Varia - Essays on Creative Literature

Varia - Essays on Creative Literature is a different sort of a book. It is like the presentation of a wholesome meal. Unlike it is in the cases of my books like, Michael: His English Literature and Essays on Anglo-Indian Literature, which are written on a single continuing subject, in the case of Varia, the signature point is variety. There are seven essays in this book.

Varia – Creative Literature

Varia collection of variety of essays on creative literature. The primary thesis is that, creative literature, specially fiction, has its antecedents in folk tales. It has been attempted to be shown that the first creative narrators, were the narrators of the folk tales. They were the first who used their creative imagination for the creation of tales for the dual purpose of the entertainment and the edification of their listeners. It is these simple folk tales that underwent development to result in the complexities of what we understand today as creative literature. In this essay an attempt has been made to analyse the various literary and extra-literary aspects of creative literature.

In accordance with this premise, there is in this essay, a detailed consideration of the folk tales of Mundari, a tribal language that is largely used in certain areas in; Jharkhand and also in some parts of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. In the chapter on the folk tales of Mundari, the folk tales have been analysed from various points of view, like; the literary, the educational, the cultural, the sociological and such others. In order to realize this objective, a wide range of folk tales containing the various aspects of the analysis of the various aspects present, are considered. This objective being achieved, the reader shall have understood the multi-faceted nature of the apparently simplistic folk tales, of which the folk tales in Mundari constitute an example.

There are two essays related to the English literature of the nineteenth century author Michael Madhusudan Datta. The first of the two essays is on the letters that Michael wrote his well-wishers like, his close friend, Gour Das Basak, Rajnarain Bose and Bhoodels Mukherjee. These letters, written by this author to his intimate friends like the ones named above, contain the thoughts of the author that help us not only to understand Michael the person, but also as to what his opinions were, regarding the various aspects of literature, specially the Miltonic epic and the nature of the tragedy. These letters also help us to arrive at a judicious view regarding the important events in his life. However, as has been indicated above, the letters of Michael are important because they largely function as the guidelines on the basis of which to judge the literature that he produced. The second essay is on Neel Darpan, a play originally written in Bengali by Dinabandhu Mitra, for the benefit of the contemporary Europeans in Bengal, specially the English. This set against the background of the Indigo Revolt of 1859. What is important is that, the play presents very well, not only the inhuman exploitation of the ryots working in the indigo plantations, but also the various social and economic reasons that results is the aforesaid revolt. It is the point of view of the ryots that the play highlights. Another important aspect of Michael’s literary caliber that the play highlights, is his being a cometent translator. This translation further attests Michael’s talent at literary translation that is seen in the translation of the mythological play Sermista from his own Bengali original into English.

Although Gandhiji fought the British rulers of India for many years, yet there were many among the British, who had a high regard for him. For many among them, Gandhiji remained an enigma. In the chapter on Paul Scott’s presentation of Gandhiji in his voluminous novel, The Raj Quartet, an attempt has been made to address some important issues related to the personality and the political principles of Gandhiji. The presentation of Gandhiji is largely positive.

The last two essays are related to commonwealth literature. In the first two essays the attempt is to show, through the medium of poetry, as to how, over the years, Australia has come out of the shadow of Britain, by creating its own identity. The author has presented very well the different phases through which Australian poets moved from considering themselves as British staying in another part of the world, to considering. Australia as their home, as having an independent identify and the country and its people have been treated by Britain in the same way in which she has treated her other colonies in the world. As it is with many other essays of the author, here too, the points of reference are taken from the chronology of the literary history of the country. The second of the aforesaid two essays centres on the presence of mysticism in the poem. The Mytical Drum of Gabriel Okara. The essay has built up very well as to how the sound of the drum evokes a mystical experience that is reminiscent of Wordsworth’s Tinteon Abbey. This essay is exemplary of the idea that the sound of music, in this case, of the drum can inspire an experience that can be called, miptical. The essay shows very well as to how the poet moves from the material to the mystical and then to the material again, by the use of a sequence of symbols.