Zero Degree Explained

Zero Degree is a 1998 postmodern, transgressive, lipogrammatic novel by Tamil author Charu Nivedita, who is based in India. It was later translated into Malayalam and English.

Awards and accolades

• Zero Degree was longlisted for the 2013 edition of Jan Michalski Prize.^{[1] [2]}
• Zero Degree was selected for the prestigious '50 Writers, 50 Books - The Best of Indian Fiction', published by HarperCollins.^{[3] [4]}
• Zero Degree was selected in 2017 by Mensxp.com as one of 'fifteen lesser known but incredible Indian novels'.^[5]
• The Sunday Guardian considers Zero Degree an important novel in the Metafiction genre.^[6]

Literary contemporaries on Zero Degree

• In his foreword to the Malayalam translation of Zero Degree, Paul Zacharia wrote, "It is like an open experimental laboratory. Amidst the smoke, noxious vapors, and beautiful imagery, I experienced a wondrous journey."^[7]
• Tarun Tejpal opines that Zero Degree is remarkable for its experimental voice and its varying and shifting tonalities.^[8]
• Anil Menon considers Zero Degree bold and ambitious. He posits that the ancient fascination with language and reality continues to burst through the crust in Charu Nivedita’s works.^[9]
• Noted translator Jason Grunebaum^[10] considers Zero Degree wildly exciting and complains that Charu does not write in Hindi, so that he would translate Charu's works to English.^[11]
• Poet Vivek Narayanan^[12] says about Zero Degree: "I think we should take Zero Degree not just as a playful, ironic “postmodern” novel but as a novel of oppositions and contradictions: a deeply autobiographical novel where the self has been scattered, an ironic pastiche novel that speaks to raw experience, a defiantly cosmopolitan novel than nonetheless pins a very particular kind of schizophrenic rage that perhaps—I could be wrong—any Tamilian will immediately recognise."^{[13] [14]}

Universities on Zero Degree

• Zero Degree was on the curriculum in Spring 2010 in a Comparative World Literature course, taught by Jordan Smith, at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).^[15]
• University of Rochester has included Zero Degree in its translation program.^{[16] [17]}
• The Malayalam translation of Zero Degree is in the curriculum for postgraduate students at the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam.

Translations

• Zero Degree was translated into Malayalam in 1999 by Dr G.Balasubrahmanian and Dr P.M.Gireesh.
• It was translated into English in 2008 by Pritham K. Chakravarthy and Rakesh Khanna.
• Further translations into Telugu, Hindi and Spanish are on the anvil.

Reviews

• Review of Zero Degree in Tehelka
• Review of Zero Degree by Pallavi Rao
• Review of Zero Degree in the Times of India
• Review of Zero Degree in The New Sunday Express

Special feature

Keeping with the numerological theme of Zero Degree, the only numbers expressed in either words or symbols are numerologically equivalent to nine (with the exception of two chapters). This Oulipian ban includes the very common word one (only in Tamil edition).

See also

• Constrained writing

External links

• An excerpt from Zero Degree

Notes and References

1. [Jan Michalski Prize for Literature]
2. [Tarun Tejpal]
3. [The Hindu]
4. News: . Print Pick . 2 September 2013 . 22 August 2020.
5. Web site: 15 Lesser Known Yet Incredible Indian Authors You Should Read Instead of Chetan Bhagat & Durjoy Dutta . mensxp.com . 11 May 2017.
6. [The Sunday Guardian]
7. [Paul Zacharia]
8. http://www.fondation-janmichalski.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Synthese_Charu-Nivedita_engl.pdf Synthese Charu-Nivedita
9. [Anil Menon]
10. About Jason Grunebaum http://salc.uchicago.edu/faculty/grunebaum
11. Jason Grunebaum on Charu http://quarterlyconversation.com/the-jason-grunebaum-interview
12. About Vivek Narayanan http://www.brown.edu/academics/literary-arts/writers-online/authors/vivek-narayanan
13. Vivek Narayanan's Facebook post on the eve of Almost Island Dialogues 2010 https://www.facebook.com/groups/279757768380/permalink/10150560647983381/
14. Web site: Almost island diologues « Charu Nivedita . charuonline.com . 12 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100313012930/http://charuonline.com/blog/?p=180 . 13 March 2010 . dead.
15. Web site: On Charu Nivedita's 'Zero Degree' (Trans. By Pritham K. Chakravarthy & Rakesh Khanna). 2 March 2012.
16. An article by Chad W. Post in the 'Three Percent Tag', a part of the University of Rochester's translation program.http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=1412
17. An interview of Rakesh Khanna of the Blaft Publications.http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/index.php?id=1911