புனைவிலிருந்து வாழ்வியலுக்கு: நவீனத் தமிழ் நாவல்களில் பெண்களின் சூழலியல் மரபறிவும் தலைமுறையிடைப் பரிமாற்றமும்: From Fiction to Lived Reality: Women’s Ecological Knowledge and Intergenerational Transmission in Modern Tamil Novels

Abstract

The central finding of this study is that modern Tamil novels consistently portray women as custodians of ecological knowledge and as teachers who transmit it to the next generation. Female characters draw on refined experiential knowledge in six domains: seed saving, water-body management, herbal medicine, weather forecasting, food preservation, and livestock care. This knowledge is not written down. It passes orally, through demonstration, ritual, song, proverb, and storytelling, from grandmother to mother and from mother to daughter. The study analyses twelve modern Tamil novels set in the Karisal, Marutham, Neithal, Kurinji, and Kongu landscapes, using three theoretical frameworks: ecofeminism, indigenous knowledge theory, and ecocriticism. The methods used are qualitative content analysis, thematic coding, and comparative reading. The study establishes that the traditional knowledge in these novels is more than narrative backdrop. It holds practical, life-oriented guidance for present-day problems such as drought, water scarcity, soil degradation, and food insecurity. At the same time, the novels sorrowfully record how modern agriculture, urban migration, formal education, and the spread of media are breaking this chain of transmission. The study also proposes a five-stage model for returning this knowledge, preserved in fiction, to lived reality through documentation, curriculum, and community action.

Keywords

• ecofeminism
• traditional knowledge
• intergenerational transmission
• modern Tamil novel
• ecocriticism
• oral knowledge
• landscape-based fiction
• women’s knowledge tradition