Mohit U L Alam | Premier University Chittagong (original) (raw)

Book Reviews by Mohit U L Alam

It's an essay on Othello's hidden instinct for material benefits. Apparently, he's portrayed as a... more It's an essay on Othello's hidden instinct for material benefits. Apparently, he's portrayed as a passionate lover, but underneath his vocation in life is to climb the social ladder. This essay is an attempt to dismantle the valiant image that has been critically established. I have rather deconstructed Othello's character as being dominated by a literalism that can be traced to his origin.

Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign Engl... more Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign England expanded its trade and commerce to the Americas and the Far East. John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Richard Hakluyt all these navigators-cum-adventurers were plundering at sea and were helping the English coffers to increase. It is now known that though the English parliament passed a law against plundering or piracy, Elizabeth herself invested money in the plundering voyages of John Hawkins. Elizabeth died unmarried, and her successor King James I was a thorough scholar. He once said that he spoke Latin before he learnt his native tongue Scottish. He wrote a 120page long book titled Basilicon Doron (1599) in which he explained his ideas about the ideal king. The book was a bestseller, though James's permanent contribution to the English civilization is his instrumentalizing the publication of an authorized English translation of the Bible in 1611. It is known as the King James Bible. In 1564, the year of Shakespeare's birth, the population of England was approximately 3.06 million, and by 1600 it increased to 4.06 million, and by 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, to 4.51 million. In 1600, the population of the city of London was 200,000. Every year about 10,000 people migrated to London. Shakespeare's actual date of birth is conjectured to be April 23, 1564 on the basis of the record of his baptism which took place in the Holy Trinity Church of Stratford on 26 th April. 1564 was a plague-ridden year, and in Stratford alone 254 people out of 800 died in that year. Shakespeare's grandfather Richard Shakespeare was a farmer in a village called Snitterfield near Stratford-upon-Avon. He was a tenant of a rich man called Robert Arden, whose daughter Mary Arden would be married to John Shakespeare, the father of the poet. Stratford was a scenic small town with open fields and rivers, which, in 1570, William Camden, a historian and Ben Jonson's teacher, called a "handsome small market town." In the year of Shakespeare's birth there were in Stratford 400 houses, all made of timber, and forty ash trees. John Shakespeare was a glover (one that makes and sells gloves), a whittawer (a curer and whitener of skins), a wool-dealer, a landowner and a moneylender, though usury was illegal in England at that time. He also involved himself in the affairs of the town and in

Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign Engl... more Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign England expanded its trade and commerce to the Americas and the Far East. John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Richard Hakluyt all these navigators-cum-adventurers were plundering at sea and were helping the English coffers to increase. It is now known that though the English parliament passed a law against plundering or piracy, Elizabeth herself invested money in the plundering voyages of John Hawkins. Elizabeth died unmarried, and her successor King James I was a thorough scholar. He once said that he spoke Latin before he learnt his native tongue Scottish. He wrote a 120page long book titled Basilicon Doron (1599) in which he explained his ideas about the ideal king. The book was a bestseller, though James's permanent contribution to the English civilization is his instrumentalizing the publication of an authorized English translation of the Bible in 1611. It is known as the King James Bible. In 1564, the year of Shakespeare's birth, the population of England was approximately 3.06 million, and by 1600 it increased to 4.06 million, and by 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, to 4.51 million. In 1600, the population of the city of London was 200,000. Every year about 10,000 people migrated to London. Shakespeare's actual date of birth is conjectured to be April 23, 1564 on the basis of the record of his baptism which took place in the Holy Trinity Church of Stratford on 26 th April. 1564 was a plague-ridden year, and in Stratford alone 254 people out of 800 died in that year. Shakespeare's grandfather Richard Shakespeare was a farmer in a village called Snitterfield near Stratford-upon-Avon. He was a tenant of a rich man called Robert Arden, whose daughter Mary Arden would be married to John Shakespeare, the father of the poet. Stratford was a scenic small town with open fields and rivers, which, in 1570, William Camden, a historian and Ben Jonson's teacher, called a "handsome small market town." In the year of Shakespeare's birth there were in Stratford 400 houses, all made of timber, and forty ash trees. John Shakespeare was a glover (one that makes and sells gloves), a whittawer (a curer and whitener of skins), a wool-dealer, a landowner and a moneylender, though usury was illegal in England at that time. He also involved himself in the affairs of the town and in

Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign Engl... more Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign England expanded its trade and commerce to the Americas and the Far East. John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Richard Hakluyt all these navigators-cum-adventurers were plundering at sea and were helping the English coffers to increase. It is now known that though the English parliament passed a law against plundering or piracy, Elizabeth herself invested money in the plundering voyages of John Hawkins. Elizabeth died unmarried, and her successor King James I was a thorough scholar. He once said that he spoke Latin before he learnt his native tongue Scottish. He wrote a 120page long book titled Basilicon Doron (1599) in which he explained his ideas about the ideal king. The book was a bestseller, though James's permanent contribution to the English civilization is his instrumentalizing the publication of an authorized English translation of the Bible in 1611. It is known as the King James Bible. In 1564, the year of Shakespeare's birth, the population of England was approximately 3.06 million, and by 1600 it increased to 4.06 million, and by 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, to 4.51 million. In 1600, the population of the city of London was 200,000. Every year about 10,000 people migrated to London. Shakespeare's actual date of birth is conjectured to be April 23, 1564 on the basis of the record of his baptism which took place in the Holy Trinity Church of Stratford on 26 th April. 1564 was a plague-ridden year, and in Stratford alone 254 people out of 800 died in that year. Shakespeare's grandfather Richard Shakespeare was a farmer in a village called Snitterfield near Stratford-upon-Avon. He was a tenant of a rich man called Robert Arden, whose daughter Mary Arden would be married to John Shakespeare, the father of the poet. Stratford was a scenic small town with open fields and rivers, which, in 1570, William Camden, a historian and Ben Jonson's teacher, called a "handsome small market town." In the year of Shakespeare's birth there were in Stratford 400 houses, all made of timber, and forty ash trees. John Shakespeare was a glover (one that makes and sells gloves), a whittawer (a curer and whitener of skins), a wool-dealer, a landowner and a moneylender, though usury was illegal in England at that time. He also involved himself in the affairs of the town and in

Ideas: A Journal of Literature Art and Culture , 2020

This paper deals with viewing the suitability of teaching Shakespeare either as a reading text o... more This paper deals with viewing the suitability of teaching Shakespeare either as a reading text or as a text for performance in the context of Bangladesh. The paper admits that though in Bangladesh Shakespeare has been by tradition a reading text, however, because of the substantial digital advancement made in the pedagogical techniques in the Bangladesh universities it has now become possible to represent Shakespeare more from a visualized angle.
This paper has been published in Ideas: A Journal of Literary Studies and an entry of it is made in this website already, but since it does not belong to my domain as such, I'm reloading it here so that one can find it entered in my own domain.

Kazi Nazrul Islam: Poetry, Politics, Passion, 2019

This is a paper on judging the Bengali rebel poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, as a silent campaigner of t... more This is a paper on judging the Bengali rebel poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, as a silent campaigner of the necessity of preaching Islam in the vernacular, in this case, Bengali, for which I have often used the other word, 'Bangla'. I've argued that though Nazrul is singularly famous for his rebellious voice against political and religious doctrines that facilitate the exploitation of the poor by the rich, he side side by pursued, rather silently, the objective of rendering the spirit of Islam, its universal humanitarianism, in the Bengali language, through his songs and poems, and also through his translation of the Kabya Ampara, a number of chosen verses from the Holy Qur'an. This he did with the strong conviction that a religion, whatever may be its language or place of origin, is best understood in the follower's own mother tongue.

Stephen Greenblatt's "The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: A Probing Analysis of the Origin Story, 2019

It's a review of Stephen Greenblatt's book, "The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve". I've said that ... more It's a review of Stephen Greenblatt's book, "The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve". I've said that Greenblatt has done an excellent job in demythologizing the Biblical Fable by drawing on scientific facts, but at the same time has unequivocally pointed out the moral fabric that sustains the interest of the religious men and women as well as people in general in the story.

Conference Presentations by Mohit U L Alam

Based on an idea of Jonathan Bate, I have tried to say in this paper that Shakespeare's plays hav... more Based on an idea of Jonathan Bate, I have tried to say in this paper that Shakespeare's plays have been read, performed and filmed from a reaction which issues from a judgmental sense in which the past is always viewed by the present. In the scope of this paper the present spreads from the Restoration to the period as late as early 21 st century, while obviously, the past constitutes the age of Shakespeare. The reactions embodying the performance of Shakespeare's plays from Davenant to Garrick to Kemble to Hugh Quarshie have been informed by moral judgment as well as by gender and racial concerns. So, I have focused on Macbeth to show how staging the eponymous hero presented a set of difficulties to Davenant, Garrick and Kemble alike, and how they all have tackled the problem by resorting to the reactive mode, that is judging the events in the play of Macbeth from a moral perspective. In all three productions by each of the three actor-managers mentioned above, Macbeth appears to be a repentant hero rather than a tragic hero, which he is in Shakespeare. This is the first contention of my essay, and the second one is informed by the transition of the English stage from the one-sex theatre to the two-sex theatre, and I have argued that though this process opened the career for the female actors, it also took away the simple stage pleasure derived from the use of the device of transvestism, on which Shakespeare capitalized so much.

Drafts by Mohit U L Alam

Othello, like all other Shakespearean great tragedies, allows for pluralistic readings. Othello h... more Othello, like all other Shakespearean great tragedies, allows for pluralistic readings. Othello himself may be judged from various angles. Whether he was a Moor to be produced as a type character on the Renaissance stage, or he was a character through whom Shakespeare had explored the potential racial tension existing in the Renaissance Europe, or whether through him Shakespeare had left an implicit criticism of the patriarchal society which largely expressed the other sex in various pejorative forms, or whether Shakespeare wanted to give a twist to the courtly love tradition, or the popular theme of adultery-all these questions and many others come to our minds when we read the play.

A Brief Biography of Shakespeare

On 25 th August 1987, I bought a copy of Hamlet from a bookshop at College Street in Kolkata. It ... more On 25 th August 1987, I bought a copy of Hamlet from a bookshop at College Street in Kolkata. It was the Arden Shakespeare Hamlet edited by Harold Jenkins and published by Methuen from London and New York in 1982. Before this, I of course read Shakespeare in a perfunctory manner at the graduate and postgraduate levels as a student and also afterwards when I became a teacher at a university. But this edition of Hamlet sort of opened my eyes to the importance of editing a Shakespearean text. Until this point of time I always thought there was only one fixed copy for each play by Shakespeare, but having gone through this Jenkins's text I became aware that not only Hamlet but all plays and poems by the Bard have undergone from minor to major editorial changes over the centuries. This is a new kind of reality dawned on me and I found myself taking interest in the changes of words, phrases, punctuations, stage directions, and many other aspects that have become the subjects of editorial studies concentrating on the quartos and the First Folio of 1623 or Q1, and all this for chasing, in the language of Greenblatt, a dream of the master text (71). 1 Most importantly, my attention got drawn to the editorial excogitation Jenkins offers on the use of the word "sullied" in Hamlet's first soliloquy "O that this too too sullied flesh would melt" (1.2.129) 2. In the LN (Long Notes) Jenkins begins his more than one and a half pages of discussion with "The most debated reading in the play in recent years." (Jenkins 436) In the F1 the word is printed as solid, whereas Q1 and Q2 has it as sallied, and Jenkins having made a thorough examination of the variants of the word solid, sallies and sullied, accepts John Dover Wilson's modification to sullied, who speculated that sallied was the misspelt form of sullied, and comes to an interpretative conclusion: "The possibility of an intended play on both words [solid and sullied] cannot be ruled out; but what happens 1 Stephen Greenblatt, et al. eds. The Norton Shakespeare Based on the Oxford Edition (New York.

This happens in the closet scene, 3.4. Hamlet is speaking daggers to his mother. This is not like... more This happens in the closet scene, 3.4. Hamlet is speaking daggers to his mother. This is not liked by his father’s Ghost (“I am thy father’s spirit,” 1.5.13) , as it warned him before not to be cruel to his mother: “Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive / Against thy mother aught” (1.5.90-1). So, it comes to reprimand Hamlet for the revenge not yet taken: “This visitation / Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose” (3.4.124-25).
But there is something in the appearance of the Ghost that cuts Hamlet to the quick. Even the stones will cry out at the pitiful sight of the Ghost. So, he urges his mother to look, “On him, on him. Look you how pale he glares / His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, / Would make them capable” (3.4.140-42). Then Hamlet begs the Ghost not to look that pitiable, which might turn his revenge motive (“stern effects,” 3.4.144) into “tears perchance for blood” (3.4.145).
“Tears perchance for blood”: that means the Ghost is arousing feelings that compel Hamlet to lament his father’s death rather than take revenge for his death. If he thinks about his father too deeply, tears will gush out of his eyes softening his determination for revenge. Hamlet does not consider revenge as sufficient enough a measure to pacify his soul at the loss of his father. His father was too big a figure to be avenged, a “Hyperion” (1.2.142), compared to his father’s brother’s image of “a satyr” (1.2.142). His father for him was a sacrificial figure, his feeling for him is so deep that for him tears can be shed but the sword cannot be taken up. Thus, in Hamlet there is a tacit prioritization taking place—sacrifice dominating over revenge.

Regicide, killing the king, must have been sensational stuff for drama, and on the Elizabethan-Ja... more Regicide, killing the king, must have been sensational stuff for drama, and on the Elizabethan-Jacobean stage this takes on a particular significance as the queen was aging, in the 1590s, and was unmarried, and, thereby, childless. The question of succession was worrying the court, but more worrisome was the conspiracies hedged against the life of the queen regularly, the last of which was culminated in the aborted revolt of the Earl of Essex 1. Shakespeare had taken the issue of regicide in great many of his plays, and in his history plays-in the Henriad plays particularly, he had given it an exhaustive treatment. And the two plays we are discussing, Hamlet (1600-01) and Macbeth (1606) the theme of regicide is given a moral dimension that regicide does not pay. While this moral dimension accrues from the prevailing concept of the divine monarchy, the demystification of the very concept based on ideas propagated by Machiavelli has also found room in Shakespeare's treatment of regicide. So, in our discussion, we will try to show how the whole idea of kingship is explored by Shakespeare from this binary axis-divine monarchy vs the demystification of it, and in our conclusion, we will say that despite Shakespeare's criticism of the divine monarchy, his disapproval of a Machiavellian mindset gains greater impact. Perhaps, it will be more appropriate to say that Shakespeare desired a corrected monarchy system but did not find the violation of the traditional system accommodative. Shakespeare appropriated the idea of the divine monarchy in his English history plays, which precede both Hamlet and Macbeth, only to show it to be challenged, and explored it to the point of recognizing its futility, rather than upholding it as invulnerable.

Regicide, killing the king, must have been sensational stuff for drama, and on the Elizabethan-Ja... more Regicide, killing the king, must have been sensational stuff for drama, and on the Elizabethan-Jacobean stage this takes on a particular significance as the queen was aging, in the 1590s, and was unmarried, and, thereby, childless. The question of succession was worrying the court, but more worrisome was the conspiracies hedged against the life of the queen regularly, the last of which was culminated in the aborted revolt of the Earl of Essex 1. Shakespeare had taken the issue of regicide in great many of his plays, and in his history plays-in the Henriad plays particularly, he had given it an exhaustive treatment. And the two plays we are discussing, Hamlet (1600-01) and Macbeth (1606) the theme of regicide is given a moral dimension that regicide does not pay. While this moral dimension accrues from the prevailing concept of the divine monarchy, the demystification of the very concept based on ideas propagated by Machiavelli has also found room in Shakespeare's treatment of regicide. So, in our discussion, we will try to show how the whole idea of kingship is explored by Shakespeare from this binary axis-divine monarchy vs the demystification of it, and in our conclusion, we will say that despite Shakespeare's criticism of the divine monarchy, his disapproval of a Machiavellian mindset gains greater impact. Perhaps, it will be more appropriate to say that Shakespeare desired a corrected monarchy system but did not find the violation of the traditional system accommodative. Shakespeare appropriated the idea of the divine monarchy in his English history plays, which precede both Hamlet and Macbeth, only to show it to be challenged, and explored it to the point of recognizing its futility, rather than upholding it as invulnerable.

In this paper, I want to show how Shakespeare used James's approved resentment of witchcraft tact... more In this paper, I want to show how Shakespeare used James's approved resentment of witchcraft tactfully so that the witches' remained uniquely a Scottish phenomenon, as opposed to the harmless English witches, and Macbeth was permeated by their equivocal speeches because he belonged to the Highlands of the people of which James had a low opinion. We also referred to the religio-political context which made the doctrine of equivocation a controversial issue, and then how it got connected with the witches. And we also showed how the witches' equivocal property got transferred to Macbeth, who in his turn internalized it so much that the internalizing process enables him to become independent of the external influences and own responsibility for his action, thus becoming a tragic character according to the Shakespearean code-which is, a character must be responsible for his action.

Papers by Mohit U L Alam

In this study I want to show that the greatest Bengali writer and the greatest English writer had... more In this study I want to show that the greatest Bengali writer and the greatest English writer had one concern in common as fhthers-how to

It's an essay on Othello's hidden instinct for material benefits. Apparently, he's portrayed as a... more It's an essay on Othello's hidden instinct for material benefits. Apparently, he's portrayed as a passionate lover, but underneath his vocation in life is to climb the social ladder. This essay is an attempt to dismantle the valiant image that has been critically established. I have rather deconstructed Othello's character as being dominated by a literalism that can be traced to his origin.

Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign Engl... more Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign England expanded its trade and commerce to the Americas and the Far East. John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Richard Hakluyt all these navigators-cum-adventurers were plundering at sea and were helping the English coffers to increase. It is now known that though the English parliament passed a law against plundering or piracy, Elizabeth herself invested money in the plundering voyages of John Hawkins. Elizabeth died unmarried, and her successor King James I was a thorough scholar. He once said that he spoke Latin before he learnt his native tongue Scottish. He wrote a 120page long book titled Basilicon Doron (1599) in which he explained his ideas about the ideal king. The book was a bestseller, though James's permanent contribution to the English civilization is his instrumentalizing the publication of an authorized English translation of the Bible in 1611. It is known as the King James Bible. In 1564, the year of Shakespeare's birth, the population of England was approximately 3.06 million, and by 1600 it increased to 4.06 million, and by 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, to 4.51 million. In 1600, the population of the city of London was 200,000. Every year about 10,000 people migrated to London. Shakespeare's actual date of birth is conjectured to be April 23, 1564 on the basis of the record of his baptism which took place in the Holy Trinity Church of Stratford on 26 th April. 1564 was a plague-ridden year, and in Stratford alone 254 people out of 800 died in that year. Shakespeare's grandfather Richard Shakespeare was a farmer in a village called Snitterfield near Stratford-upon-Avon. He was a tenant of a rich man called Robert Arden, whose daughter Mary Arden would be married to John Shakespeare, the father of the poet. Stratford was a scenic small town with open fields and rivers, which, in 1570, William Camden, a historian and Ben Jonson's teacher, called a "handsome small market town." In the year of Shakespeare's birth there were in Stratford 400 houses, all made of timber, and forty ash trees. John Shakespeare was a glover (one that makes and sells gloves), a whittawer (a curer and whitener of skins), a wool-dealer, a landowner and a moneylender, though usury was illegal in England at that time. He also involved himself in the affairs of the town and in

Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign Engl... more Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign England expanded its trade and commerce to the Americas and the Far East. John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Richard Hakluyt all these navigators-cum-adventurers were plundering at sea and were helping the English coffers to increase. It is now known that though the English parliament passed a law against plundering or piracy, Elizabeth herself invested money in the plundering voyages of John Hawkins. Elizabeth died unmarried, and her successor King James I was a thorough scholar. He once said that he spoke Latin before he learnt his native tongue Scottish. He wrote a 120page long book titled Basilicon Doron (1599) in which he explained his ideas about the ideal king. The book was a bestseller, though James's permanent contribution to the English civilization is his instrumentalizing the publication of an authorized English translation of the Bible in 1611. It is known as the King James Bible. In 1564, the year of Shakespeare's birth, the population of England was approximately 3.06 million, and by 1600 it increased to 4.06 million, and by 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, to 4.51 million. In 1600, the population of the city of London was 200,000. Every year about 10,000 people migrated to London. Shakespeare's actual date of birth is conjectured to be April 23, 1564 on the basis of the record of his baptism which took place in the Holy Trinity Church of Stratford on 26 th April. 1564 was a plague-ridden year, and in Stratford alone 254 people out of 800 died in that year. Shakespeare's grandfather Richard Shakespeare was a farmer in a village called Snitterfield near Stratford-upon-Avon. He was a tenant of a rich man called Robert Arden, whose daughter Mary Arden would be married to John Shakespeare, the father of the poet. Stratford was a scenic small town with open fields and rivers, which, in 1570, William Camden, a historian and Ben Jonson's teacher, called a "handsome small market town." In the year of Shakespeare's birth there were in Stratford 400 houses, all made of timber, and forty ash trees. John Shakespeare was a glover (one that makes and sells gloves), a whittawer (a curer and whitener of skins), a wool-dealer, a landowner and a moneylender, though usury was illegal in England at that time. He also involved himself in the affairs of the town and in

Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign Engl... more Scots, was executed by Elizabeth on the charge of sedition in 1587. During Elizabeth's reign England expanded its trade and commerce to the Americas and the Far East. John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Richard Hakluyt all these navigators-cum-adventurers were plundering at sea and were helping the English coffers to increase. It is now known that though the English parliament passed a law against plundering or piracy, Elizabeth herself invested money in the plundering voyages of John Hawkins. Elizabeth died unmarried, and her successor King James I was a thorough scholar. He once said that he spoke Latin before he learnt his native tongue Scottish. He wrote a 120page long book titled Basilicon Doron (1599) in which he explained his ideas about the ideal king. The book was a bestseller, though James's permanent contribution to the English civilization is his instrumentalizing the publication of an authorized English translation of the Bible in 1611. It is known as the King James Bible. In 1564, the year of Shakespeare's birth, the population of England was approximately 3.06 million, and by 1600 it increased to 4.06 million, and by 1616, the year of Shakespeare's death, to 4.51 million. In 1600, the population of the city of London was 200,000. Every year about 10,000 people migrated to London. Shakespeare's actual date of birth is conjectured to be April 23, 1564 on the basis of the record of his baptism which took place in the Holy Trinity Church of Stratford on 26 th April. 1564 was a plague-ridden year, and in Stratford alone 254 people out of 800 died in that year. Shakespeare's grandfather Richard Shakespeare was a farmer in a village called Snitterfield near Stratford-upon-Avon. He was a tenant of a rich man called Robert Arden, whose daughter Mary Arden would be married to John Shakespeare, the father of the poet. Stratford was a scenic small town with open fields and rivers, which, in 1570, William Camden, a historian and Ben Jonson's teacher, called a "handsome small market town." In the year of Shakespeare's birth there were in Stratford 400 houses, all made of timber, and forty ash trees. John Shakespeare was a glover (one that makes and sells gloves), a whittawer (a curer and whitener of skins), a wool-dealer, a landowner and a moneylender, though usury was illegal in England at that time. He also involved himself in the affairs of the town and in

Ideas: A Journal of Literature Art and Culture , 2020

This paper deals with viewing the suitability of teaching Shakespeare either as a reading text o... more This paper deals with viewing the suitability of teaching Shakespeare either as a reading text or as a text for performance in the context of Bangladesh. The paper admits that though in Bangladesh Shakespeare has been by tradition a reading text, however, because of the substantial digital advancement made in the pedagogical techniques in the Bangladesh universities it has now become possible to represent Shakespeare more from a visualized angle.
This paper has been published in Ideas: A Journal of Literary Studies and an entry of it is made in this website already, but since it does not belong to my domain as such, I'm reloading it here so that one can find it entered in my own domain.

Kazi Nazrul Islam: Poetry, Politics, Passion, 2019

This is a paper on judging the Bengali rebel poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, as a silent campaigner of t... more This is a paper on judging the Bengali rebel poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, as a silent campaigner of the necessity of preaching Islam in the vernacular, in this case, Bengali, for which I have often used the other word, 'Bangla'. I've argued that though Nazrul is singularly famous for his rebellious voice against political and religious doctrines that facilitate the exploitation of the poor by the rich, he side side by pursued, rather silently, the objective of rendering the spirit of Islam, its universal humanitarianism, in the Bengali language, through his songs and poems, and also through his translation of the Kabya Ampara, a number of chosen verses from the Holy Qur'an. This he did with the strong conviction that a religion, whatever may be its language or place of origin, is best understood in the follower's own mother tongue.

Stephen Greenblatt's "The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve: A Probing Analysis of the Origin Story, 2019

It's a review of Stephen Greenblatt's book, "The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve". I've said that ... more It's a review of Stephen Greenblatt's book, "The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve". I've said that Greenblatt has done an excellent job in demythologizing the Biblical Fable by drawing on scientific facts, but at the same time has unequivocally pointed out the moral fabric that sustains the interest of the religious men and women as well as people in general in the story.

Based on an idea of Jonathan Bate, I have tried to say in this paper that Shakespeare's plays hav... more Based on an idea of Jonathan Bate, I have tried to say in this paper that Shakespeare's plays have been read, performed and filmed from a reaction which issues from a judgmental sense in which the past is always viewed by the present. In the scope of this paper the present spreads from the Restoration to the period as late as early 21 st century, while obviously, the past constitutes the age of Shakespeare. The reactions embodying the performance of Shakespeare's plays from Davenant to Garrick to Kemble to Hugh Quarshie have been informed by moral judgment as well as by gender and racial concerns. So, I have focused on Macbeth to show how staging the eponymous hero presented a set of difficulties to Davenant, Garrick and Kemble alike, and how they all have tackled the problem by resorting to the reactive mode, that is judging the events in the play of Macbeth from a moral perspective. In all three productions by each of the three actor-managers mentioned above, Macbeth appears to be a repentant hero rather than a tragic hero, which he is in Shakespeare. This is the first contention of my essay, and the second one is informed by the transition of the English stage from the one-sex theatre to the two-sex theatre, and I have argued that though this process opened the career for the female actors, it also took away the simple stage pleasure derived from the use of the device of transvestism, on which Shakespeare capitalized so much.

Othello, like all other Shakespearean great tragedies, allows for pluralistic readings. Othello h... more Othello, like all other Shakespearean great tragedies, allows for pluralistic readings. Othello himself may be judged from various angles. Whether he was a Moor to be produced as a type character on the Renaissance stage, or he was a character through whom Shakespeare had explored the potential racial tension existing in the Renaissance Europe, or whether through him Shakespeare had left an implicit criticism of the patriarchal society which largely expressed the other sex in various pejorative forms, or whether Shakespeare wanted to give a twist to the courtly love tradition, or the popular theme of adultery-all these questions and many others come to our minds when we read the play.

A Brief Biography of Shakespeare

On 25 th August 1987, I bought a copy of Hamlet from a bookshop at College Street in Kolkata. It ... more On 25 th August 1987, I bought a copy of Hamlet from a bookshop at College Street in Kolkata. It was the Arden Shakespeare Hamlet edited by Harold Jenkins and published by Methuen from London and New York in 1982. Before this, I of course read Shakespeare in a perfunctory manner at the graduate and postgraduate levels as a student and also afterwards when I became a teacher at a university. But this edition of Hamlet sort of opened my eyes to the importance of editing a Shakespearean text. Until this point of time I always thought there was only one fixed copy for each play by Shakespeare, but having gone through this Jenkins's text I became aware that not only Hamlet but all plays and poems by the Bard have undergone from minor to major editorial changes over the centuries. This is a new kind of reality dawned on me and I found myself taking interest in the changes of words, phrases, punctuations, stage directions, and many other aspects that have become the subjects of editorial studies concentrating on the quartos and the First Folio of 1623 or Q1, and all this for chasing, in the language of Greenblatt, a dream of the master text (71). 1 Most importantly, my attention got drawn to the editorial excogitation Jenkins offers on the use of the word "sullied" in Hamlet's first soliloquy "O that this too too sullied flesh would melt" (1.2.129) 2. In the LN (Long Notes) Jenkins begins his more than one and a half pages of discussion with "The most debated reading in the play in recent years." (Jenkins 436) In the F1 the word is printed as solid, whereas Q1 and Q2 has it as sallied, and Jenkins having made a thorough examination of the variants of the word solid, sallies and sullied, accepts John Dover Wilson's modification to sullied, who speculated that sallied was the misspelt form of sullied, and comes to an interpretative conclusion: "The possibility of an intended play on both words [solid and sullied] cannot be ruled out; but what happens 1 Stephen Greenblatt, et al. eds. The Norton Shakespeare Based on the Oxford Edition (New York.

This happens in the closet scene, 3.4. Hamlet is speaking daggers to his mother. This is not like... more This happens in the closet scene, 3.4. Hamlet is speaking daggers to his mother. This is not liked by his father’s Ghost (“I am thy father’s spirit,” 1.5.13) , as it warned him before not to be cruel to his mother: “Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive / Against thy mother aught” (1.5.90-1). So, it comes to reprimand Hamlet for the revenge not yet taken: “This visitation / Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose” (3.4.124-25).
But there is something in the appearance of the Ghost that cuts Hamlet to the quick. Even the stones will cry out at the pitiful sight of the Ghost. So, he urges his mother to look, “On him, on him. Look you how pale he glares / His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, / Would make them capable” (3.4.140-42). Then Hamlet begs the Ghost not to look that pitiable, which might turn his revenge motive (“stern effects,” 3.4.144) into “tears perchance for blood” (3.4.145).
“Tears perchance for blood”: that means the Ghost is arousing feelings that compel Hamlet to lament his father’s death rather than take revenge for his death. If he thinks about his father too deeply, tears will gush out of his eyes softening his determination for revenge. Hamlet does not consider revenge as sufficient enough a measure to pacify his soul at the loss of his father. His father was too big a figure to be avenged, a “Hyperion” (1.2.142), compared to his father’s brother’s image of “a satyr” (1.2.142). His father for him was a sacrificial figure, his feeling for him is so deep that for him tears can be shed but the sword cannot be taken up. Thus, in Hamlet there is a tacit prioritization taking place—sacrifice dominating over revenge.

Regicide, killing the king, must have been sensational stuff for drama, and on the Elizabethan-Ja... more Regicide, killing the king, must have been sensational stuff for drama, and on the Elizabethan-Jacobean stage this takes on a particular significance as the queen was aging, in the 1590s, and was unmarried, and, thereby, childless. The question of succession was worrying the court, but more worrisome was the conspiracies hedged against the life of the queen regularly, the last of which was culminated in the aborted revolt of the Earl of Essex 1. Shakespeare had taken the issue of regicide in great many of his plays, and in his history plays-in the Henriad plays particularly, he had given it an exhaustive treatment. And the two plays we are discussing, Hamlet (1600-01) and Macbeth (1606) the theme of regicide is given a moral dimension that regicide does not pay. While this moral dimension accrues from the prevailing concept of the divine monarchy, the demystification of the very concept based on ideas propagated by Machiavelli has also found room in Shakespeare's treatment of regicide. So, in our discussion, we will try to show how the whole idea of kingship is explored by Shakespeare from this binary axis-divine monarchy vs the demystification of it, and in our conclusion, we will say that despite Shakespeare's criticism of the divine monarchy, his disapproval of a Machiavellian mindset gains greater impact. Perhaps, it will be more appropriate to say that Shakespeare desired a corrected monarchy system but did not find the violation of the traditional system accommodative. Shakespeare appropriated the idea of the divine monarchy in his English history plays, which precede both Hamlet and Macbeth, only to show it to be challenged, and explored it to the point of recognizing its futility, rather than upholding it as invulnerable.

Regicide, killing the king, must have been sensational stuff for drama, and on the Elizabethan-Ja... more Regicide, killing the king, must have been sensational stuff for drama, and on the Elizabethan-Jacobean stage this takes on a particular significance as the queen was aging, in the 1590s, and was unmarried, and, thereby, childless. The question of succession was worrying the court, but more worrisome was the conspiracies hedged against the life of the queen regularly, the last of which was culminated in the aborted revolt of the Earl of Essex 1. Shakespeare had taken the issue of regicide in great many of his plays, and in his history plays-in the Henriad plays particularly, he had given it an exhaustive treatment. And the two plays we are discussing, Hamlet (1600-01) and Macbeth (1606) the theme of regicide is given a moral dimension that regicide does not pay. While this moral dimension accrues from the prevailing concept of the divine monarchy, the demystification of the very concept based on ideas propagated by Machiavelli has also found room in Shakespeare's treatment of regicide. So, in our discussion, we will try to show how the whole idea of kingship is explored by Shakespeare from this binary axis-divine monarchy vs the demystification of it, and in our conclusion, we will say that despite Shakespeare's criticism of the divine monarchy, his disapproval of a Machiavellian mindset gains greater impact. Perhaps, it will be more appropriate to say that Shakespeare desired a corrected monarchy system but did not find the violation of the traditional system accommodative. Shakespeare appropriated the idea of the divine monarchy in his English history plays, which precede both Hamlet and Macbeth, only to show it to be challenged, and explored it to the point of recognizing its futility, rather than upholding it as invulnerable.

In this paper, I want to show how Shakespeare used James's approved resentment of witchcraft tact... more In this paper, I want to show how Shakespeare used James's approved resentment of witchcraft tactfully so that the witches' remained uniquely a Scottish phenomenon, as opposed to the harmless English witches, and Macbeth was permeated by their equivocal speeches because he belonged to the Highlands of the people of which James had a low opinion. We also referred to the religio-political context which made the doctrine of equivocation a controversial issue, and then how it got connected with the witches. And we also showed how the witches' equivocal property got transferred to Macbeth, who in his turn internalized it so much that the internalizing process enables him to become independent of the external influences and own responsibility for his action, thus becoming a tragic character according to the Shakespearean code-which is, a character must be responsible for his action.

In this study I want to show that the greatest Bengali writer and the greatest English writer had... more In this study I want to show that the greatest Bengali writer and the greatest English writer had one concern in common as fhthers-how to

Ideas International Journal of Literature Arts Science and Culture, 2023

This happens in the closet scene, 3.4. Hamlet is speaking daggers to his mother. This is not like... more This happens in the closet scene, 3.4. Hamlet is speaking daggers to his mother. This is not liked by his father's Ghost ("I am thy father's spirit," 1.5.9), as it warned him before not to be cruel to his mother: "Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive / Against thy mother aught" (1.5.85-6). So, it comes to reprimand Hamlet for the revenge not yet taken: "This visitation / Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose" (3.4.110-1). But there is something in the appearance of the Ghost that cuts Hamlet to the quick. Even the stones will cry out at the pitiful sight of the Ghost. So, he urges his mother to look, "On him, on him. Look you how pale he glares / His form and cause conjoined, preaching to stones, / Would make them capable" (3.4.125-7). That is, even stones will be moved to pity by looking at the Ghost. Then Hamlet begs the Ghost not to look that pitiable, which might turn his revenge motive ("stern effects," 3.4.129) into "tears perchance for blood" (3.4.130).

IDEAS, Vol. 8, 2022

Coriolanus has been noted for his excessive pride. And the adage, 'Pride brings fall' can be appl... more Coriolanus has been noted for his excessive pride. And the adage, 'Pride brings fall' can be applied to him. The text also gives evidence that Coriolanus earned this proudness from his mother, Volumnia. So, there has developed a thick component of psychoanalytical criticism about his dependency on his mother. Besides, Coriolanus has been well vindicated as a play contemporizing the events of ancient Rome in the context of early modern England, particularly in the equivalence of the Romans' uprising against the practice of usury to the Midlands Riot of England for corn in 1607, and Coriolanus's refusal to show his wounds to the people to earn their votes for his consulship has been connected with the antitheatrical movement of the 1590s, and King James's natural resentment of the publicity agenda. In addition to all these accepted interpretations, this essay would like to argue the case that it is Coriolanus's deep sense of patriotism that finally defines him despite the odds that he infamously becomes a traitor. Coriolanus is unwilling to show his wounds not because of exceptionality, but because of a perception of the uselessness of such a self-flaunting act, when he has done nothing else but serve his country to defend it against its enemies. After the single-handed victory against the Volsces by Coriolanus, Cominius in praise of him says that even the plebeians by going "against their hearts" (1.9.8) shall say that " 'We thank the gods / Our Rome hath such a soldier" (1.9.8-9). 1 Coriolanus would like to ask how the wounds do matter-twenty-seven or whatever! Can the number of wounds-fewer or more-ever translate his patriotism? Coriolanus's situation is like that of Lear when he is baffled by the quantifying stand of his two elder daughters regarding the number of his retinue he can keep if he was to be given shelter by them: Goneril: "What need you five and twenty? Ten? Or five?" (2.2.453). Regan retorts: "What

Academia Letters, 2021

An analysis of how Shakespeare matures his technique of presenting rivalry between the protagonis... more An analysis of how Shakespeare matures his technique of presenting rivalry between the protagonist and the antagonist in his plays: from Richard II to Henry IV Mohit Alam "Brutus and Caesar: what should be in that 'Caesar'? Why should be that name be sounded more than yours?" (JC, Cassius to Brutus, 1.2.143-44) 1