Precarious Songs

Abstract This article investigates multiple sources for the theory and criticism of the taṉippāṭal, a premodern genre of short poetic utterance in Tamil. It argues that although scholars have focused on Tamil scholastic discourse as a source for literary knowledge, certain genres like the taṉippāṭal are better understood through applied literary criticism. The first part of the article discusses the evidence for a theory of the taṉippāṭal within the scholastic works of Tamil grammars (ilakkaṇam) and rhetoric texts (pāṭṭiyal), uncovering a formal concept of genre. The second part reconstructs Tamil taṉippāṭal criticism through close readings of lives of poets (carittiram), which narrativize the poetic utterance within a rhetorical event. It discusses how this critical style reveals a unique theory of the lyric. Finally, the article considers the possibilities and limits of using South Asian styles of literary criticism for both reading individual poems and theorizing genre. It proposes that continued research on comparative literary criticisms is productive for mediating the current methodological demands of area studies and comparative literary studies.