Subrata Sinha - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Videos by Subrata Sinha
Seminar presentation at the Refresher Course on ‘Gender and Society: Theories and Actions’, organ... more Seminar presentation at the Refresher Course on ‘Gender and Society: Theories and Actions’, organised by the Department of Women’s Studies and the UGC-HRDC, University of North Bengal. 28 July 2022.
34 views
Papers by Subrata Sinha
A close reading of a song written and set to melody by Sm. Mamata Banerjee. The essay also tries ... more A close reading of a song written and set to melody by Sm. Mamata Banerjee. The essay also tries to take a brief look at its cultural significance.
অধুনা / আধুনিকতা: 'মর্জি' ও 'ভাব', Sahitya Parishat Patrika 131, 1-2, 2024
This paper tries to examine critically the emerging and porous discourses of modernity and litera... more This paper tries to examine critically the emerging and porous discourses of modernity and literary modernism in Bengal in the early decades of twentieth century through a close reading of the essay 'Adhunik Kavya' by Rabindranath Tagore.
Nandaner bijuktikram: Unish shataker bangalir lokasamskriti charchar kichhu prabanata, kichhu parinati, 2022
Ebang Mushayera, 2022
An essay on the poetical corpus of Samyam Pal, an eminent Bangla poet who started publishing in 1... more An essay on the poetical corpus of Samyam Pal, an eminent Bangla poet who started publishing in 1980s.
Review of Bhuvaneswari by Sandeep Dutta
নগ্ন অক্ষরের গায়ে, অম্লান দত্ত (সম্পা.), 2022
Drafts by Subrata Sinha
The so-called 'mainstream' Bangla Literature has rarely appeared in the marginal ethnic groups or... more The so-called 'mainstream' Bangla Literature has rarely appeared in the marginal ethnic groups or tribal lives. However, there are some glorious exceptions, and the present paper will focus on two such short stories, written approximately three decades apart. Satinath Bhaduri's 'Anta-Bangla' from Gananayak and other stories (1947) tries to look into the life of a tribal family in the greater Terai region and its gradual elimination in the background of a colonial reality and ensuing War. Mahasweta Devi's 'Draupadi' from Agnigarbha (1976) depicts the perils and the resistance of a tribal woman participating in the Naxalbari Movement and how the state conducts itself vis-à-vis a personality that does not conform with the expectations of the independent nation-state. In both cases, the characters fall either into gradual oblivion or to violent assault. With a close analysis of the material conditions of the tribal lives and the nature of their contact with the so called 'civilized' society and state, the paper will try to understand the limits and the perils, often futilities, of the epistemological endeavours and would try to make a case for an empathetic understanding beyond the 'emic'-etic' binary. Note: The used image in the cover is a photograph of a sculptre by Ramkinkar Baij called
An attempt to engage with two of the celebrated Bangla translations of the poem 'Herbst' by Riner... more An attempt to engage with two of the celebrated Bangla translations of the poem 'Herbst' by Riner Maria Rilke and an attempt at a third one.
The issue of agency remains a crucial factor in the perception of the centre-margin binary, while... more The issue of agency remains a crucial factor in the perception of the centre-margin binary, while the literary aesthetics challenges not only the binary, but also the categories themselves on the basis of the same premise. On the other hand, sometimes at the intersection of Literature, history and literary history the question of agency is used in such a manner that the very act of reading becomes a very crucial text in itself.
The proposed paper, in the first place, will try to understand, through a reading of Gauri Aiyub’s short story ‘Trijama’ (Tuccha kichu sukh-dukkho, Dey’s, 1986), how the question of agency has been used to create a mere site of a character by the denial of any agency. It will then move on to a close reading of Dinesh Chandra Sen’s historic essay ‘Srigouranger Lilabasan’ (published in Bharatbarsha, Phalgun 1335 bs) to reach at an understanding of the question of agency in the task of reading itself. In the course of this reading, it will also like to look at some of the hagiographies on Chaitanya and Ramakrishna Kathamrita (volume III, published 1908) to reflect on an idea of a ‘knowledge-site’, which functioned as a recurrent trope in such texts.
Finally, very briefly, the paper will try to question itself regarding the centre-margin binary in a literary text to ask whether the task of reading itself could venture beyond what is central or marginal in the text concerned. The paper tries to present, at best, a set of tentative reflections rather than a comprehensive argument.
The relation between music and poetry was expressed with a decisive finality by Rabindranath Thak... more The relation between music and poetry was expressed with a decisive finality by Rabindranath Thakur in his 1903 (অগ্রহায়ণ ১৩১০) essay 'সাহহত্যের যাৎপর্য '. He thought of poetry as something constituted of 'হিত্র' (image) and 'সঙ্গীয' (music) -"হিত্র দেহ এবং সঙ্গীয প্রাণ"
What I am supposed to present here today probably does not have a direct connection either with R... more What I am supposed to present here today probably does not have a direct connection either with Rabindranath, or with the Bauls, but whenever I think of the issues of the preservation and dissemination of the performative practices of the Bauls, a fictional account of an interaction between a Baul and an urban middle class receiver of his performance comes to my mind first.
Seminar presentation at the Refresher Course on ‘Gender and Society: Theories and Actions’, organ... more Seminar presentation at the Refresher Course on ‘Gender and Society: Theories and Actions’, organised by the Department of Women’s Studies and the UGC-HRDC, University of North Bengal. 28 July 2022.
34 views
A close reading of a song written and set to melody by Sm. Mamata Banerjee. The essay also tries ... more A close reading of a song written and set to melody by Sm. Mamata Banerjee. The essay also tries to take a brief look at its cultural significance.
অধুনা / আধুনিকতা: 'মর্জি' ও 'ভাব', Sahitya Parishat Patrika 131, 1-2, 2024
This paper tries to examine critically the emerging and porous discourses of modernity and litera... more This paper tries to examine critically the emerging and porous discourses of modernity and literary modernism in Bengal in the early decades of twentieth century through a close reading of the essay 'Adhunik Kavya' by Rabindranath Tagore.
Nandaner bijuktikram: Unish shataker bangalir lokasamskriti charchar kichhu prabanata, kichhu parinati, 2022
Ebang Mushayera, 2022
An essay on the poetical corpus of Samyam Pal, an eminent Bangla poet who started publishing in 1... more An essay on the poetical corpus of Samyam Pal, an eminent Bangla poet who started publishing in 1980s.
Review of Bhuvaneswari by Sandeep Dutta
নগ্ন অক্ষরের গায়ে, অম্লান দত্ত (সম্পা.), 2022
The so-called 'mainstream' Bangla Literature has rarely appeared in the marginal ethnic groups or... more The so-called 'mainstream' Bangla Literature has rarely appeared in the marginal ethnic groups or tribal lives. However, there are some glorious exceptions, and the present paper will focus on two such short stories, written approximately three decades apart. Satinath Bhaduri's 'Anta-Bangla' from Gananayak and other stories (1947) tries to look into the life of a tribal family in the greater Terai region and its gradual elimination in the background of a colonial reality and ensuing War. Mahasweta Devi's 'Draupadi' from Agnigarbha (1976) depicts the perils and the resistance of a tribal woman participating in the Naxalbari Movement and how the state conducts itself vis-à-vis a personality that does not conform with the expectations of the independent nation-state. In both cases, the characters fall either into gradual oblivion or to violent assault. With a close analysis of the material conditions of the tribal lives and the nature of their contact with the so called 'civilized' society and state, the paper will try to understand the limits and the perils, often futilities, of the epistemological endeavours and would try to make a case for an empathetic understanding beyond the 'emic'-etic' binary. Note: The used image in the cover is a photograph of a sculptre by Ramkinkar Baij called
An attempt to engage with two of the celebrated Bangla translations of the poem 'Herbst' by Riner... more An attempt to engage with two of the celebrated Bangla translations of the poem 'Herbst' by Riner Maria Rilke and an attempt at a third one.
The issue of agency remains a crucial factor in the perception of the centre-margin binary, while... more The issue of agency remains a crucial factor in the perception of the centre-margin binary, while the literary aesthetics challenges not only the binary, but also the categories themselves on the basis of the same premise. On the other hand, sometimes at the intersection of Literature, history and literary history the question of agency is used in such a manner that the very act of reading becomes a very crucial text in itself.
The proposed paper, in the first place, will try to understand, through a reading of Gauri Aiyub’s short story ‘Trijama’ (Tuccha kichu sukh-dukkho, Dey’s, 1986), how the question of agency has been used to create a mere site of a character by the denial of any agency. It will then move on to a close reading of Dinesh Chandra Sen’s historic essay ‘Srigouranger Lilabasan’ (published in Bharatbarsha, Phalgun 1335 bs) to reach at an understanding of the question of agency in the task of reading itself. In the course of this reading, it will also like to look at some of the hagiographies on Chaitanya and Ramakrishna Kathamrita (volume III, published 1908) to reflect on an idea of a ‘knowledge-site’, which functioned as a recurrent trope in such texts.
Finally, very briefly, the paper will try to question itself regarding the centre-margin binary in a literary text to ask whether the task of reading itself could venture beyond what is central or marginal in the text concerned. The paper tries to present, at best, a set of tentative reflections rather than a comprehensive argument.
The relation between music and poetry was expressed with a decisive finality by Rabindranath Thak... more The relation between music and poetry was expressed with a decisive finality by Rabindranath Thakur in his 1903 (অগ্রহায়ণ ১৩১০) essay 'সাহহত্যের যাৎপর্য '. He thought of poetry as something constituted of 'হিত্র' (image) and 'সঙ্গীয' (music) -"হিত্র দেহ এবং সঙ্গীয প্রাণ"
What I am supposed to present here today probably does not have a direct connection either with R... more What I am supposed to present here today probably does not have a direct connection either with Rabindranath, or with the Bauls, but whenever I think of the issues of the preservation and dissemination of the performative practices of the Bauls, a fictional account of an interaction between a Baul and an urban middle class receiver of his performance comes to my mind first.
https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Discourse-in-Bangla/Dasgupta-Sinha/p/book/9781138633018, 2022
https://www.routledge.com/Critical-Discourse-in-Bangla/Dasgupta-Sinha/p/book/9781138633018
Adhunikatar Kavyatattva o Sudhindranath Datta, 2019