BLiterature

16
The High Modern Age (1936-’60)
In the first half of the 20 th century, two world wars changed the course of
human history. Highly humanistic values were replaced by inhuman and abominable
attitudes. Merciless brutalities stained the war-inflicted West, and its impact was
seen across the colonial Orient. Several genocides caused the most memorable
human disaster so far. Famine shattered the poverty-stricken India. Economic
disaster gripped the colonized and later independent nations. Besides, life and the
society fell in the grip of mechanization. A sense of helplessness and frustration was
seen among artists and intellectuals. Hyper romantic thoughts found its place in
cultural trashcans. Thus the post-Romantic era of literature, which is now called the
High Modern Age, launched its voyage.
Modernism, the general trend of the age, is the combined name of several artmovements
including symbolism, impressionism, expressionism, futurism, cubism,
surrealism, existentialism, etc. Those movements actually started their journey in the
West speeding up after the First World War. The political philosopher Karl Marx
(1818-’83) and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) influenced most of the
intellectuals since that time. Marx spoke for establishing a classless society through
the abolition of private property. And Freud dealt with man’s unconscious behaviors
in his psychoanalytical writings. Bearing their influence, the Modernist writers opened
a new artistic and philosophical world expressing the crises of modern man.
Jibanananda Das (1899-1954) is the true icon of the age and greatest
Modernist poet. Called the ‘Nilkantha of endangered humanity’, he invented a new
diction of Bangla poetry, and achieved the glory of the greatest poet after Tagore.
The age itself was initiated in the year 1936 with his book of poems titled Dhushar
Pandulipi. Beside this work, his Banalata Sen (1942), Mahaprithibi (1944), Sathti
Tarar Timir (1948), Rupashi Bangla (1957), Bela Abela Kalbela (1961) are valuable
contributions to modern poetry.
Amiya Chakraborty (1901-’86), Sudhindranath Datta (1901-’60), Manish
Ghatak (1902-’79), Ajit Datta (1907-’79), Buddhadev Basu (1908-’74), Bishnu Dey
(1909-’82), Arun Mitra (1909-2000), Bimalchandra Ghosh (1910-’82), Dinesh Das
(1913-’85), Samar Sen (1916-’87), Ahsan Habib (1917-’85), Subhash
Mukhopadhyay (1919-2004), Birendra Chattopadhyay (1920-’85), Sukanta
Vattacharya (1926-’47) – all have enriched Bangla poetry. Sudhindranath is famed
especially for his choice of high-sounding words; he was influenced by Tagore’s
diction. Bishnu is our greatest Marxist poet. Amiya, Buddhadev and Sukanta too
have made signs of their merit.
Manik Bandyopadhyay (1908-’56) is the most successful representative of
Marxism in Bangla fiction. Manik’s Putul Nacher Itikatha (1936), Padma Nadir Majhi
(1936) and Ahimsa (1941) are class works; his social and psychological revelation
takes him to an amazing height.
Jagadishchandra Gupta (1886-1957), Shailajananda Mukhopadhyay (1901-
’76), Premendra Mitra (1904-’88), Gajendrakumar Mitra (1908-’94), Subodh Ghosh
(1909-’80), Jyotirindra Nundi (1912-’82), Adwaita Mallabarman (1914-’51),