Showing posts with label tagore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tagore. Show all posts

Saturday 8 August 2020

Tagore - Deeno Dan - The Impoverished Gift

Rabindranath Tagore - दीनो दान



महान रचनाकार 'गुरुदेव' रबींद्रनाथ टैगोर का 7 अगस्त 1941 को अवसान 

हुआ था। महाकाव्य गीतांजलि के लिए टैगोर को साहित्य का नोबेल दिया 

गया था। यहाँ प्रस्तुत कविता 'दीनो दान' 120 वर्ष पहले लिखी गई है मगर 

यह आज के परिवेश में भी प्रासंगिक बनी हुई है। आज रबींद्रनाथ टैगोर की 

पुण्यतिथि पर पूरा देश उन्हें इस रचना के जरिए याद कर रहा है। 

 Tagore's original date mark on this poem is 20th of Shravan, 1307, which happened to fall on August 5th of this year. On 5th August 2020, there was a grand show of by the Trust of Ram Mandir at Ayodhya. The Prime Minister was invited. The live telecast of the gala event was witnessed by billions of people over electronic media. The Live Streamed on social media was also greeted with warm emotions by devotees of Lord Ram.

While the people involved in the act tries to narrate the event with their version of truth, the truth which is loved by the majority of the day, the truth which seems to be so sweety sweerty and goody goody that all love to talk about it with ornamental language. 

Well, the same event which is so loved by the majority of the people (of the day) may not be seen exactly in same light by literary imagination. The mind's eye of the true littérateur imagines the same event is quite an opposite way.

Rabindranath Tagore was one such creative genius. It is an ironical coincidence that Tagore's poem is said to be written on 5th August. This date may be debated as it was marked with Bengali date but his death anniversary fall just on the second day of the euphoria of the Ram Temper Foundation Stone Ceremony, i.e. 7th August.

It is but obvious that people will read Tagore on his death anniversary and may be surprised to see this poem written by him. The poem is so relevant as well as so succinctly reminds us of the way we should have been behaving in the times of nationalistic religiosity in the times of Corona Pandemic #Covid19.

Here is the Hindi translation of the Bengali Poem. Below it is the English version of the poem.

“उस मंदिर में कोई प्रभु नहीं हैं”, कहा सन्त ने। 

राजा क्रुद्ध हो गया;

“कोई प्रभु नहीं? हे सन्त! क्या तुम 

किसी नास्तिक जैसे नहीं बात कर रहे?

अनमोल रत्नजरित सिंहासन पर,

स्वर्णिम मूर्ति चमक रही है,

फिर भी तुम कहते वह यहाँ नहीं है?”

“खाली नहीं यह मंदिर, इसमे भरा पड़ा है 

राजसी दंभ। 

तुमने अपना ही मान बढ़ाया है, हे राजा!

संसार के स्वामी का नहीं”, 

यूं कहा सन्त ने। 

झुंझलाया था फिर राजा, “बीस लाख सिक्के सोने के 

बरसाए हमने उस महान कृति पर गगनचुंबी है जो,

और देवताओं को किया समर्पित 

सब आवश्यक अनुष्ठानों के बाद,

और तुम्हारी यह धृष्टता कि कहो

नहीं इस विराट मंदिर में भगवान”?

शांति से बोला संत, “उसी साल जब,

दो करोड़ तुम्हारी प्रजा 

पीड़ित थी भयंकर सूखे से;

रोटी और छत विहीन विपन्न लोग!

आए तुम्हारे दर पर मांगने सहारा, 

मिली बस दुत्कार,

बाध्य हुए वह ढूँढने को आसरा,

जंगलों, कन्दराओं में, पथ-किनारे वृक्षों के नीचे 

और खंडहहर पुराने मंदिरों में;

और फिर उसी साल

जब तुमने बीस लाख स्वर्ण मुद्राएं खर्च कर

बनाया अपना यह मंदिर आलीशान,

वही था वह दिन जब भगवान ने कहा:

“मेरा घर तो जगमगाता है 

सदा प्रज्ज्वलित दीपों से,

नीले गगन के बीच,

मेरे घर की बुनियादें बनीं हैं मूल्यों से:

सच, शांति, करुणा और प्रेम के। 

वह राजा, निर्धन निर्बल कृपण,

अपनी ही प्रजा को जो दे न सका 

आश्रय,

क्या वह सच में आशा रखता है 

मेरा घर बना सकने की?”

यही वह दिन था 

जब त्याग दिया प्रभु ने तुम्हारा वह मंदिर।

और जा मिले पथ किनारे कंगालों से,

पेड़ों के नीचे। 

विशाल समुद्र के झाग की रिक्तता की तरह,

तुम्हारा मंदिर भी खाली है। 

धन और दंभ मात्र का यह बुलबुला है। 

गरजा था फिर राजा,

“अरे धोखेबाज बेवकूफ इंसान,

निकल जा मेरे राज्य से अभी”। 

सन्त बोला शांति से,

“वही जगह जहां तुमने किया है निर्वासित भगवान को,

वहीं भेज दो भक्त को भी”।

(अनुवादक: गौरव)

A 120-year-old Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tegore: Translation in English

“There is no god in that temple”, said the Saint.

The King was enraged;
“No God? Oh Saint, aren’t you speaking like an atheist?
On that throne studded with priceless gems, beams the golden idol,
And yet, you proclaim that it is empty?”

“It is not empty; rather, it is full of royal pride.
You have bestowed yourself, oh King, not the God of this world”,
Remarked the saint.

The King frowned, “2 million golden coins
were showered on that grand structure that kisses the sky,
I offered it to the Gods after performing all the necessary rituals,
And you dare claim that in such a grand temple,
There is no presence of God”?

The Saint calmly replied

“In the very year in which twenty million of your subjects were struck by a terrible drought;
The desperate masses without any food or shelter,
came begging at your door crying for help, only to be turned away,
they were forced to take refuge in forests, caves, camping under roadside foliages, derelict old temples;
and in that very year,
when you spent 2 million gold coins to build that grand temple of yours,

that was the day when God pronounced:

‘My eternal home is lit by everlasting lamps,
in the midst of an azure sky.
In my home the foundations are built with the values
of Truth, Peace, Compassion and Love.
This poverty-stricken puny miser,
Who could not provide shelter to his own homeless subjects,
Does he really fancy he can give Me a home?’

That is the day God left that Temple of yours.
And joined the poor beside the roads, under the trees.
Like the emptiness of the froth in the vast seas,
Your mundane temple is hollow.
It is just a bubble of wealth and pride.”

The enraged King howled,
“oh you sham cretin of a person,
Leave my kingdom this instant”.

The Saint replied calmly,
“To the very place to which you have exiled the Divine,
Banish now the devout too”.

- Rabindranath Tagore,
20th of Shravan, 1307 (as per Bengali Calendar)


A better version of translation is here


[From Deen Daan]

by Rabindranath Tagore

Thus offered the royal servant-

“Your Highness, despite much pleading

Narottama, the greatest of the Sadhus,

Shunning the opulent shelter of your golden temple

Is engaged upon the sacred devotions of sankirtana

Under the shade of a tree by the roadside.

 

Scores of devotees swarm the holy man

Tears of uncontrollable bliss overflow their

Down-turned faces, and cleanse the earth with

Waves of piety.Your temple stands near-empty;

As the honeybee, driven wild by the first wafting

Of the perfume from the lotus grove, instantly rejects

The gilded pot of honey and flies briskly over to

Where the lotuses have blossomed in profusion, eager

To quench his thirst, likewise, the great multitudes,

(Caringnot for the glittering temple) run from

Far and wide to there, where down by the edge

Of the street, from the lotus blossom of the

Devotee’s heart, there emanates the fragrance of Heaven.

Upon the jewel-studded throne- the lonesome Deity

Suffers silently in ultimate rejection.”

 

Hearing this, and understandably vexed, the monarch

Stepped off the royal throne, and with due haste

Rushed to where under the shade below the bough

Sat the sadhu upon his grassy seat.  Offeringpranam

At his feet, he spoke thus.  “Behold, Father, yonder

Royal temple with the golden dome- its crest

Piercing the sky itself!  Why, pray, would you

Reject such grandeur, and offer praises to the divine

Here by the dusty street?”

 

“The divine resides not inside that vacuous temple,”

The sadhu responded.  “Resides not?” retorted

The sovereign in fury.  “O Sannyasi- you blaspheme

Like an atheist!  Radiant upon a jewel-encrusted throne

Sits in glory the luminous icon of divinity.  You call

That empty and vacuous?”

 

“Not empty, Your Highness, it is full only of Royal

Arrogance.  Within that hall of glamor, it is yourself

You have installed, not the benevolent devata.”

 

With knotted brow, the irate sovereign then spoke thus.

“With the princely sum of two million pieces of gold

Have I created this unblemished temple which

Rises past the clouds, and through the chanting of

Potent puja mantras consecrated to the sacred divinity-

And you tell me that the devatahas not a place within

This temple of glory?”

 

With an unruffled voice, the sadhu responded-

“That year when a raging wildfire consumed their

Homes and impoverished twenty thousand of your

Subjects- homeless, penniless and desperately hungry,

They stood at your palace door, begging for relief from

Your royal hands. Their collective pleas fell upon deaf

Ears, and without hope, they retreated to the deepest

Forests, into caverns, under the shades of trees by

Street-sides, the courtyards of abandoned old temples

Split asunder by overgrown invading wildasath.  That very

Same year,spending your two million pieces of gold

Your Highness created your temple of gold

And consecrated to the divine.  That day Bhagwan,

The Compassionate One, spoke thus.   “My timeless

Home spread across the limitless Universe is strewn

With countless luminous points of light dispersed

Beyond the endless blue of the sky.  That refuge of

Mine is founded ever upon the four pillars of Truth,

Peace, Compassion and Love.  The lowly, impoverished

Miser who cannot provide even shelter and safety to his

Own homeless subjects- he dare offer me a home!”

That instant the Compassionate One departed to where

Under the shades of trees languished the impoverished.

The refuge-giver joined his flock, the refugees.  Empty

As the bloated foam riding the vast seas- likewise is

Your vaunted temple empty under the vast skies-

Nothing but bubbles of gold and vanity.”

 

Lighting up like a conflagration, the monarch thundered,

“Bogus lowlife charlatan, leave my kingdom forthwith-

Make haste and begone!”

 

His voice calm and resolute, the sannyasi replied-

“Where you expelled, my dear King, the beloved of the

Devotees- Your Highness, pray expel me there.”

 

[Rabindranath Tagore, the timeless cultural icon, identified consistently with the cause of the oppressed and colonized around the world, and spoke out decisively for them in his speeches, lectures, during travels worldwide and conversationswith the greatest minds of his time (which included, rather importantly, some of the greatest in human history, including Albert Einstein, Romain Rolland, H.G. Wells, and many other luminaries including a great many who were influenced and inspired by his work and his message).  Most of all, his empathy for the poor, the downtrodden, the tyrannized of the world is graphically emblazoned across his literary writings, and it is well past time that many of these be brought before the world as a whole.  Given Tagore’s immense oeuvre, this is a massive task indeed.  This translator intends to present some of these, in bits and pieces as long as fate provides the necessary time.

Tagore’s DeenaDaan is a story narrative whose relevance extends far beyond both the space of the kingdom where the event takes place, and also the time frame which extends to all time.  It underscores the obscenity of extravagance on the part of the rich and powerful (here depicted through the grandiose actions of a monarch, and yet just as applicable to the obscenity of imperials looters and plunderers, many, many from the haughty Western world, who routinely lay to waste the precious resources of the earth and pile up unimaginable plunder and heartless consumption at the cost of millions of the poor and deprived whose lives are piled high with suffering and violence to keep running the machinery of the inherent evil and arrogance of the mighty).  In this balladic story, a vainglorious monarchexpends enormous quantities of gold to build up a glittering temple to benevolent God while at the same time heartlessly turning away thousands of suffering subjects rendered paupers by a wildfire which consumed their all.  The arrogant King is taught a lesson in humanity and morality by a highly revered sage who chooses to offer his devotions to God under the trees and upon the dust of the green earth instead of the King’s opulent temple. There is truth here which applies to the imperial, consumerist and market-economy world (the government, business and military nexus which is running berserk in the capitals in Washington, London, Paris and elsewhere) and its heartless greed and arrogance right now in our times.

Narottama–      name of the sannyasi; literally, the highest among men.

Sadhu–             a holy man, a renunciate, a recluse.

Sankirtana–     sacred devotional chants usually to the Lord Krishna practiced by Bengal’s                       Vaishnavas.

Pranam–          the Hindu practice of touching an elder’s feet out of reverence.

Sannyasi-        an alternative name for Sadhu; literally, one who has renounced the world.

Devata–            the deity or divinity being worshipped.

Asath-             also called aswath or the peepul tree, similar to tree of enlightenment                                     associated with the Buddha.

Bhagwan-      the Lord of Destiny in Hinduism; often implying God.

Translated with comments by ©Monish R. Chatterjee.

Monish R. Chatterjee, Ph.D. Professor, ECE, Dept. of ECE University of Dayton


Sources:

https://countercurrents.org/2017/03/the-impoverished-gift/

https://www.humsamvet.com/literature/rabindranath-tagore-death-anniversary-poem-deeno-daan-4019

https://scroll.in/article/969579/there-is-no-god-in-that-temple-said-the-hermit-rabindranath-tagore-wrote-this-poem-in-1900

https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/there-is-no-god-in-the-temple-rabindranath-tagores-poem-deeno-daan-goes-viral-a-century-later-2762815.html

https://blog.dilipbarad.com/2020/05/tagore-and-nationalism.html


Thursday 7 May 2020

Tagore and Nationalism

Rabindranath Tagore and Nationalism

The webinar on 'Retrospection and Relevance of Rabindranath Tagore's Literature' was organised by Shri Sangameshwar Arts and Commerce College, Chadchan, District Vijaypura (Bijapur).
The College is associated with Rani Channamma University, Belagavi (Belgaum). Its area of affiliation is districts of North Karnataka.
The webinar was coordinated by Mr. Basavraj Yallur.



Tuesday 13 May 2014

Comparative Literature Studies

Comparative Literature: World Literature
Let us not intent to indulge in the debate of nomenclature. Call it Comparative literary studies or comparative studies or comparative literature or all put together, comparative literature studies; the area is very fertile so far as research is concern. In the times when the interest is growing from single disciplinary study to multi and inter-disciplinarity, no field allows for freedom in research as Comparative Studies.

Engraving each other: Comparative Study
 Yes, i have deliberately dropped the word 'literature or literary'. As the potential to yield rich harvest lies with comparative studies, i think it is not advisable to chain it by the term 'literature'. The term literature, in its narrow canonical definition, will not give us freedom to expand our research arena in the fields of television, films, advertisements and popular culture, let alone music, art, painting, dance and sculpture. If the political phenomenon in the twenty first century looks strongly towards democracy and globalization, how can literary research remain free from it. Why shouldn't research in literature be democratic in spirit and be global in terms of breaking the boundaries and narrow borders of canons? Isn't it the sure way to make literature 'world literature' - the dream of great visionaries like Goethe, Tagore and Northrop Frye.

At the same time, it becomes necessary to see what the leading comparatist think about the definition of comparative studies. This presentation which was made in the Refresher Course on Comparative Literature at Academic Staff College, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) deals with:
  • What is comparative studies?
  • Why compare?
  • What to compare?
  • How to compare?






Comparative Literature Studies
Presentation Transcript
  • 1. Goethe (1749-1832) : ‘Weltliteratur’ 1827 Tagore (1861-1941) : ‘Visva Sahitya’ 1907
  • 2. Comparative Literature / Studies What is it? Why Compare? How to Compare? What to Compare? 14 November 2013 Refresher Course ASC, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad Dilip Barad M.K. Bhavnagar University, Gujarat dilipbarad@gmail.com
  • 3. Let us discuss ‘definitions’ (?) Comparative Literature • Firstly, let us identify the ‘centre’: is it literature or comparison?
  • 4. Comparison ? Literature Translation Studies Cultural Studies / Religious Studies Film / Media Studies So Psy DH H AS PCl Gen
  • 5. Wikipedia • Comparative literature (sometimes abbreviated "Comp. lit.," or referred to as Global or World Literature) is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or nation groups. • While most frequently practiced with works of different languages, comparative literature may also be performed on works of the same language if the works originate from different nations or cultures among which that language is spoken. • Also included in the range of inquiry are comparisons of different types of art; for example, a relationship of film to literature. • Additionally, the characteristically intercultural and transnational field of comparative literature concerns itself with the relation between literature, broadly defined, and other spheres of human activity, including history, politics, philosophy, and science. • Wikipedia contributors. "Comparative literature." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 1 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
  • 6. Henry Remak (1916-2009) • “Comparative Literature is the study of literature beyond the confines of one particular country, and the study of the relationships between literature on one hand and other areas of knowledge and belief, such as the arts (e.g. painting, sculpture, architecture, music), philosophy, hi story, the social sciences, (e.g. politics, economics, sociology), the sciences, religion, etc., on the other. • In brief it is the comparison of one literature with another or others, and the comparison of literature with other spheres of human expression.” • Remak, Henry Comparative Literature: Method and Perspective (1961)
  • 7. Nelson Lowry (1924-1994) • "Comparative Literature is … the whole study of the whole of literature as far as one’s mind and life can stretch. By its very scope Comparative Literature … is a presumptuous study.” • Nelson, Lowry. Poetic Configurations (1988)
  • 8. Haun Saussy (1960 - ) • “The premises and protocols characteristic of [comparative literature] are now the daily currency of coursework, publishing, hiring, and coffee-shop discussion. … • The ‘transnational’ dimension of literature and culture is universally recognized even by the specialists who not long ago suspected comparatists of dilettantism. .. • Comparative teaching and reading take institutional form in an ever-lengthening list of places. … • Comparative literature … now … is the first violin that sets the tone for the rest of the orchestra. Our conclusions have become other people’s assumptions.” • Haun Saussy, Comparative Literature in an Age of Globalization (2006)
  • 9. Roland Greene (1957 - ) • "Comparative literature is the laboratory or workshop of literary studies, and through them, of the humanities. • Comparative literature compares literatures, not only as accumulations of primary works, but as the languages, cultures, histories, traditions, theo ries, and practices with which those works come." • Greene, Roland. "Their Generation," Comparative Literature in the Age of Multiculturalism (1995)
  • 10. Sandra Bermann • “A more transnational, interdisciplinary, and responsive humanities is, I believe, poised to emerge – • such a humanities may well contribute to a new sort of global consciousness, one that would bring a keener sensitivity to the languages, cultures, and peoples of our polyglot planet and begin to draw us all into a broader, more responsive conversation – • Comparative literature and translation studies – best suitable for it. (cont)
  • 11. Sandra Bermann • “Comparative literature regularly joins literary texts from different languages and cultures. It also regularly connects, say, a poem with dance, a film with the novel, photography with the essay. It even relates different disciplinary languages and modes of thinking.“ • Bermann, Sandra. “Working in the And Zone: Comparative Literature and Translation,”Comparative Literature 61, no. 4 (2009):432-446
  • 12. Descartes (1596-1650) • All knowledge which is not obtained through the simple and pure intuition of an isolated thing is obtained by the comparison of two or more things among themselves. And almost all the work of human reason consists without doubt in making this operation possible. Descartes, Regulae ad directionem ingenii (1684) Cited In Claudia Brodsky, “Grounds of Comparison” World Literature Today 69 (1995).
  • 13. April Alliston • "A rigorous definition of comparative literature should always include the study of texts across languages; this multilingual aspect can only become more crucial to distinguishing comparative literature as national literature departments also develop greater emphases on postcolonial and interdisciplinary studies. • In the new Millennium, I hope we will pursue the study of Weltiliteratur in the spirit of Goethe, albeit in ways he could never have imagined: challenging a world order that is already very different from the one his ideas subverted by helping to bring about a cosmopolitan community in which national, disciplinary, and linguistic demarcations may become less rigid." • Alliston, April . “Looking Backward, Looking Forward: MLA Members Speak.” PMLA. 115, no. 7 (December 2000): 1987
  • 14. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek • “In principle, the discipline of Comparative Literature is in toto a method in the study of literature in at least two ways. First, Comparative Literatures means the knowledge of more than one national language and literature, and/or it means the knowledge and application of other disciplines in and for the study of literature and second, Comparative Literature has an ideology of inclusion of the Other, be that a marginal literature in its several meanings of marginality, a genre, various text types, etc. (Cont)
  • 15. Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek • Comparative Literature has intrinsically a content and form, which facilitate the cross-cultural and interdisciplinary study of literature . . . • Predicated on the borrowing of methods from other disciplines and on the application of the appropriated method to areas of study single- language literary study more often than tends to neglect, the discipline is difficult to define because thus it is fragmented and pluralistic.” Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek, Comparative Literature: Theory, Method, Application (1998)
  • 16. Gregory Reid • "Any two texts can be compared, but a comparison works when there is a sufficient basis for comparison; that is, a strong number of similarities, which allow us to isolate particular striking, revealing, informing, epiphanic and ultimately untranslatable differences. … • These untranslatable differences which are the product of language, culture, history and environment as well as the semi-autonomous evolution of art forms and the talents and experiences of individual artists invariably pronounce themselves in what is called style." • Gregory Reid, "A Prolegomenon to Comparative Drama in Canada : In Defense of Binary Studies" (2005)
  • 17. Why Compare? ~ David Ferris • Problem with name of comparative literature > world literature - Goethe • Crisis: Rene Wellek • World and comparative = wider connotations in ‘comparison’ • Aristotle: imitation = comparison; comparison is a form of knowledge rooted in likeness. Two types of comparison > historical ‘as it is’; possibility ‘ought to’; second is blinded by the limits of first > thus, freedom in CL has its own limitation, lack of definition is limit not unbound horizon. • Plato > allegory of Cave (8:00) > new, real outside world, habituation, real world in comparison to the unreal past experience within cave creates knowledge > ridicule > cave and world > • “What then is really at stake in this allegory which twice enacts comparison by curtailing its temporality into is what Plato calls habituation? • And, why is it that the world, in Aristotle as well, is consistently called upon to embody a comparison that the world is powerless to affirm?” (cont)
  • 18. Why Compare? ~ David Ferris • A reflection on comparison that is capable of interrupting its own unfolding in a mode other than the coercion of crisis would be a start so that our present can make a claim on why and avoid the endless repetitions of what and how. • The natural sciences may ask about what is in our world, the social sciences may measure how we are in that world, we, at least, can ask why - and that is why we compare.
  • 19. Rene Wellek: Crisis of Comparative Literature • Published in 1959, this article by René Wellek, written in strong, forceful words,criticizes the French school of comparative literature for its confined system and obsolete methodology. • Wellek's allusion to a crisis was not meant to refer to the discipline as practiced in the United Statesbut he was in fact pointing an accusing finger at the “rotten” French part of the metaphorical apple. • Wellek spent many paragraphs criticizing Paul van Tieghem • reminded us of the origins of comparative literature; that it arose as a reaction to narrow-minded nationalism prevalent in 19th Century France. How ironical it is that only half a century later (at the time of Wellek's writing), French comparative literature was being criticized for putting lopsided emphasis on influence studies and what Wellek labeled as “cultural book-keeping” as the French had a way of drawing attention to high levels of achievements in their literature of the preceding centuries. • defense of the open, multidisciplinary approach of the American school and its emphasis on criticism sounds so prognostic, that is, as we now look back at how comparative literature inAmerica has developed in later decades • a crisis is an opportunity to reflect, and for reform and repositioning of one's priorities
  • 20. How to Compare? • Mechele Foucoult • There exist two forms of comparison, and only two: the comparison of measurement and that of order. • One can measure sizes or multiplicities, in other words continuous sizes or discontinuous sizes; but in both cases the use of measurement presupposes that, unlike calculation, which proceeds from elements towards a totality, one considers the whole first and then divides it up into parts. • one cannot know the order of things ‘in their isolated nature’, but by discovering that which is the simplest, then that which is the next simplest, one can progress inevitably to the most complex things of all. • University Handout for students • Descarte and Goethe
  • 21. What & How of Comparative Literature Koelb and Noakes saw shift in CL studies From To . . .the center of theoretical concern, such as the history of criticism, period/movement designators as romanticism or symbolism (matters that have been cloistered essential to the understanding of the history of literature as a great and unified cultural enterprise – movements, themes, periods, the history of ideas . . . . . . theoretical implications of diverse literary phenomena (issues that range around the frontier – ‘emergent’ literatures, relations to other disciplines, women’s studies, marginalized forms of reading: “pre-reading”, “female-reading” - There is, by and large, a kind of decentering in progress, both in terms of notions of reading and of canons prescribing what is to be read.
  • 22. • ‘National Literature’ cannot constitute an intelligible field of study because of its arbitrarily limited perspective: international contextualism in literary history and criticism has become a law. • Comparative literature represents more than an academic discipline. It is an overall view of literature, of the world of letters, a humanistic ecology, a literary weltanschauung(world view), a vision of the cultural universe, inclusive and comprehensive … Comparative literature is the ineluctable result of general historical developments. • The Comparative Perspective on Literature: Approaches to Theory and Practice by Claton Koelb and Susan Noakes. 1988. Cornell University Press What & How of Comparative Literature?
  • 23. A Case Study: What to compare? Always keep in mind ~‘why’ ~ inter-disciplinary approach • Let us view these ads, poems, folk lit, image and try to do Comparative Studies: – View this lesson form the school book – study language – car ad – Poem by Kamala Das: An Introduction – Poem recited by poet Meena Kandasamy (2:00) – Hindi Poem: Raavan – Hindi poem: Prasoon Joshi : mohe lohar ke ghar dijiyo, meri zanjeere pighlaye – Women Bond – Lok Sahitya : Beti – bahu (4:00) – Tu hi tu – Star Ad (3:44) – Fair and Lovely – Airhostess (1:00) – Fair and Handsome (.37) – Sunsilk – Malaysia (1:00) – Tanishq – Marriage (1:37)
  • 24. Bibliography • Wellek, René. “The Crisis of Comparative Literature.” Comparative Literature: Proceedings of the Second Congress of the ICLA. Ed. W. P. Friederich. 2 vols. Chapel Hill: U of Carolina P, 2:149-59. • Saussy, Haun, ed. (2006). Comparative literature in an Age of Globalization . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. • Randel, Don (2010). What about the humanities? Society for the Humanities, Invitational Lecture, Cornell University. 30 March 2010. • Ferris, David. (2006). Indiscipline. In Haun Saussy, ed., Comparative literature in an Age of Globalization. pp. 78-99. Baltimore: Johns CHopkins University Press. • Stallknecht, Newton P, Horst Frenz. OMPARATIVE LITERATURE: Method and Perspective Ed.Southern Illinois University Press CARBONDALE Questia Media America, Inc. www.questia.com • Dev, Amiya. Rethinking Comparative Literature • Das, Sisir Kumar. Comparative Literature in India: A Historical Perspective • Majumdar, Swapan. Comparative Literature: Indian Dimensions • Bose, Buddhadeva. “Comparative Literature in India”, Yearbook of Comparative and • General Literature, 8, 1959 also included in Contribution to Comparative Literature • Germany and India, ed. Naresh Guha (Jadavpur 1979). • Dev, Amiya Dev, "Comparative Literature in India" page 5 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 2.4 (2000): http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol2/iss4/10 • Koelb, Claton and Susan Noakes. The Comparative Perspective on Literature: Approaches to Theory and Practice. 1988. Cornell University Press.
  • 25. Thank you • This presentation will be available on www.slideshare.net/dilipbarad • It will be followed by quiz based on this presentation. • www.dilipbarad.com • dilipbarad@gmail.com