Tuesday, 8 March 2022

MEG-14 Block-4 Short Story-I

MEG-14 Block-4 Short Story-I

Unit-1 Mahasweta Devi : Salt


Salt- by maha swetadevi. Translation by sarmishta dutta gupta.


Written in Bengali


1st phase - 1873-1890 

Great public interest in short story in Bengal. 


Later phase- 


Rabindranath Tagore

Humour and satire

Pramatha Chowdhury and saratchandra chatterjee


Major themes-


Rustic life

Complexities of human relationships

Child psychology

Tradition and modernity

Women writers

The romantic wave


World war 2 and after

Post independence narratives

 

 

Mahasweta devi - born in dhaka in 1926 moved to Kolkata after 1938. Married in 1947. 1948 first son. Divorced and got remarried and divorced again.

 

First book - Rani of jhansi in 1956. Wali and Noti in 1957.

 

Awards- Amrita Puraskar in 1968, Saratchandra memorial medal in 1978, Sahitya Akademi Award in 1979.

 

 

Story from page 8 to 9

 

Themes-

 

Exploitation of innocent tribals.

Nature and human

 

Characters

 

Purti central character

Uttamchand villain

Youth community

Headman

Ekoya - the elephant


Narrative techniques


Satire

Myth

History

Science


Translation issues - using 3 names for salt in Bengal but only 1 in English.


Unit-2 Vaikom Muhammad Basheer : Birthday


Malayalam fiction writer- Vaikom Muhammad Basheer.

 

Story originally in Malayalam then translated in English by the author himself.

 

Analysis on-

 

Structure

Atmosphere

Characterization

Humour irony and contrast

Meaning

 

Vaikom Basheer 1908-1994

No education at all. Birthday is believed to be on 20jan in Kerala. Great Gandhi follower. To participate in the freedom struggle he ran to ccj in 1930 dropping all his education. Sent to jail for dandi march and beaten up by the police. So he stopped believing in ahimsa and became a follower of Bhagat Singh and others and started writing revolutionary pieces and fled the police. Played many roles and led different lives.

 

Was in jail for quite some time.

 

Awards- tamrapatra for freedom struggle, kerala sahitya akademi award in 1981, padmashree in 1982.

 

Self directed humour and satire which are the strongest.

Women's rights fighter

Environmentalist

 

Page 7-10 - all major novels and stories. List of all his writing - page 11-12.

 

Birthday-



Unit-3 Nirmal Verma : Birds


Unit 3- Birds by Nirmal Verma and translation by Jai Ratan.

 

Nimal Verma- born 1929 to 2005. First story was published in Kahaanee.

 

Award- sahitya akademi award in 1959, jnanpith award In 2000

 

Criticism against Nirmal Verma

 

-he is too westernised in his thinking and make up.

- unambiguous condemnation of western culture.

 

The title birds is symbolic of the flux of life

 

Characters-

 

Latika

Mukharjee

Hubert

Captain Negi

Julie and other girls in the hotel

 

The feminine and introvert approach throughout the story.

 

Narrative technique - the writer strictly remains detached, neutral observer. Third person voice.



Unit-4 Ismat Chughtai : Tiny's Granny

https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/39684/1/Unit-4.pdf


Unit 4 - Tiny's Granny by Ismat Chughtai, translation by Ralph Russell

 

Originally in Urdu

 

Ismat Chughtai 1911-1991 most courageous and controversial woman writer. Born in UP. 

 

Work - first book - Fasaadi in 1937, Kaghazi Hai Pairahan (autobiography), Terhi Lakeer, Lihaaf (1942) list of published work on page 7 RFB

Unit-5 Gopinath Mohanty : Tadpa


Tadpa by Gopinath Mohanti, translation by Sitakant Mahapatra

Odisha=Odras=Kalinga=Utkal. Odiya literature is 500years old. 

Mohanty born in a small village called Nagabali near Cuttack In 1914. Died in 1991.

Work- 1st novel Managahirara Chasa in 1936.

Work of fiction can be divided in 3 phases-

  • 1. During tenure years as civil servant. Novels which deal with exploitation and suffering of tribal people.

  • 2. Lives of townsfolk.

  • 3. Only 1 novel, an epic on Oriya village life - Danapani

 

Jnanpith award in 1974.

Tadpa- eponymous story of the protagonist Tadpa

Story focuses on-

1. A tribal's lack of fear

2. Importance of song and dance and togetherness

3. Acceptance of death as a sleep in the lap of Dharthi.

4. Sense of communal responsibility towards outsiders.



If you found my blog useful please do leave a comment, share with your friends and also check out my Youtube Channel for more informative content - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9jxfCZS_h4AVcj2Ioe7S6Q

No comments:

Post a Comment