Background
Wignesan, T. was born on July 14, 1933 in Kuala Krai, Kelantan, Malaysia. Son of Thuraiappah and Thangamuttu.
NOT my book. Inserted by mistake. Unable to delete.
Cover of play set in Berlin of the immediate post-war years.
A rare pic of author in Paris some ten years ago -- not many extant.
Blind Man's Lantern: Poems that lash out, mock and rip into the dark. Allahabad: Cyberwit.net, 2015, 874p.
The first anthology of non-Malay literatures of Malaysia and Singapore, Tamil and Chinese writings translated into English. Published in London,1964.
Tracks of a Tramp (A first collection of poems: 1951-61). Singapore-Kuala Lumpur: Rayirath Publications, 1961
(The author of these short and long stories spent almost a...)
The author of these short and long stories spent almost all his adult life in some of Europe s major cities and towns since the middle fifties. He has not included all the short stories he has written or published in this collection. These stories however chart in some way the author s parcours through some of the old continent s major urban centres: London, Heidelberg, Berlin, Madrid, Paris, and thereabouts. The author does not wish to mask the fact that he has drawn from his own experiences to fashion parts of these narrations, but the finished products are, of course, fictional in intent, content, and habillement, even if some of the narrative events may be founded on anecdotes and incidents ............
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8182531225/?tag=2022091-20
(Unlike Mulk Raj Anand s Untouchable, this satirical novel...)
Unlike Mulk Raj Anand s Untouchable, this satirical novel serves as a scathing comment on the mindset of so-called middle-caste Hindus, on the one hand, and the colonial settler mentality, on the other, by looking at the issue from across or from the other side of the social divide. The plot unfolds like cinéma-vérité! The action takes place during a few days at a Hindu temple and its environs in the Malay(si)an capital where a national Hindu conference brings together the leaders and representatives of a cross-section of the local immigrant Indo-Sri-Lankan communities, ostensibly to discuss and forge unity among themselves in the face of imminent Independence from the colonial British administration. The introduction of an "Untouchable" or "Night Soil Man" in the midst of so-called higher caste Hindus disrupts the conference. The plot works up to this climax with not-so predictable or likely results, thus making its claims on the nouveau roman genre. The link between the ruler and the ruled is the newspaper reporter Thamby, caught in the grind between the British master and the locals who show no signs of mastering themselves. The characters and events of this story are entirely fictitious in construction and narration. Even if the names of the streets, buildings and lay of the land pinpoint the venue in Kuala-Lumpur, these are not material to the time of the action. For instance, there was no university in the city before Independence was attained in 1957. At that time, the vast majority of Hindu Indians in Malaysia and Singapore was Tamil, and those that constituted the articulate and educated majority among them were - disproportionately - from Jaffna in the old Ceylon. The first nominated "Member" of Education in the Cabinet was a Jaffnese Tamil, and the first nominated U.N. Representative was an Indian Tamil Brahmin. Other more sizeable Indian communities were made up of Sikhs, Punjabis, Bengalees, and Malayalees from India. The conference of Indians or Hindus is an event, however, not unique to this novel, since Indians in Malaysia continue to meet on a national level for various reasons. Any similarity to other such meetings or living persons is purely coincidental, with the exception of the character of the Swami which is founded on a real-life Swami who had a big role to play at one Hindu conference in Kuala Lumpur. The venue of one incident at the end, however, shifts to London in keeping with the logical movement of the story in a colonial protectorate. Here reality and the imaginary intermingle for effect. The novel was conceived and written in a month during July-August 1967 in Madrid, Spain. Some slight changes in the language and style have also been introduced by the author since then.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8182531241/?tag=2022091-20
comparatist critic novelist writer Asianist Adjunct Professor Poietician ex-Research Fellow (CNRS Paris) Instructor Maryland University poet
Wignesan, T. was born on July 14, 1933 in Kuala Krai, Kelantan, Malaysia. Son of Thuraiappah and Thangamuttu.
Student, Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur, 1946 to March 1950. Student, Inns of Court School of Law (Certificate of Academic Standing, Bar Standards Board), London, 1956. Student, Escuela Oficial de Idiomas de Madrid, 1970. Diploma de Estudios Hispanicos, University Madrid, 1971. Equivalence for the License in Spanish literature (University of Paris-VIII-Vincennes), 1972.
Postgraduate, Instituto de Cultura Hispanica, Madrid, Spain, 1971—1972. Maitrise enseignement Español, University Paris VIII, 1973. Doctorat (of Philosophy) d'Etat ès Lettres et Sciences Humaines, University Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne, 1987.
School master Seremban, Malaysia, 1951—1953. Journalist Straits Times Press Group, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and Singapore, 1954, 64-65, Malayan Times, Kuala Lumpur, 1962. Instructor European division University Maryland, Heidelberg, Federal Republic Germany, 1960-1961.
Editor, representative Rayirath Publications, Malaysia, 1961—1964. Schoolmaster Colegio Claret, Madrid, 1968—1969. Research fellow National Center for Science Research, Ministry National Education, Paris, 1973—1998.
Research fellow, instructor Institute General and Comparative Literature University Paris III-Sorbonne-Nouvelle, 1973-1983. Instructor doctoral program University Paris III, 1981-1983, research fellow Center Comparative Poetics, 1983-1985. Research fellow philosophy of art and creation University Paris I, 1986-1988.
Director Research Center for Comparative Poietics Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1988—1994. Researcher Insulinde dans son contexte euroasiatique Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, 1994—1998. Lecturer Commonwealth Institute, London, 1965.
Private tutor English to doctors in four major hospitals and the faculty of medicine, Madrid, 1967—1972. Professor South Asian Area Studies American Graduate School International Relations and Diplomacy, Paris, 2003—2004. Founder Centre de Recherche sur les Etudes Asiatiques, Paris, 2000.
(Unlike Mulk Raj Anand s Untouchable, this satirical novel...)
(The author of these short and long stories spent almost a...)
(Dr. T.Wignesan)
Selected Poems
(Cyberwit is for poets who want to publish their poetry. O...)
(Cyberwit is for poets who want to publish their poetry. O...)
…the smell of piss and shit in his pants. The Vicarious Memoir of a Vietnam War Veteran. Allahabad: Cyberwit, 2015, 120p.
The "Yi Jing" Classic of Change, but not necessarily in Confucianism, though leaning towards Taoism and Buddhism
Independent
Member of American Society Aesthetics, American Comparative Literature Association, Association Asian Studies United States of America, Baseball Club, Les Betes noires (Fresnes, France, founding president 1986).
Children: Nachiketas.