Colonialism, Modernity, and Literature: A View from India

263 Pages·2011·2.7 MB·English

by  Satya P. Mohanty (eds.)

Colonialism, Modernity,
and Literature
The Future of Minority Studies
A timely series that represents the most innovative work being done in the
broad field defined as “minority studies.” Drawing on the intellectual and
political vision of the Future of Minority Studies (FMS) Research Project, this
book series will publish studies of the lives, experiences, and cultures of “mi-
nority” groups—broadly defined to include all those whose access to social
and cultural institutions is limited primarily because of their social identities.
For more information about the Future of Minority Studies (FMS) Interna-
tional Research Project, visit www.fmsproject.cornell.edu.
Series Editors
Linda Martín Alcoff, Hunter College, CUNY
Michael Hames-García, University of Oregon
Satya P. Mohanty, Cornell University
Paula M. L. Moya, Stanford University
Tobin Siebers, University of Michigan
Identity Politics Reconsidered
edited by Linda Martín Alcoff, Michael Hames-Garcia, Satya P. Mohanty,
and Paula M. L. Moya
Ambiguity and Sexuality: A Theory of Sexual Identity
by William S. Wilkerson
Identity in Education
edited by Susan Sánchez-Casal and Amie A. Macdonald
Rethinking Chicana/o and Latina/o Popular Culture
by Daniel Enrique Pérez
The Future of Diversity: Academic Leaders Reflect on American Higher Edu-
cation
edited by Daniel Little and Satya P. Mohanty
Minority Reports: Identity and Social Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century
American Literature
by Michael Borgstrom
Colonialism, Modernity, and Literature: A View from India
edited and with an introduction by Satya P. Mohanty
Colonialism, Modernity,
and Literature
A View from India
Edited and with an Introduction
by Satya P. Mohanty
COLONIALISM, MODERNITY, AND LITERATURE
Copyright © Satya P. Mohanty, 2011.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-61904-3
All rights reserved.
First published in 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the
United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth
Avenue, New York, NY 10010
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of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
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ISBN 978-0-230-61908-1 ISBN 978-0-230-11834-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230118348
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Colonialism, modernity, and literature : a view from India / edited
and with an introduction by Satya P. Mohanty.
p. cm.—(Future of minority studies)
1. Indic literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. India—
In literature. 3. Colonies in literature. 4. Imperialism in literature. 5.
Postcolonialism in literature. 6. Postcolonialism—India. I. Mohanty,
Satya P. (Satya Prakash), 1954-
PK5416.C6 2011
891.4—dc22 2010035295
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: March 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To
U. R. Ananthamurthy,
who provided the inspiration . . .
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Introduction: Viewing Colonialism and Modernity through
Indian Literature 1
Satya P. Mohanty
I Views from Below: Comparing Literary Perspectives
1 Critical Realisms in the Global South: Narrative
Transculturation in Senapati’s Six Acres and a Third
and García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude 25
Jennifer Harford Vargas
2 Views from Above and Below: George Eliot and Fakir
Mohan Senapati 55
Paul L. Sawyer
3 Two Classic Tales of Village India: The Realist Epistemology
of Chha Mana Atha Guntha and Godaan 91
Himansu S. Mohapatra
4 The Emergence of the Modern Subject in Oriya and
Assamese Literatures: Fakir Mohan Senapati and
Hemchandra Barua 113
Tilottoma Misra
5 The Indigenous Modernity of Gurajada Apparao and
Fakir Mohan Senapati 135
Velcheru Narayana Rao
6 “Why Don’t You Speak?”: The Narrative Politics of Silence
in Senapati, Premchand, and Monica Ali 153
Ulka Anjaria
viii contents
II The Many Contexts of Six Acres and a Third
7 The Representation of Women and Gender Relations in
Six Acres and a Third 173
Claire Horan
8 Rediscovering Ramachandra Mangaraj and Historicizing
Senapati’s Critique of Colonialism 187
Gaganendra Nath Dash
9 The Tradition-Modernity Dialectic in Six Acres
and a Third 207
Debendra K. Dash and Dipti R. Pattanaik
Appendix: Fair Without, Foul Within: Bahire Rongsong Bhitare
Kowabhaturi 229
Hemchandra Barua
List of Contributors 257
Index 259
I n t r o d u c t i o n
Viewing Colonialism and Modernity
through Indian Literature
Satya P. Mohanty
A
few years ago, during his visit to Cornell University, the lead-
ing Indian writer U. R. Ananthamurthy asked a group of South Asia
specialists why Indian literary texts are so rarely given the kind of
careful attention critics give to major texts in European and Ameri-
can literature. In the discussions following his public lecture to stu-
dents and faculty, in which he spoke at length on two works he sees as
“foundational” in the history of the modern Indian novel, Senapati’s
Chha Mana Atha Guntha (1897–99) and Tagore’s Gora (1907–09),
Ananthamurthy went on to talk about the need for extended textual
readings as well as cross-regional analysis of the literary traditions in
India.1 He called for textual comparisons that highlight similarities
and differences in the way common themes and similar social situa-
tions are treated in fiction. Part of his point was that several strands of
cultural and social influence run through Indian literary texts and it is
impossible to see these strands clearly if our focus remains confined to
any one work, or even to the works of any one linguistic and regional
tradition.
Colonialism, Modernity, and Literature: A View from India is in
some ways a response to Ananthamurthy’s call. It provides close and
attentive readings of a uniquely representative work of modern Indian
literature, one of the two Ananthamurthy’s lecture focused on, and
it develops its analyses in a resolutely comparative framework. The
authors in this volume focus on the achievements of Senapati’s late
nineteenth-century Oriya novel, the most recent translation of which,
Six Acres and a Third, appeared in 2005.2 Many of them also develop