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| Malabar Literature Festival (MLF) |
Analyzing Malabar Literature Fest (MLF) with the Lenses of Thick and Thin Descriptions
It is a subjective explanation to the CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation) work assigned by Ustad Dr. Rafeeq Ali Hudawi in one of his lectures on Anthropology of Islam, a paper in the course outline of Civilizational Studies, Darul Huda Islamic University.
There are many anthropological and sociological methods to study social systems, human actions their and cultural tenets. Each method has its own credits and pitfalls. Thick Description and Thin Description are two trending methods forwarded by renowned American anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1926-2006) serving the same purpose of ethnographic inquiry.
The recent literature festival or MLF, organized by the emerging publishing house Book Plus at Calicut Beach from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, created a fierce controversy among the Keralite Muslims. Using these two tools of Thick and Thin Descriptions, the event and consequent reactions are analyzed here.
Thin Description:
If the festival is studied with thin description, there might be some possible outcomes:
Book plus conducted the event. The publishing house is run by Islamic scholars Hudawis who are alumni of the Islamic seminary Darul Huda Islamic University.
The event is unconventional in the Society that doesn't have any precedence.
Men, women, Muslim, non-Muslims all mingled there.
(Thin description only studies factual aspects of a specific culture without any contextualization. It's open reading which represent only apparent symbols)
Thich Description,
Thick Description focuses more on deep observation in a context than mere describing. It supports different meanings of a symbol like blinking of an eye may imply in some context signaling and harassing a woman in other. The explanation is provided based on proper context and direct experience. The context may be social, economic, intellectual etc.
At the time of studying MLF and its related issues, thick description may bring these possible explanations:
Literature festivals and literary activities are a soft power of current times that bring opportunities to present an idea to the people from diverse sectors.
The mixing of male and female in this context is out of control as all people participated there irrespective of their background affiliation.
In its first experiment, there might be some shortcomings.
These are some aspects of MLF that can be observed through the lens of Thick and Thin Descriptions.
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