The Emergence of the Dalit Female Voice in Post-1990 Malayalam Poetry: A Gynocritical and Black Feminist Reading of Mudita

Abstract

The post-1990 era in Indian literature marks a seismic shift in representational politics, particularly with the rise of Dalit voices that disrupt the savarna-dominated literary canon. In Kerala, a state often romanticized for its progressive social fabric, the publication of Mudita (2015), an anthology of Malayalam poetry by Dalit women poets—Ammu Dipa, Vijila Chirappad, Bincy Maria, and Sathi Angamaly—emerges as a radical intervention. This paper examines how these poets articulate a Dalit female subjectivity at the intersections of caste, gender, and colour, transforming personal testimonies into political "counter-voices." Drawing on Elaine Showalter’s gynocriticism, which privileges women’s writing as a distinct literary tradition autonomous from male paradigms, and Black Feminism’s critique of interlocking oppressions (as theorized by Patricia Hill Collins and Kimberlé Crenshaw), the study argues that Mudita challenges patriarchal hegemony and the "white logic" of elitism. These poems signal a postmodern shift toward self-determination and gender justice, reconfiguring Kerala’s literary landscape amid ongoing caste-gender violences.