that cutting pain of public humiliation. She speculates that since there were only about ten Dalit families in her tiny North Tamil Nadu village of Lalapet, nestled near the larger township of Ranipet, during that time in the 1970s
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallParaya Woman, and: Paraya God, and: The Nakedness of the Pages, and: Possible Sex, and: A Young Language, and: Death, and: Storm Sign, and: Treaty, and: With My Hands Filled with Poems, and: First Kiss, and: A House on My Back, and: Love of Writing, and: The Death of Ancient Words, and: The Forest’s Farewell, and: The Run, and: The Sound of Fire Burning, and: The Valor of Vulvas, and: The Earth, and: A Paratchi Can Commit Murder Too, and: Fresh Blood, and: The Abandoned Tomb, and: My Name Is River, and: A Poem of You and I, and: Returning Home, and: Let’s Kill the Fathers2026-04-01text/htmlen-USParaya Woman, and: Paraya God, and: The Nakedness of the Pages, and: Possible Sex, and: A Young Language, and: Death, and: Storm Sign, and: Treaty, and: With My Hands Filled with Poems, and: First Kiss, and: A House on My Back, and: Love of Writing, and: The Death of Ancient Words, and: The Forest’s Farewell, and: The Run, and: The Sound of Fire Burning, and: The Valor of Vulvas, and: The Earth, and: A Paratchi Can Commit Murder Too, and: Fresh Blood, and: The Abandoned Tomb, and: My Name Is River, and: A Poem of You and I, and: Returning Home, and: Let’s Kill the Fathers2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®555842026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01The Body on Fire & The Strength of Ten Elephants: Excerpts from the Telugu Novel Panchatantram
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987241
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Translator’s NoteBojja Tharakam (1939–2016) was a poet, novelist, translator, and political activist. He belonged to Kandikuppa in the East Godavari district of the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. His father, Bojja Appalaswamy, was a schoolteacher and a political figure who started the Ambedkar-led Scheduled Caste Federation in their area in 1942. He was elected to the Madras State Legislative Assembly in 1952 and the Andhra Pradesh Assembly in 1955. Tharakam’s mother, Mavullamma, did not attend school, but with the help of her husband, she learned to read and write. Tharakam studied in a school set up by his father for Dalit children in his village. Later, he continued his schooling at Pithapuram Raja’s
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallThe Body on Fire & The Strength of Ten Elephants: Excerpts from the Telugu Novel Panchatantram2026-04-01text/htmlen-USThe Body on Fire & The Strength of Ten Elephants: Excerpts from the Telugu Novel Panchatantram2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®1234892026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01Dalit Literature Is Not the Literature of Revenge Seekers: A Marathi Essay
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987242
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Translator’s NoteBaburao Ramji Bagul (1930–2008) may be described as the foremost radical writer in the tradition of modern Dalit literature in Marathi. A poet of intense sociocultural awareness, with a vision for the cultural-political transformation of the classist and caste-ridden society into a just and fair world, he symbolized the dream of Dr. Ambedkar of a modern India with liberty, fraternity, and equality for all. Bagul’s sense of Dalit assertion was defined by a wider sense of social, economic, and cultural justice and equality, which he inherited from the Marxist worldview. His literary and cultural-political perspective has the human being at its center in all aspects of the term. As an essayist
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallDalit Literature Is Not the Literature of Revenge Seekers: A Marathi Essay2026-04-01text/htmlen-USDalit Literature Is Not the Literature of Revenge Seekers: A Marathi Essay2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®493532026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01Death Grounds: An Excerpt from the Hindi Memoir Murdahiya
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987243
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Translator’s NoteDr. Tulsiram’s Murdahiya is an extraordinary text. The surprise begins with the title itself. A word not found in dictionaries of standard Hindi but redolent of the regional vernacular, murdahiya means neither (Hindu) cremation ground nor (Muslim) cemetery but something of both, and more as well. The death grounds thus evoked by the title then provide the unexpected organizing metaphor for a story of individual and collective life. At one level, the book is an autobiography, a chronicle of a scarred and enchanted childhood. At another, it is a kaleidoscopic tour of village life in India in the two decades following the country’s independence, a scrupulously observed narrative of everything from
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallDeath Grounds: An Excerpt from the Hindi Memoir Murdahiya2026-04-01text/htmlen-USDeath Grounds: An Excerpt from the Hindi Memoir Murdahiya2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®849442026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01Searing through the Soul in Fatal Rhythm: A Marathi Poem
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987244
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Translator’s NotePradnya Daya Pawar is one of the most prolific writers in Marathi. She has published six poetry collections: Antastha (Inside the Mind, 1993); Utkat Jeevghenya Dhagiwar (On Intense Killing Burning Heat, 2002); Mi Bhidwu Pahatey Samagrashi Dola (I Dare to Look in the Eye of the Whole, 2007); Aarpar Layit Pranaatik (Searing through the Soul in Fatal Rhythm, 2017); Drushyancha Dhobal Samudra (Sea of Obvious Scenes, 2013); and Hillol Harwun Aatbahercha (Tumult Within and Outside, 2024). And she has published one collection of short stories, Afawa Khari Tharawi Mhanun (So That the Rumors May Come True, 2010), along with three collections of her writings as a columnist, entitled Kendra ani Parigh (Center
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallSearing through the Soul in Fatal Rhythm: A Marathi Poem2026-04-01text/htmlen-USSearing through the Soul in Fatal Rhythm: A Marathi Poem2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®667142026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01On Literary Greatness and Endangered Literary Cultures
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987245
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Grounded in Mānoa’s identity as a journal of international writing, with a special interest in the Pacific, Asia, and the Americas, LITERARY NAVIGATIONS is a section devoted to exploring the craft and practice of literary creation and presentation in a global context of reading. Brief essays (2000–2500 words) examine challenges as well as opportunities in the practice of the literary when crossing boundaries of all kinds and at all levels from the word to the book. The section presents spirited reflections by writers, editors, and translators on the practice and presentation of writing between languages, audiences, cultures, nations, histories, and more. When considering literary matters in a global context
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallOn Literary Greatness and Endangered Literary Cultures2026-04-01text/htmlen-USOn Literary Greatness and Endangered Literary Cultures2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®169372026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01The Chinese word for endurance is the word for ‘knife’ atop the word ‘heart’
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987246
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“Potent and unafraid in its offering of oral history, familial loss, and personal truth, this poem vividly bites back with a ‘sharpness folded inward’ that pays homage to matriarchal wisdom. The speaker’s direct address compels the poem forward as each line moves with ease and intensity. What a powerful anthem and poem to live
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallThe Chinese word for endurance is the word for ‘knife’ atop the word ‘heart’2026-04-01text/htmlen-USThe Chinese word for endurance is the word for ‘knife’ atop the word ‘heart’2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®44392026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01Threshold Song
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987247
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“Wrought with gorgeous language and emotional heft, this poem beautifully traverses the logistics of loss and duties involved with managing grief. Framing the poem are details of birds and animals that not only enrich the poem’s meaning but also draw upon the mysteries and guardians of the natural world to aid in the process of crossing
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallThreshold Song2026-04-01text/htmlen-USThreshold Song2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®56412026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01The Good Girl’s Guide to Boy Crazy
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987248
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“The confident direct address in Tokuno-Lynk’s ‘The Good Girl’s Guide to Boy Crazy’ seized me from its first line, reading as much as a bidding as it does an invitation into a captivating narrative. The gorgeous specificity of images and unexpected details work in tandem with this brilliant voice to paint an indelible portrait of girlhood.”You are a Good Girl. Your mother and grandmother never miss an opportunity to remind you that you are a Good Girl. Expect some version of this reminder after every family gathering, especially the ones with your older cousins in attendance, babies perched on their teenaged hips.“You see how big Shani got?” your mom says on the drive back from Shani’s baby shower. “That’s why you
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallThe Good Girl’s Guide to Boy Crazy2026-04-01text/htmlen-USThe Good Girl’s Guide to Boy Crazy2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®172792026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01About the Contributors
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/987249
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Vinita Agrawal has authored six books of poetry. Books edited by her include two anthologies on climate change, The Centennial Volume on Nissim Ezekiel - Poet & Father and a Kashmiri anthology. Her poem won an award at Brew Poetry in 2025. She also received the third prize from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA) in 2025. She is the recipient of the Jayanta Mahapatra National Award for Literature 2024, the Proverse Prize Hongkong 2021, the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2018, and the Gayatri GaMarsh Memorial Award for Literary Excellence, USA, 2015. Her book Eartha was long listed for the Sarojini Naidu Award for Poetry 2025. She won a special mention in the Hawkers Prize 2019. She coedits
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-11T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/121/image/coversmallAbout the Contributors2026-04-01text/htmlen-USAbout the Contributors2026-04-012026TWOProject MUSE®97082026-05-11T00:00:00-05:002026-04-01