Mahasweta Devi

Writer, Activist, Visionary
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-0-367-69776-1
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 282 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 576 g

Reihe: Writer in Context

Mahasweta Devi occupies a singular position in the history of modern Indian literature and world literature. This book engages with Devi’s works as a writer-activist who critically explored subaltern subjectivities, the limits of history and the harsh social realities of post-independence India.

The volume showcases Devi’s oeuvre and versatility through samples of her writing – in translation from the original Bengali—including Jhansir Rani, Hajar Churashir Ma, and Bayen among others. It also looks at the use of language, symbolism, mythic elements and heteroglossia in Devi’s exploration of heterogeneous themes such as exploitation, violence, women’s subjectivities, depredation of the environment and failures of the nation state. The book analyses translations and adaptations of her work, debates surrounding her activism and politics and critical reception to give readers an overview of the writer’s life, influences, achievements and legacy. It highlights the multiple concerns in her writings and argues that the aesthetic aspects of Mahasweta Devi’s work form an essential part of her politics.

Part of the ‘Writer in Context’ series, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of Indian literature, Bengali literature, English literature, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, global south studies and translation studies.

Zielgruppe

Academic and Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chakravarty, Radha

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literatur: Sammlungen, Anthologien
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Regionalwissenschaften, Regionalstudien
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of photographs

Preface to the Series

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The Searing Vision of Mahasweta Devi

RADHA CHAKRAVARTY

PART I

Spectrum: The Writer’s Oeuvre

- Fictionalised Biography – The Queen of Jhansi (extract)

TRANSLATED BY SAGAREE AND MANDIRA SENGUPTA

- Novel – Mother of 1084 (extract)

TRANSLATED BY SAMIK BANDYOPADHYAY

- Short fiction – Giribala (extract)

TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY

- Drama – Bayen (extract)

TRANSLATED BY SAMIK BANDYOPADHYAY

- Children’s Writing – Nyadosh the Incredible Cow (extract)

TRANSLATED BY PARAMITA BANERJEE

- Literary Criticism – Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (extract)

PART II

Kaleidoscope: Critical Reception

- Novelist Mahasweta Devi: The Critical Tradition

ARUP KUMAR DAS

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

- Mahasweta Devi: In Search of a Rare Uniqueness

DIPENDU CHAKRABARTI

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

- Hajar Churashir Ma, Mahasweta and the Next Phase of the Bangla Novel

DILIP KUMAR BASU

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

- Mahasweta Devi: Forests and Nature

PARTHA PRATIM BANDYOPADHYAY

TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY

- Mahasweta Devi’s Writings: An Evaluation

SUJIT MUKHERJEE

- Reading "Pterodactyl"

GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK

- Douloti as a National Allegory

JAIDEV

- Re-ordering the Maternal: Histories of Violence in Mahasweta Devi, Toni Morrison and Amrita Pritam

SHREEREKHA SUBRAMANIAN

- The Politics of Positionality: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Samik Bandyopadhyay as Translators of Mahasweta Devi

SHREYA CHAKRAVORTY

- Reconsidering ‘Fictionalised Biographies’: Mahasweta Devi's Queen of Jhansi and Mamoni Raisom Goswami's The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar

ARUNABH KONWAR

- Writing for the Stage: The Plays of Mahasweta Devi

ANJUM KATYAL

- Sahitya as Kinesis: Performative Potential in Stage and Screen Adaptations of Mahasweta Devi’s Works

BENIL BISWAS

PART III

Ablaze With Rage: The Writer As Activist

- Tribal Language and Literature

MAHASWETA DEVI

TRANSLATED BY MAITREYA GHATAK

- Eucalyptus: Why?

MAHASWETA DEVI

- Palamau is a Mirror of India

MAHASWETA DEVI

TRANSLATED BY IPSITA CHANDA

- The Adivasi Mahasweta

G.N. DEVY

- Haunted Landscapes: Mahasweta Devi and the Anthropocene

MARY LOUISA CAPPELLI

PART IV

Personal Glimpses: A Life in Words

- Our Santiniketan

MAHASWETA DEVI

TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY

- "Talking Writing: Conversations with Mahasweta Devi"

NAVEEN KISHORE

- ‘To find me, read my work’: Dialogues with Mahasweta Devi

RADHA CHAKRAVARTY

- Family Reminiscences

- I Am Truly Amazed

- Baba, Ma, Our Home

SOMA MUKHOPADHYAY

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

- The Didi I have Known

SARI LAHIRI

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

- My Mother

NABARUN BHATTACHARYA

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

- Mahasweta Devi: The 'Mashi' Who Wrote Fearlessly About Caste, Class and Patriarchy

INA PURI

- Shobor Mother Mahasweta Devi

RANJIT KUMAR DAS

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

- Small Big Things

ANAND (P. SACHIDANANDAN)

- A Legend Who Lived on Her Own Terms

ANITA AGNIHOTRI

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

- "Every Dream Has the Right to Live"

Dakxin Bajrange

Bio-chronology

Bibliography

List of Contributors

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Radha Chakravarty is a writer, critic and translator. She has co-edited The Essential Tagore, nominated Book of the Year 2011 by Martha Nussbaum. She is the author of Feminism and Contemporary Women Writers and Novelist Tagore: Gender and Modernity in Selected Texts. Her Tagore translations include Gora, Chokher Bali, Boyhood Days, Farewell Song: Shesher Kabita, Four Chapters and The Land of Cards: Stories, Poems and Plays for Children. Other works in translation are Bankimchandra Chatterjee’s Kapalkundala, Mahasweta Devi’s Our Santiniketan and In the Name of the Mother (nominated for the Crossword Translation Award, 2004), Vermillion Clouds: Stories by Bengali Women, and Crossings: Stories from Bangladesh and India. She has edited Shades of Difference: Selected Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Bodymaps: Stories by South Asian Women and co-edited Writing Feminism: South Asian Voices and Writing Freedom: South Asian Voices. Her poems have appeared in numerous books and journals. She has contributed to Pandemic: A Worldwide Community Poem, nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2020. Her forthcoming books include The Tagore Phenomenon and translations of Kazi Nazrul Islam’s essays. She was Professor of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, India.