Fractured Identities and Cultural Dissonance in Perumal Murugan’s One Part Women and Pyre

Abstract

Perumal Murugan is a well-known, prominent contemporary Tamil writer. Most of his works are deeply rooted in the rural landscape and social life of Kongunadu. His novels portray the everyday world of farming communities and articulate their agricultural practices, livestock, occupations, customs, beliefs, food habits, and relationships. These details also serve as clear ethnographic records. Murugan utilises the ethnographic records to create a realistic social world and to give dignity and visibility to the people whose lives he portrays. He consistently conveys the knowledge, skills, traditions, and struggles of rural communities through his characters. Murugan not only represents Kongunadu culture but also its agriculture.  Cattle, goats, poultry, and other animals play a vital role in rural life. They also contribute to the economic survival of farming families. His fictions vividly portray the relationship between people and the landscape, which includes rocky lands, cultivated fields, grazing areas, cattle sheds, and goat pens, and these details help establish a strong sense of place and demonstrate how closely human life is connected with the land. This paper focuses on cultural conflict and the search for Identity in his two acclaimed novels, One Part Woman and Pyre. It analyses how Perumal Murugan uses the rural Kongu landscape as not just a setting but as a cultural force that shapes and controls identity.