A Contemporary Tamil Prose Reader

[Asko Parpola]

On 9 Sept 2008, Herman Tieken announced on the Indology list the  
publication of a new Tamil prose reader. I would like to forward the  
following details of this publication provided by Dr. P.R.  
Subramanian, the editor of the reader.

With best regards, Asko Parpola

“A Contemporary Tamil Prose Reader”

A New Reader
There is a felt need for a prose reader for those who learn Tamil as a  
second or foreign language.  Although course materials are available  
for the teaching of Tamil at the beginner’s level and to some extent  
at intermediate level, there is a dearth of reading material for  
advanced students who have obtained some proficiency in Tamil. The  
present reader contains a selection of 23 texts of contemporary prose,  
15 of creative writing and 8 from non-fiction, thereby providing a  
cross-section of the myriad Tamil writings.

The Reader is organized as follows:
There is a short note on the author and the theme of the text.  Each  
text is punctuated by notes in English.  Difficult lexical items and  
culture specific items are explained in the notes.  Points of grammar  
are given in an identifiable way. After each text, an English  
translation follows.  A glossary of words of all the texts is appended  
at the end.

Features
*	The persons who are responsible for the preparation of this reader  
have good experience in teaching Tamil to foreign students and  
scholars; and also in conducting Tamil courses to other Indian  
language teachers.
*	Out of the 23 texts 7 are by women writers.  A text from a Srilankan  
writer is also included.
*	A practical solution is found to grade the texts. For grading, the  
morphology of words, patterns of sentences, features of style,  
currency of words, and familiarity of themes are weighed in terms of  
relatively easy to relatively difficult axis.
*	The Reader opens with a traditional folk tale and closes with a  
contemporary writer’s long story of pathos and humour.
*	The translations of the texts have been revised with inputs from  
native speakers of English.
*	In the glossary, words are given with textual context and with their  
English translation. The glossary is exhaustive and runs into more  
than 170 pages.

Price: (Hard cover) U.S.$ 20, Euro 13, Indian Rs. 900 (all inclusive  
of postage by airmail)

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