My
project proposal for the Junior Fellowship scheme of the Ministry of Culture is
in the field of literary theory. Being a student of English literature, I am
aware of the fascinating and challenging world of literary theory and,
especially of the revolution in English studies brought about by theory. One of
the key aspects of this redrawing of literary map has been the gradual erosion
of Eurocentrism. In his book, Habitations
of Modernity, Dipesh Chakrabarty remarks: “Achieving a critical perspective
on European forms of knowledge . . . is part of the interrogation of their
colonial inheritance that postcolonial intellectuals must carry out” (18).
The
present-day literary research is skeptical about the various forms of Eurocentric
thoughts. The debate on modernity is no longer what it used to be earlier. It
was believed that modernity was solely a western product, which legitimately
belonged to Europe and North America. Other parts of the world were expected to
replicate its features and colonialism, it was believed, provided the ideal
conditions for this replication.
This notion of singular modernity has now come under question with scholars (Dipesh
Chakrabarty) owing allegiance to the literature of ‘provincializing Europe’ arguing
for an ‘alternative’ or ‘indigenous modernity’. To think in
terms of alternative modernity is to admit that modernity is inevitable in
‘other’ literatures and to abstain from speculations about modernity's
‘European’ origin and character. Modernity today is global and multiple and no
longer has a Western "governing center" to buttress it.
The essence of alternative modernity, as scolars like
Satya P. Mojanty have argued, is that modern values such as rationality and
egalitarianism can be articulated in the non-capitalist societies of the East.
Of late a significant interpretative effort has been mounded in order to locate
a literary corpus in various national and regional literatures which is the
site of ‘alternative modernity’. My research aims at reinforcing this
interpretive and critical project.
In
this project I want to focus on the literature of my region namely Odisha, and
single out the Odia novel as the object of my analysis. The idea is to position
the novel in Odia, by mapping its growth and development, as a critique of
colonial modernity. I shall concentrate on novels written between (1902-1964), covering from late
nineteenth century to mid twentieth century, namely Fakir
Mohan Senapati’s Chha Mana Atha Guntha
(1902) (translated into English as Six
Acres and a Third in 2005) and Mamu
(1913) (translated into English as The
Maternal Uncle in 2007), Kanhu Charan Mohanty’s Jhanja (1950) (translated into English as The Storm in 2011), Gopinath
Mohanty’s Danapani (1955) (translated
into English as The survivor in
1995), and Surendra Mohanty’s Andha
Diganta (1964) (translated as The
Dark Horizon). Through analysis of these novels, suitably backed by
archival material, I will try to project the Odia novel as a distinct
articulation of an indigenous modernity located in what the scholars (Debendra
K. Das and Dipti R. Pattnaik) have
termed the “vernacular mind”.
No comments:
Post a Comment