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| Post Graduate Diploma in Translation Studies |
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| UNIT 422-1: INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY LITERARY THEORIES |
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| We may find it funny because so often here the phrases and discussions of Bengali culture and cultural phenomenon of India are running into each other. Beyond doubt the same amount of colonial enlightenment was exerted upon people of Maharastra (through the urban-academics like those in Bombay) and of some parts in South India (thanks to the strong British presence in the Madras Presidency). The British naturally preferred Bengal to have a start, but no sooner the experiment had been proved successful than their campaign began in southern and western India. We remember their campaign nourished and ruined the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois ambition in west and south in the same way as it did in the eastern parts of India. |
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| The said revolutionary character of early twentieth century torch-bearers of nationalism should be illustrated with at least one example which may also suggest the difference in temper and method of the nineteenth century intelligentsia and the twentieth century enterprises. The intensity of an emotional patriotism was also well displayed in the poems of two succeeding generations of Dwijendralal Roy (a contemporary and an adversary of Tagore), to be followed by the generation of Quazi Nazrul Islam. Rajanikanta and Atulprasad had subdued tone, but the intensity of their nationalist feelings was true enough. Actually, till the appearance of modernists, every lyrical statement of Bengali poets had the rhythm of concern for motherland. The multifaceted complexity of these early days of twentieth century is more likely to reach our consciousness today than the so-called nineteenth century effect, partly because of the natural development of Bengali language and literature, and to a great extent, because of the indigenous art and aesthetics of Bengal: new architectural designs were adopted for buildings after the European style in Calcutta and its suburbs. The indigeneous terracotta or the typical Bengal design of eight-roofed hamlets got lost for ever. |
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| In the meantime, those painters got rehabilitated in Bengal, contributed in many ways, to Bengal art and were properly appreciated till the British came to the scene with their typical oil paintings which began to decorate the houses of Babus of elitists and aspirant petty-bourgeois of the nineteenth century. The native painters were obviously no rivals to the European artists or artists imitating the European style. Consequently, these painters vanished into thin air, as if they immersed themselves into the anonymous multitude of Indian people. A fundamental tragedy years, to the limits of a space between Maharashtra and Bengal. The history of art forms in India had thus many parallels with literary history. |
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 Points to Remember  |
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| QUESTIONS |
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| A. |
Answer the following questions: |
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| 1. |
When and how did the literary theorization begin? |
| 2. |
What is meant by the '19th century Bengali renaissance'? |
| 3. |
What is meant by the 'loss of the indigeneous'? |
| 4. |
"The British naturally preferred Bengal to have a start, but no sooner the experiment had been proved successful than their campaign began in southern and western India." - What experiment is being referred to here? Discuss in detail. |
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| B. |
Critically comment on the following statements: |
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| 1. |
"The Renaissance helped building a lot of original poetics that were suitable to particular and national conditions." |
| 2. |
"Lack of communicativeness between the selected few and the masses is a reason behind the elitism of the nineteenth century Bengali culture. |
| 3. |
"The multifaceted complexity of these early days of twentieth century is more likely to reach our consciousness today than the so-called nineteenth century effect." |
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| C. |
Find out more about the following literary figures, terms or works and write short notes on them: |
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| (a) |
William Carey |
| (b) |
Michael Madhusudan Dutt |
| (c) |
Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar |
| (d) |
'Aanadamath' |
| (e) |
Swami Vivekananda |
| (f) |
Lord Curzon |
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