Embodying Utopia in 1935: Poetry and the Feminized Nation
This article aims to highlight the significance of the gendering of the emerging nation that literature in India’s nationalist period generated, nurtured and reinforced. This article focuses on what Judith Brown (1985) identified as the ‘decisive decade’ (1930–1940) of the nationalist movement, when...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Open Library of Humanities
2019-01-01
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| Series: | Open Library of Humanities |
| Online Access: | https://olh.openlibhums.org/article/id/4545/ |
| _version_ | 1798018308113432576 |
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| author | Anne Castaing |
| author_facet | Anne Castaing |
| author_sort | Anne Castaing |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article aims to highlight the significance of the gendering of the emerging nation that literature in India’s nationalist period generated, nurtured and reinforced. This article focuses on what Judith Brown (1985) identified as the ‘decisive decade’ (1930–1940) of the nationalist movement, when nationalist vision and imagery extensively penetrated people’s imagination. It will examine two contexts (Hindi and Bengali), which are certainly different but in some ways interestingly similar, through the works of two poets, both ‘independent’ of both literary movements and political parties. Besides having been published the same year, Harivansh Rai Bacchan’s Hindi collection Madhuśālā (1935) and Jibanananda Das’ Bengali poem Banalatā Sen (1935) are romantic works, somewhat distinctive to most literary production of this period, and both exploit in a rather similar way an evanescent female figure who continues to fertilize Hindi and Bengali imaginations. The purpose of this paper is to question the practice and the function of these romantic figures in nationalist imagination and to examine the issues of differences and similarities they raise regarding the vision of the utopian nation in both Hindi and Bengali contexts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T16:22:01Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3ded82c893504a6a9d12578888eed5bb |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-6700 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T16:22:01Z |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | Open Library of Humanities |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Open Library of Humanities |
| spelling | doaj.art-3ded82c893504a6a9d12578888eed5bb2022-12-22T04:14:18ZengOpen Library of HumanitiesOpen Library of Humanities2056-67002019-01-015110.16995/olh.385Embodying Utopia in 1935: Poetry and the Feminized NationAnne Castaing0 This article aims to highlight the significance of the gendering of the emerging nation that literature in India’s nationalist period generated, nurtured and reinforced. This article focuses on what Judith Brown (1985) identified as the ‘decisive decade’ (1930–1940) of the nationalist movement, when nationalist vision and imagery extensively penetrated people’s imagination. It will examine two contexts (Hindi and Bengali), which are certainly different but in some ways interestingly similar, through the works of two poets, both ‘independent’ of both literary movements and political parties. Besides having been published the same year, Harivansh Rai Bacchan’s Hindi collection Madhuśālā (1935) and Jibanananda Das’ Bengali poem Banalatā Sen (1935) are romantic works, somewhat distinctive to most literary production of this period, and both exploit in a rather similar way an evanescent female figure who continues to fertilize Hindi and Bengali imaginations. The purpose of this paper is to question the practice and the function of these romantic figures in nationalist imagination and to examine the issues of differences and similarities they raise regarding the vision of the utopian nation in both Hindi and Bengali contexts.https://olh.openlibhums.org/article/id/4545/ |
| spellingShingle | Anne Castaing Embodying Utopia in 1935: Poetry and the Feminized Nation Open Library of Humanities |
| title | Embodying Utopia in 1935: Poetry and the Feminized Nation |
| title_full | Embodying Utopia in 1935: Poetry and the Feminized Nation |
| title_fullStr | Embodying Utopia in 1935: Poetry and the Feminized Nation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Embodying Utopia in 1935: Poetry and the Feminized Nation |
| title_short | Embodying Utopia in 1935: Poetry and the Feminized Nation |
| title_sort | embodying utopia in 1935 poetry and the feminized nation |
| url | https://olh.openlibhums.org/article/id/4545/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT annecastaing embodyingutopiain1935poetryandthefeminizednation |