iii PA Of YE 06 Plikkl A comiga sruvy by SANDHYA N. DHANDARE A Thesis Submitted To Goa Univet3ity For The Demme Of Pg DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN 1V"-- 'er* ENGLISH Jovr r \ AA., supervised 11 2,02_, by Dr. F. A. fERNANDES Director Academic Staff College Goa University Taleigao Plateau MAY 2000 ent9Desia I ce0 that the thesis entitled The Plays Of James Roy And :1\voik A Comparative Study, submitted by St. Sandhya N. hire for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English of Goa University, is completed under my Supervision, The thesis is a record of resod work doge by her during the period of study and has not primly formed the basis for the Nord of any degree or diploma to her pl. a. N. josai a. gERNaspes Pl'fliessor And Head Director Dept. Of English Academic Staff College Goa University Goa University RESEARCH GUIDE Sy :2_0r!. pate: j 5)1 16,1, Date: &estILION I declare that this thesis has been composed by me and has not previously formed the basis for le award of any de0e, diploma or othermilar Snit. SANDI-WA N. 1314ANDARE Department of English Goa University kleigao Plateau oate: g zoo° , ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I would like to acknowledge the encouragement, guidance and help of my Research Guide Dr. F. A. Fernandes, Director, ASC, Goa University at every stage of the development of this study. But for his support this thesis wouldn't have been a possibility. Hats off to his Monumental Patience. I am further, greatly indebted to Dr. B. N. Sonde, Vice-Chancellor, Goa University, Shri M. S. Kamat, retired Principal, M. E. S. College, Shri Harishchandra Nagvekar, Principal, M. E. S. College, Prof. A. K. Joshi Head, Dept. Of English and Dr. Kiran Budkuley, Reader, Dept. of English, Dr. Konnur, the Chief Librarian, Goa University for being very supportive in the course of the formulation of this thesis. I am grateful to the International Council of Canadian Studies for awarding me the Doctoral Fellowship to Canada in the University of Western Ontario for 4 months through Shastri Inclo-Canadian Institute. I would like to express my appreciation for the help and stimulating discussions that I have had with Prof Stan Dragland, Prof. Richard Stingle, Prof. Ross Woodman, Prof. Thomas Tausky and Prof. Patrick Deane whom I encountered on different occasions during my brief stay in Canada. I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to Prof. James Reaney and Shri Pundalik Naik for all their co-operation during the course of this study of their plays. My gratitude to all my friends in India and Canada, to my neighbours and to my kids Cuckoo Sandhyeya and Cinderella to help me to reach this thesis to completion. My salutes to Shri Manuel Pereira (Proprietor) and Kum. Sudha Shirodkar of Citizen Business Centre, Vasco-Da-Gama and Sneha Chandaykar for having slogged hard for the beautiful computerization of this thesis. Dedicated to my Parents Late Shri Naguendra R. Bhandare Sint. Mirabai N. Bhandare Goa - Velha CONTENTS PAGE NO. I. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1 II. CHAPTER II : THE 'WORLDS OF JAMES REANEY AND PUNDALIK NAIK 49 III. CHAPTER III: THE VEHICLES OF VISION 163 IV. CHAPTER IV : TECHNIQUES 192 V. CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION 229 VI. A SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 253 CHAPTER - 1 INTRODUCTION The thesis deals with a Comparative Study of the Canadian playwright James Reaney and the Indian playwright Pundalik Naik. JAMES CRERAR REANEY (b.1926--) is Canada's leading dramatist, poet, novelist, historian and Professor of English Literature at the University of Western Ontario in London. Thrice winner of the prestigious Governor General Award .for poetry and drama and Chalmers Award and Massey Award both for drama, Reaney is possibly the greatest living writer in Canada. PUNDALIK NARAYAN NAIK (b. 1952--) is a poet, novelist, short story writer and critic. He is a reckoning force in the field of Goan Drama in Indian Literature. He is a man who is committed to the development of regional language Konkani. In 1980's he was at the forefront for the inclusion of Konkani in the VIIIth schedule of the Indian Constitution giving the language a full-fledged status. He successfully led the rebellion for the Statehood of Goa as well as for Konkani to be rendered the Official Status in Goa. He has been awarded the State Award and the National Award by Sahitya Akademy for literature. it, The study is intended to lead us to a comprehensive and adequate understanding of the works of Reaney and Naik and to discover certain dominant trends in Goan Literature in India and Canadian Literature with special reference to drama. It would give us an insight in the literatures and cultures of both the regions. Both the playwrights are pioneers in the field of drama in their specific context. These two dramatists belong to two different countries and diverse cultures. At the outset they appear to be genuinely regional and consequently dissimilar in their aesthetic and cultural expression of their society ; yet, I venture to place them in comparative, critical, cultural and philosophical contexts. The Canadian theatre as an indigenous professional institution took its birth only after World War II. Modern drama in Quebec had its inception with Gratien Gelinas' Tit- Coq in 1948. For English Canada the year 1967 was of crucial significance. It was the Centennial Year of Canada. It was the all - Canadian Dominion Drama Festival Year, a unique extravaganza in dramatics. It was only since 1967 that English Canadian drama began to achieve legitimacy and on par with Robertson Davies, James Reaney began writing for theatre. Incidentally, here in India Pundalik Naik made his debut into drama around the same time. Although he belongs to the ancient tradition of drama in India through a few millennia, he is the pioneer in Goan Konkani drama, which has received recognition only after the liberation of Goa in 1961, for the language Konkani was just in the process of being officially recognized and he is the major playwright of Konkani among the•very few who ventured into writing of plays. Introducing the term 'Comparative Literature,' Matthew Arnold wrote And everywhere there is a connection, everywhere there is an illustration : no single event, no single literature is adequately comprehended except in its relation to other events, to other literatures. I The Prophetic statement envisages the significance of comparative literary studies the world over. 2 In the words of Wellek and Warren : We recognize that there is one poetry, one literature, comparable in all ages developing, changing, full of possibilities. Literature is neither a series of works enclosed in time-cycles of Romanticism or Classicism, the age of Pope and the age of Wordsworth. Nor is it, of course, the "block-universe" of sameness and immutability which an older Classicism conceived as ideal? Rene Wellek further asserts : Literature is the most humanizing force and relations between its relations in various parts of the world may be appreciated on the basis of sound comparative studies. If it is done properly national vanities will disappear and Universal Man will emerge and the study of literature will never degenerate into an antiquarian pastime, a calculus of national credits and debits. 3 Comparative literature originated as a reaction against the narrow nationalism of nineteenth century scholarship in Britain, There has been a tradition of occasional comparative evaluations in certain parts right from the beginning of the Christian era. The Romans were highly conscious of their dependence on the Greeks and worked out elaborate parallels between Greek and Roman creators and poets. Quintilian and Longinus were the pioneers in Comparative Criticism. Longinus refers us to Homer, to Plato, to Demosthenes, to Thucydides and others to recognize the spiritual comraderie between great minds. In India Sanskrit commentators had realized the significance of the comparative approval at least by the sixth century A.D. as is evident from certain commentaries on Kalidasa's Abhijnana Shakuntala and Meghaduta. There is textual criticism and stylistic observation in their work. The French term philosophic comparee refers to the activity of comparing which implies in-depth knowledge of the constituents compared. Comparative Literature means any literary work that compares. Such a comparison could be in terms of structure, style or the philosophic vision. 3 According to Mainker : Comparative literary studies can include the application of the usual aesthetic values to a literature, an understanding of the different literary movements and tendencies of an age, studies of themes ideas that appear in different literatures, and finally the study of genres, of structures and patterns. But perhaps the most important of all are literary relations. 4 The immense possibilities of comparative literature cannot be fully realized merely by clinging to factual relations. A holistic approach will be definitely better than a stratified one, which look at a work as a diversified totality. Halliday pointed out : A literary text is meaningful not only in virtue of what it is but also in virtue of what it might have been. The most relevant exponent of the might have been of a work of literature is another work of literature . 5 Comparative literature enables us to savor and cherish the richness of literatures within and beyond national boundaries. The literary theory which is supposed to account for the ever-growing phenomenon of literary events across time and space is essentially comparative, as it seeks generalizations based on comparable events. Margarette - Chatterjee quotes Sir Joaquim Wach Comparative studies take their stand on the appreciation of otherness and the delightful discovery of what is akin. 6 Comparative literature as conceived by scholars like Munteano means a complementary synthesis of horizontal general literature and vertical history of ideas.