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44 Jibanananda’s poems possess an innate consciousness about women, which had a precursor in Sarat’s novels. His poems tell us of the catastrophe of love in the modern world. His poems bear the mark of townsmen’s nostalgia for country-life and nature from what they’ve been alienated. There is a sham accusation against him; it is that he just copied many of his poems from English and other Western literatures which, I sternly say, is an insulting infamy. I have matched his poems with those of the western poets who are called his ‘preceptors’ and have found that he just assimilated those. Now if assimilation is a sin in the world of art, then all literary artists including Shakespeare must face posthumous penalty. In merit, Jibanananda stands next to Tagore in modern Bangla poetry. His accidental death did not let him achieve the supremacy in poetry. A critic (Abdul Mannan Syed) called him ‘the perfect poet’; this honoring of Jibanananda is not entirely imperfect. Showkat Osman (1917-’98) The narrative style that Saratchandra had introduced in fiction, was advanced by Tarashankar and Manik. Later it found a unique shape in the works from East Bengal. Showkat Osman used the style of Sarat in portraying Bengali Muslim life of the Eastern part of the province. His literary achievement (especially the novel Janani) could be envied by Sarat himself. He took this typical style of fiction to a different height. Showkat’s Janani (Mother) is a great achievement not only of Bangla literature but also of world fiction. Before him, Maxim Gorki, D.H. Lawrence, Manik Bandyopadhay and Mahasweta Devi wrote on the similar theme. But in Showkat’s novel, ‘mother’ has been unprecedentedly glorified. The mother portrayed by Showkat achieves an eternal appeal. A poor mother named Daria Bibi’s lifelong struggle for her children is portrayed in this novel. After her first husband’s death, Daria marries for the second time thinking of her son’s future. However, she is forced to leave him with her inlaws. She gives birth to three more children by her second husband. Her husband, who feels disturbed by cruel poverty, now and then leaves his family and goes out of the village in search of livelihood. She forbears all these manners of her husband. For her children, she sometimes goes against him. Meanwhile, Daria’s distant brother-in-law, who is a lustful man, begins to come to their house now and then. He helps them financially and thus wins their heart. Daria finds him to have ill motive, but allows him thinking of her economic helplessness. Her second husband too dies. Thereafter that shrewd person gratifies her lust for Daria. But thinking of her sons’ survival, she accepts her victimization by him. But more pathetically, the helpless widow becomes pregnant. She does not try to abort the child rather she gives its birth with motherly affection. Therefore thinking of her and her children’s humiliation in the society, she decides to take her own life.
45 Giving the child a farewell kiss, Daria commits suicide. Her death is accompanied by her outpouring love and heartbreaking sorrows for the children. Thus a selfless mother’s life ends in a tragic way. Besides narrating this tale, the writer portrays natural landscape; but nature is always indifferent to man’s weal and woe. Through this grand novel, Showkat draws a picture of eternal Bengali mother. The mother is glorified, and the novel gets its place in world literature with great honor. Kritadasher Hashi (The Laugher of a Slave) is his second most acclaimed novel. It was intended to oppose the martial rule of the then Pakistan. The Bengalis did not have peace while living under the autocratic rule by the Pakistani army. They did not have any pleasure in life. The writer tells us of his anguish against that in a symbolic way. The story is: one night Caliph Harun-ur-Rashid of Baghdad hears a Tatar slave laughing out of joy when making love to his wife. The monarch gets pleased, makes the slave an authoritarian rich man, but makes the slave’s wife his own queen. Thus he deprives the slave of his happiness forever. He orders the slave to laugh, the slave doesn’t and then inhuman torture is befallen on him. But the slave does not abide by the cruel ruler’s command till death. Beneath the surface of this story, Showkat tells us of life’s everlasting aspiration for survival and happiness. He prefers temporal life to an unearthly one, and he emphasizes man’s enjoyment of life. Only thinking of death and afterlife cannot be man’s aim. A life without freedom and pleasure is not a life at all; it is an eternal truth which was denied by our foreign rulers. His other remarkable novels are Boni Adam (The Mankind), Raja Upakhyan (The Tale of a King), Nekre Aranya (Wolves’ Forest) and Patanga Pinjar (Insects’ Cage). Showkat’s novels emphasize humanity and human consciousness of life and the world. His Daria Bibi is a great woman despite her endless poverty and humiliation. His Tatar slave is an adamant rebel against all tyranny and persecution. Showkat’s artistic exposition and glorification of human character takes him to the hall of great humanists. He is a great artist whose works tell of sublime human nature to all-time readers. Syed Waliullah (1922-’71) A sense of morbidity and serene sadness is traced in the art and literature of East Bengal covering the time-span from the 1940s to 80s. It is found in poems, songs, paintings, novels and what not? This melancholic tone is set on country life with natural landscape. It is tinged with a sense of helplessness derived from the cry of pitiless poverty and uncertainty. Zainul Abedin’s paintings, Waliullah’s novels and Al-Deen’s plays are the best representatives of this artistic archetype. Waliullah is specially known as an existentialist writer. However, this philosophy has few expositions in his first novel Lalshalu (Red Cloth). It rather conveys his reaction to fanaticism and fundamentalism. Majid, a shrewd person from a conservative Muslim family, comes to a village and announces an earth-pile covered by red cloth to be the shrine of a sacred pir (i.e. saint). He achieves some
Page 1 and 2: Bangla Literature: A Critical Overv
Page 3 and 4: 3 By that time, Buddhism was in the
Page 5 and 6: 5 not flourish here. Krittibas’s
Page 7 and 8: 7 Chaitanya’s era as the mystic f
Page 9 and 10: 9 slowly merging. Even after the Ba
Page 11 and 12: 11 ’85) and Piarichand Mitra (181
Page 13 and 14: 13 were two late representatives of
Page 15 and 16: 15 Panju Shah (1851?-1914) and Haso
Page 17 and 18: 17 Panchagram (1943), Hashuli Banke
Page 19 and 20: 19 Also a new trend of historical n
Page 21 and 22: 21 3 Great Bengali Writers Jayadeva
Page 23 and 24: 23 lovers’ pains. According to hi
Page 25 and 26: 25 This poem is a reflection of the
Page 27 and 28: 27 Michael’s epic has a prehistor
Page 29 and 30: 29 lovers. And at the end of the no
Page 31 and 32: 31 An intense ray is dispersed into
Page 33 and 34: 33 Shey.(S/he) is a novel out of th
Page 35 and 36: 35 Tasher Desh (The Play-Cards’ L
Page 37 and 38: 37 autobiographical novel. It is a
Page 39 and 40: 39 fighter and eventually a martyr
Page 41 and 42: 41 He died a premature death out of
Page 43: 43 the tiresome journey of Man is n
Page 47 and 48: 47 Sunil’s poems are a unique pla
Page 49 and 50: 49 Akhtaruzzaman Elias (1943-’97)
Page 51 and 52: 51 He warns mankind of a possible f
Page 53 and 54: 53 • A writer who wrote in two li

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