Guest Talk on The Folk History of Kongunadu: a special story by Dr. Brenda Beck – 12 Jan 2020 - Kumaraguru College of Liberal Arts & Science (KCLAS)

The Folk History of Kongunadu: a special story by Dr. Brenda Beck – Folklorist and Anthropologist, Adjunct Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Scarborough on January 12, 2020

The Department of English organized a guest talk on ‘The Folk History of Kongunadu: a special story’ for the first and second year students of B.A. English Literature. The resource person was Dr. Brenda Beck – Folklorist and Anthropologist, Adjunct Professor from the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, Scarborough. Dr. Manjula Bashini welcomed the gathering and introduced the guest speaker to the audience.

The session began with an introduction to folklores as she has spent her lifetime studying South Asia, specializing in the culture of the Tamils and Tamil folk literature. She is known for her singular passion for the legend of Ponnar-Shankar, also known as Annanmar Kadhai — a medieval oral story set in 6th centuries of the post-Sangam era. She narrated how important were the role of the folklores in any society.

Dr. Beck has also released her 26 episode animated video series: “In The Beginning.” She also serves as president of the Sophia Hilton Foundation of Canada, a charitable foundation that promotes the use of storytelling at all educational levels. To Dr. Beck, Annanmar Kadhai was a story of Economic change and resistance and rebellion. She also discussed about the important figures and signs used in the Annanmar Kadhai. Finally, she also related the world’s greatest civilization- Mesopotamian culture and civilization with the Kongu culture and civilization and tried to draw in associations between them.The session was very informative and well received by the students.