One Part Vernacular: World Literature and Social Media

By taking the example of Perumal Murugan, I suggest that a local could be assessed in world literary frameworks via the concept of the vernacular. To do this, I highlight the arbitrariness in the traditional definition of the term vernacular in literary theory and literary history, which often simplifies the power dynamics hiding behind theoretical classifications that neglect to contextualize the worlds within which languages are made into vernaculars. This fluidity underpinning the concept of vernacular is germane for discussing world literature in the twenty-first century, which is no longer dependent on a few global languages, canonical texts, and publishing centers located in Europe and North America, but now has a substantial digital presence in different languages.