Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal

Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal PDF Author: Rosinka Chaudhuri
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Extensive historical research and a detailed examination of the English poetry written by Indians in the nineteenth century in its social, historical, and political contexts, reveals the engagement of the colonized with one of the implements of colonization the English language. This study shows how the intertextuality that existed between this body of verse and concurrent Orientalist scholarship on the ancient Indian heritage resulted, ultimately in a complex appropriation, by the Indians, of British scholarship on India for nationalist, literary, social, and personal issues, such as its anticipation of the formation of the modern Indian identity. A thorough examination of the correlation between the poetry and its background uncovers certain startling differences between current perceptions of colonial relations and actual historical records. For example, the common belief that English education was imposed upon the colonized is reversed through an examination of the Indians own initiative in this field long before the missionaries or Macaulay s famous minute. Similarly, the claim that all English education in India was a vehicle for the Christianizing of natives is refuted through the personal reminiscences of David Hare, eminent educationist, who opposed it vehemently. The author examines works by Henry Derozio, Kasiprasad Ghosh, Michael Madhusudhan Dutt, the Dutt family, and, in conclusion, the poems of Toru Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore. Refuting a simple equation of the exploitation of knowledge as power between the colonizer and the colonized, the author argues for a more nuanced approach, positing that the complexities of the situation meant also an active appropriation of Orientalist scholarship by Indians for their own ends: they tended to take just that which they found good and liked best . This would grant an agency to the colonial Indian subject which has so far gone unrecognized, and place a whole body of colonial verse in the situational flux of interchange and assimilation. This work asserts that it is time now to listen to what the orient made of its interaction with the West, and to lend an ear to what the colonized said. Rosinka Chaudhuri is a scholar of literary criticism and history from Oxford, who specializes in nineteenth-century Bengal. She is a Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Her articles have appeared in several journals and anthologies.

Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal

Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal PDF Author: Rosinka Chaudhuri
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 230

Get Book Here

Book Description
Extensive historical research and a detailed examination of the English poetry written by Indians in the nineteenth century in its social, historical, and political contexts, reveals the engagement of the colonized with one of the implements of colonization the English language. This study shows how the intertextuality that existed between this body of verse and concurrent Orientalist scholarship on the ancient Indian heritage resulted, ultimately in a complex appropriation, by the Indians, of British scholarship on India for nationalist, literary, social, and personal issues, such as its anticipation of the formation of the modern Indian identity. A thorough examination of the correlation between the poetry and its background uncovers certain startling differences between current perceptions of colonial relations and actual historical records. For example, the common belief that English education was imposed upon the colonized is reversed through an examination of the Indians own initiative in this field long before the missionaries or Macaulay s famous minute. Similarly, the claim that all English education in India was a vehicle for the Christianizing of natives is refuted through the personal reminiscences of David Hare, eminent educationist, who opposed it vehemently. The author examines works by Henry Derozio, Kasiprasad Ghosh, Michael Madhusudhan Dutt, the Dutt family, and, in conclusion, the poems of Toru Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore. Refuting a simple equation of the exploitation of knowledge as power between the colonizer and the colonized, the author argues for a more nuanced approach, positing that the complexities of the situation meant also an active appropriation of Orientalist scholarship by Indians for their own ends: they tended to take just that which they found good and liked best . This would grant an agency to the colonial Indian subject which has so far gone unrecognized, and place a whole body of colonial verse in the situational flux of interchange and assimilation. This work asserts that it is time now to listen to what the orient made of its interaction with the West, and to lend an ear to what the colonized said. Rosinka Chaudhuri is a scholar of literary criticism and history from Oxford, who specializes in nineteenth-century Bengal. She is a Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Her articles have appeared in several journals and anthologies.

Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal

Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal PDF Author: Rosinka Chaudhuri
Publisher: Seagull Books Pvt Ltd
ISBN: 9788170461852
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Extensive historical research and a detailed examination of the English poetry written by Indians in the nineteenth century in its social, historical, and political contexts, reveals the engagement of the colonized with one of the implements of colonization the English language. This study shows how the intertextuality that existed between this body of verse and concurrent Orientalist scholarship on the ancient Indian heritage resulted, ultimately in a complex appropriation, by the Indians, of British scholarship on India for nationalist, literary, social, and personal issues, such as its anticipation of the formation of the modern Indian identity. A thorough examination of the correlation between the poetry and its background uncovers certain startling differences between current perceptions of colonial relations and actual historical records. For example, the common belief that English education was imposed upon the colonized is reversed through an examination of the Indians own initiative in this field long before the missionaries or Macaulay s famous minute. Similarly, the claim that all English education in India was a vehicle for the Christianizing of natives is refuted through the personal reminiscences of David Hare, eminent educationist, who opposed it vehemently. The author examines works by Henry Derozio, Kasiprasad Ghosh, Michael Madhusudhan Dutt, the Dutt family, and, in conclusion, the poems of Toru Dutt and Rabindranath Tagore. Refuting a simple equation of the exploitation of knowledge as power between the colonizer and the colonized, the author argues for a more nuanced approach, positing that the complexities of the situation meant also an active appropriation of Orientalist scholarship by Indians for their own ends: they tended to take just that which they found good and liked best . This would grant an agency to the colonial Indian subject which has so far gone unrecognized, and place a whole body of colonial verse in the situational flux of interchange and assimilation. This work asserts that it is time now to listen to what the orient made of its interaction with the West, and to lend an ear to what the colonized said. Rosinka Chaudhuri is a scholar of literary criticism and history from Oxford, who specializes in nineteenth-century Bengal. She is a Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Her articles have appeared in several journals and anthologies.

Shakespeare Studies in Colonial Bengal

Shakespeare Studies in Colonial Bengal PDF Author: Hema Dahiya
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 144386353X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Shakespeare Studies in Colonial Bengal: The Early Phase represents an important direction in the area of historical research on the role of English education in India, particularly with regards to Shakespeare studies at the Hindu College, the first native college of European education in Calcutta, the capital city of British India during the nineteenth century. Focusing on the developments that led to the introduction of English education in India, Dr Dahiya’s book highlights the pioneering role that the eminent Shakespeare teachers at Hindu College, namely Henry Derozio, D.L. Richardson and H.M. Percival, played in accelerating the movement of the Bengal Renaissance. Drawing on available information about colonial Bengal, the book exposes both the angular interpretations of Shakespeare by fanatical scholars on both sides of the cultural divide, and the serious limitations of the present-day reductive theory of postcolonialism, emphasizing how in both cases such interpretations led to distorted readings of Shakespeare. Offering a comprehensive account of how English education in India came to be introduced in an atmosphere of clashing ideas and conflicting interests emanating from various forces at work in the early nineteenth century, Shakespeare Studies in Colonial Bengal places, in a normative perspective, the part played by each major actor in this highly-contested historical context, including the Christian missionaries, British orientalists, Macaulay’s Minute, the secular duo of Rammohan Roy and David Hare, and, above all, the Shakespeare teachers at Hindu College, the first native institution of European education in India.

Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 1780–1913

Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 1780–1913 PDF Author: Mary Ellis Gibson
Publisher: Ohio University Press
ISBN: 0821443577
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 1780–1913: A Critical Anthology makes accessible for the first time the entire range of poems written in English on the subcontinent from their beginnings in 1780 to the watershed moment in 1913 when Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize in Literature.Mary Ellis Gibson establishes accurate texts for such well-known poets as Toru Dutt and the early nineteenth-century poet Kasiprasad Ghosh. The anthology brings together poets who were in fact colleagues, competitors, and influences on each other. The historical scope of the anthology, beginning with the famous Orientalist Sir William Jones and the anonymous “Anna Maria” and ending with Indian poets publishing in fin-de-siècle London, will enable teachers and students to understand what brought Kipling early fame and why at the same time Tagore’s Gitanjali became a global phenomenon. Anglophone Poetry in Colonial India, 1780–1913 puts all parties to the poetic conversation back together and makes their work accessible to American audiences.With accurate and reliable texts, detailed notes on vocabulary, historical and cultural references, and biographical introductions to more than thirty poets, this collection significantly reshapes the understanding of English language literary culture in India. It allows scholars to experience the diversity of poetic forms created in this period and to understand the complex religious, cultural, political, and gendered divides that shaped them.

The Poetry of British India, 1780–1905

The Poetry of British India, 1780–1905 PDF Author: Maire ni Fhlathuin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000743705
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 884

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Book Description
This two-volume reset edition draws together a selection of Anglo-Indian poetry from the Romantic era and the nineteenth century.

The Poetry of British India, 1780–1905 Vol 1

The Poetry of British India, 1780–1905 Vol 1 PDF Author: Maire ni Fhlathuin
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100074891X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
This two-volume reset edition draws together a selection of Anglo-Indian poetry from the Romantic era and the nineteenth century.

The Classics and Colonial India

The Classics and Colonial India PDF Author: Phiroze Vasunia
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191626074
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
This extraordinary book provides a detailed account of the relationship between classical antiquity and the British colonial presence in India. It examines some of the great figures of the colonial period such as Gandhi, Nehru, Macaulay, Jowett, and William Jones, and covers a range of different disciplines as it sweeps from the eighteenth century to the end of the British Raj in the twentieth. Using a variety of materials, including archival documents and familiar texts, Vasunia shows how classical culture pervaded the thoughts and minds of the British colonizers. His book highlights the many Indian receptions of Greco-Roman antiquity and analyses how Indians turned to ancient Greece and Rome during the colonial period for a variety of purposes, including anti-colonialism, nationalism, and collaboration. Offering a unique cross-cultural study, this volume will be of interest to literary scholars and historians of the classical world, the British Empire, and South Asia.

A History of Indian Poetry in English

A History of Indian Poetry in English PDF Author: Rosinka Chaudhuri
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316483274
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Book Description
A History of Indian Poetry in English explores the genealogy of Anglophone verse in India from its nineteenth-century origins to the present day. Beginning with an extensive introduction that charts important theoretical contributions to the field, this History includes extensive essays that illuminate the legacy of English in Indian poetry. Organized thematically, these essays survey the multilayered verse of such diverse poets as Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, Rabindranath Tagore, Nissim Ezekiel, Dom Moraes, Kamala Das, and Melanie Silgardo. Written by a host of leading scholars, this History also devotes special attention to the lasting significance of imperialism and diaspora in Indian poetry. This book is of pivotal importance to the development of Indian poetry in English and will serve as an invaluable reference for specialists and students alike.

Anglophone Indian Women Writers, 1870–1920

Anglophone Indian Women Writers, 1870–1920 PDF Author: Ellen Brinks
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317180909
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 415

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Book Description
The result of extensive archival recovery work, Ellen Brinks's study fills a significant gap in our understanding of women's literary history of the South Asian subcontinent under colonialism and of Indian women's contributions and responses to developing cultural and political nationalism. As Brinks shows, the invisibility of Anglophone Indian women writers cannot be explained simply as a matter of colonial marginalization or as a function of dominant theoretical approaches that reduce Indian women to the status of figures or tropes. The received narrative that British imperialism in India was perpetuated with little cultural contact between the colonizers and the colonized population is complicated by writers such as Toru Dutt, Krupabai Satthianadhan, Pandita Ramabai, Cornelia Sorabji, and Sarojini Naidu. All five women found large audiences for their literary works in India and in Great Britain, and all five were also deeply rooted in and connected to both South Asian and Western cultures. Their works created new zones of cultural contact and exchange that challenge postcolonial theory's tendencies towards abstract notions of the colonized women as passive and of English as a de-facto instrument of cultural domination. Brinks's close readings of these texts suggest new ways of reading a range of issues central to postcolonial studies: the relationship of colonized women to the metropolitan (literary) culture; Indian and English women's separate and joint engagements in reformist and nationalist struggles; the 'translatability' of culture; the articulation strategies and complex negotiations of self-identification of Anglophone Indian women writers; and the significance and place of cultural difference.

Victorian Literature and Postcolonial Studies

Victorian Literature and Postcolonial Studies PDF Author: Patrick Brantlinger
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748633057
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
This book surveys the impact of the British Empire on nineteenth-century British literature from a postcolonial perspective. It explains both pro-imperialist themes and attitudes in works by major Victorian authors, and also points of resistance to and criticisms of the Empire such as abolitionism, as well as the first stirrings of nationalism in India and elsewhere.Using nineteenth-century literary works as illustrations, it analyzes several major debates, central to imperial and postcolonial studies, about imperial historiography and Marxism, gender and race, Orientalism, mimicry, and subalternity and representation. And it provides an in-depth examination of works by several major Victorian authors-Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Disraeli, Tennyson, Yeats, Kipling, and Conrad among them - in the imperial context. Key Features:*Links literary texts to debates in postcolonial studies*Discusses works not included in standard literary histories*Provides in-depth discussions and comparisons of major authors: Disraeli and George Eliot; Dickens and Charlotte Bronte; Tennsyon and Yeats*Provides a guide to further reading and a timeline