Critical analysis on Tirukkur̲aḷ, ancient Tamil didactic verse work by Tiruvaḷḷuvar.

Protestant Christianity was established as a religion of India when in 1706 missionaries from the the German Evangelical Church sponsored by the King of Denmark landed at the Danish factory in Tamil-speaking Tranquebar. An indigenous congregation soon developed, with worship and catechising in Tamil and Portuguese. This book explores the manner in which people of various castes and of various religions responded to the Lutheran mission and congregation. It investigates the manner in which Tamils themselves understood the Evangelical religion as they spread it beyond Tranquebar. It then turns to the early career of Vedanayagam Sastri (1774-1864). He responded vigorously to efforts by 'new missionaries' to change the language, liturgy, and social custom that had guided Tamil Protestants for over a century. His actions and writings reveal an indigenous form of faith, and a 'theology of pluralism', that countered the Reformed and Enlightenment ideas about Christian life that the 'new missionaries' expressed and sought to enforce. Reflections on the intellectual impact of colonial Europe on those early Protestant Christians of India conclude the study.

The Routledge Handbook of Ecofeminism and Literature explores the interplay between the domination of nature and the oppression of women, as well as liberatory alternatives, bringing together essays from leading academics in the field to facilitate cutting-edge critical readings of literature. Covering the main theoretical approaches and key literary genres of the area, this volume includes: • Examination of ecofeminism through the literatures of a diverse sampling of languages, including Hindi, Chinese, Arabic, and Spanish; native speakers of Tamil, Vietnamese, Turkish, Slovene, and Icelandic. • Analysis of core issues and topics, offering innovative approaches to interpreting literature, including: activism, animal studies, cultural studies, disability, gender essentialism, hegemonic masculinity, intersectionality, material ecocriticism, postcolonialism, posthumanism, postmodernism, race, and sentimental ecology. • Surveys key periods and genres of ecofeminism and literary criticism, including chapters on Gothic, Romantic, and Victorian literatures, children and young adult literature, mystery, and detective fictions, including interconnected genres of climate fiction, science fiction, and fantasy, and distinctive perspectives provided by travel writing, autobiography, and poetry. This collection explores how each of ecofeminism’s core concerns can foster a more emancipatory literary theory and criticism, now and in the future. This comprehensive volume will be of great interest to scholars and students of literature, ecofeminism, ecocriticism, gender studies, and the environmental humanities.