Towards Freedom: Critical Essays on Rabindranath Tagore's Ghare Baire, The Home and the World

221 Pages·2007·8.929 MB·English

by  Saswati Sengupta, Shampa Roy, Sharmila Purkayastha

T ow ards F reedom

T F
ow ards reed o m
Critical Essays on Rabindranath Tagores
Ghare Baire/The Home and The World
Edited By
Saswati Sengupta,
Shampa Roy,
Sharmila Purkayastha
Orient Longman
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© Orient Longman Private Limited, 2007
First published 2007
ISBN 978 81 250 3187 1
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In memory o f
P ro fesso r Sisir Kum ar D as (1936- 2003)
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To such an arduous vocation, so simply was he attuned

Contents
Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
1. Introduction
2. The Role of Tagores Literature
NIHARRANJAN RAY
Home/ Ghare
3. Andare Antare. Inner Worlds
SAMBUDDHA CHAKRABARTI
4. Teaching the Wife: Miss Gilby, the
English Women, and the Antahpur
SHAMPAROY
5. Goddesses, Women, and the Clutch of
Metaphors in Ghare Baire
SASWATI SENGUPTA
6. Beyond the Intricate Web of Words: An Essay
Tagores Ghare Baire
SHIRSHENDU CHAKRABARTI
viii Contents
W orld/ Baire
7. Contesting Modernities: The Two Men in Ghare Baire 117
SHARMILA PURKAYASTHA
8. The Peasant in Ghare Baire 137
SUMANTA BANERJEE
9. Understanding Panchu: Swadeshi, Ghare Baire, and 163
the Lower-Caste Peasants of Eastern Bengal
SEKHAR BANDYOPADHYAY
10. Mirjan from the Margins 182
SASWATI SENGUPTA, SHAMPA ROY,
SHARMILA PURKAYASTHA
Select Bibliography 197
Index 201
Acknowledgements
This anthology was conceived and conceptualised during the
fortnightly seminars held by the English Department of
Miranda House. The encouragement and support of all our
colleagues in the department have been immense. While teaching
this text to first-year English Honours students, the need was
felt for a student friendly anthology on the subject. The result
is this vôlume. It acknowledges the enthusiasm of the students
to the teaching of Ghare Baire in class.
The sudden demise of Professor Sisir Kumar Das on 7 May
2003 was a blow, as he was to be one of the main contributors.
His words of encouragement and his belief in the project inspired
us to carry it forward in his absence.
We wish to thank the contributors who readily agreed to
write for this anthology. Given that the contributors are
recognised scholars and experts in their fields, the alacrity with
which they responded to the project has been very encouraging.
We are grateful to Gothe for his technical expertise and
interventions and also to the team at Orient Longman.
Our final acknowledgement is to Debjani M. Dutta, publisher
and friend. Her immediate positive response coupled with warm
friendly sessions on the book and other matters has been very
helpful and enjoyable.