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.
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)
- Novel – Mother of 1084 (extract)
- Short fiction – Giribala (extract)
- Drama – Bayen (extract)
- Children’s Writing – Nyadosh the Incredible Cow (extract)
- Literary Criticism – Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (extract)
- Novelist Mahasweta Devi: The Critical Tradition
- Mahasweta Devi: In Search of a Rare Uniqueness
- Hajar Churashir Ma, Mahasweta and the Next Phase of the Bangla Novel
- Mahasweta Devi: Forests and Nature
- Mahasweta Devi’s Writings: An Evaluation
- Reading "Pterodactyl"
- Douloti as a National Allegory
- Re-ordering the Maternal: Histories of Violence in Mahasweta Devi, Toni Morrison and Amrita Pritam
- The Politics of Positionality: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Samik Bandyopadhyay as Translators of Mahasweta Devi
- Reconsidering ‘Fictionalised Biographies’: Mahasweta Devi's Queen of Jhansi and Mamoni Raisom Goswami's The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar
- Writing for the Stage: The Plays of Mahasweta Devi
- Sahitya as Kinesis: Performative Potential in Stage and Screen Adaptations of Mahasweta Devi’s Works
- Tribal Language and Literature
- Eucalyptus: Why?
- Palamau is a Mirror of India
- The Adivasi Mahasweta
- Haunted Landscapes: Mahasweta Devi and the Anthropocene
- Our Santiniketan
- "Talking Writing: Conversations with Mahasweta Devi"
- ‘To find me, read my work’: Dialogues with Mahasweta Devi
- Family Reminiscences
TRANSLATED BY SAGAREE AND MANDIRA SENGUPTA
TRANSLATED BY SAMIK BANDYOPADHYAY
TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY
TRANSLATED BY SAMIK BANDYOPADHYAY
TRANSLATED BY PARAMITA BANERJEE
PART II
Kaleidoscope: Critical Reception
ARUP KUMAR DAS
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
DIPENDU CHAKRABARTI
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
DILIP KUMAR BASU
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
PARTHA PRATIM BANDYOPADHYAY
TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY
SUJIT MUKHERJEE
GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK
JAIDEV
SHREEREKHA SUBRAMANIAN
SHREYA CHAKRAVORTY
ARUNABH KONWAR
ANJUM KATYAL
BENIL BISWAS
PART III
Ablaze With Rage: The Writer As Activist
MAHASWETA DEVI
TRANSLATED BY MAITREYA GHATAK
MAHASWETA DEVI
MAHASWETA DEVI
TRANSLATED BY IPSITA CHANDA
G.N. DEVY
MARY LOUISA CAPPELLI
PART IV
Personal Glimpses: A Life in Words
MAHASWETA DEVI
TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY
NAVEEN KISHORE
RADHA CHAKRAVARTY
- I Am Truly Amazed
- Baba, Ma, Our Home
- The Didi I have Known
- My Mother
- Mahasweta Devi: The 'Mashi' Who Wrote Fearlessly About Caste, Class and Patriarchy
SOMA MUKHOPADHYAY
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
SARI LAHIRI
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
NABARUN BHATTACHARYA
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
INA PURI
- Shobor Mother Mahasweta Devi
- Small Big Things
- A Legend Who Lived on Her Own Terms
- "Every Dream Has the Right to Live"
RANJIT KUMAR DAS
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
ANAND (P. SACHIDANANDAN)
ANITA AGNIHOTRI
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
Dakxin Bajrange
Bio-chronology
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
Biography
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.
