Paper: 08; Module No: 17: E Text (A) Personal Details
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Paper: 08; Module No: 17: E Text (A) Personal Details: Role Name Affiliation Principal Investigator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee University of Hyderabad Paper Coordinator: Prof. Ipshita Chanda EFL University, Hyderabad Content Writer: Mr. Ayan Ghosh Independent Researcher Dr. Mrinmoy Pramanick University of Calcutta Content Reviewer: Prof. Nandini Saha Jadvapur University Language Editor: Prof. Nandini Saha Jadvapur University (B) Description of Module: Items Description of Module Subject Name: English Paper No & Name: Paper 08: ‘New’ Literatures in English Module Id/No: 17 Module Name: Writing from West Asia in English Pre-requisites: None Objectives: Key Words: West Asian Literature, Arabic Literature, Israeli Literature, Iranian Literature, Iraqi Literature 1 (C) Introduction This module talks about Western Asian literature and the position of it in the map of World Literature. Literatures across the West Asia will be briefly discussed here. A brief outline will be presented to conceptualise the literary area. This module mainly focuses on the modern trends of literature in this proposed area. Along with such issues, Indian reception of different West Asian literature also will be brought into discussion. The concept of West Asia is mainly emerged from the 19th century to identify the Middle East excluding Egypt. West Asia is well known to the every nook and corner of the world for its oil resources, so different kinds of stereotypes are constructed about this region. Such dominating economic affair of West Asia with the rest of the world over shadowed its literature, culture, and heritage. It is needless to mention that such economic power also leads to the political power to interfere in different international issues. To promote Indo-West Asian relation for mutual benefits, some major Indian universities like Aligarh Muslim University, Jamia Millia Islamlia University are offering the courses in discipline. Discipline like West Asian studies has been introduced to receive literature, culture and to understand the political issues related with the countries of this geo- political region. Brief introduction of Modern West Asian Literature: The geographical locations of the West Asian countries may help us to imagine the map of literature produced in this area too. This region largely exists in the Arabian Peninsula, a land mass between the Red sea to the west, the Arabian Sea to the southeast, and the Persian Gulf to the east along with Anatolia, Iran, Armenian Highlands, Levant, Mesopotamia and South Caucasus etc. This region consists nineteen countries. Among those Arabic is the most spoken language (around 280 million speaker), after Arabic Persian is the second most spoken language in West Asian region (65 million speaker). Along with these speakers there is another Persian speaking population in Afghanistan and U.A.E. And the third most spoken 2 language is Hebrew (3.8 million) in this region, and the population is now concentrated in Israel and the neighboring countries. This region is polyphonic and complex with their cultural and political relations as well as the heritage and history. Therefore, no way it is intended to perceive West Asian literature as a monolithic literary structure. But this module is intended to represent the glimpses of English literature produced from another area of the World either in English translation or in English itself. We will try to talk about the literature of this region mainly based on the language and the country where that language is dominating. Saudi Arabian writers participate as one of the largest contributors in whole West Asian literature. Fawaziya Abu Khalid is one of the most popular writers from this area. She is a poet, essayist, sociologist and professor. Her Literary credit remain on the publication of her first collection of poetry, Untill when They Abduct You will on your Wedding Night? (1974), her other major works include Secret Readings in the History of Arab Silence (1985) and Mirage Water (1995). Abdel Rahman Munif is also one of the major known writers of Saudi Arabian literature. His best known work is Cities of Salt Trilogy. Umaima Abdullah al-Khamis, another author, is mainly well known for her short story and children’s books and novels. The novel The Leafy Tree was enlisted for the 2010 Arabic booker prize. In the 20th and 21st century, Turkey has introduced some eminent and influential writers, who are not only popular and well-read in West Asia but across the world for their different and unique world views. The literary themes of such literature moves from politics to fiction, romance to revolution. Nazim Hikmet is one of them, who is also widely received in different Indian languages. For example he is translated by Subhash Mukhopadhyay into Bangla. He was described in Turkey as 'romantic communist '. His political ideology and strong belief towards the philosophy he actually practiced was reflected in his poetry. In the 1950, he was nominated for the Nobel peace prize, sharing the nomination with Pablo Picasso and Pablo Neruda. His celebrated works are 'The Girl Child, That wall, Human Landscapes etc. Bilge Karasa was another notable Turkish Writer. He uses the different shades of human 3 behavior and emotion in his writings. His novel Death in Troy was a path breaking novel, with this he discloses his repressed homosexuality in the backdrop of 1950s. 1975-1990, the time of bloodshed and civil war in Lebanon changed the inner world of its literature. The contemporary writers from Lebanon shares the significant chapters of their national history in their literary creation and this very particular ethos makes this literature significant in the map of World Literature. Khalil Gibran, is the giant figure of Lebanese literature and it is needless to say that he is well received across the world. Gibran as a novelist, philosopher, poet, and artist contributed remarkably in these areas. His prose- poem 'The Prophet' was translated almost into 40 languages. And this makes him third bestselling poet of all the time after Shakespeare and Lao-Tzu. Elias Khoury is another portrayal image of modern Lebanese literature. His famous work is White Masks, in which he displayed the war-torn image of Beirut. In the modern literature of Jordan, we can observe another definition of modernity practiced by the Jordanian authors in their literature. This literature particularly deals with the contemporary issues and responses to the issues addressed by different literatures of the World. Elias Farkouh is an eminent short story writer and novelist in contemporary Jordanian literature. For the novel, The Land of purgatory, he was short listed for the International prize for Arabic fiction. Ibrahim Nasrallah is another significant literary figure of modern Jordanian literature. His novel, The time of White Horses was widely acknowledged by the readers. Among the women authors, Fadia Faqir is one of the significant figure among the Jordanian literary giants. Her first novel Nisanjit was well acclaimed by the critics. Syria, one of the most conflict zones of the world and a place for imperialist’s interest is well received in different languages across the globe as people extend their solidarity towards the innocent victims of the country. Victimisation of Syria, everyday war, displacement of innocent people, search for shelter by the Syrians, Syrians being refugee across the Europe makes Syria a significant zone of literary attraction. Now, contemporary Syrian refugee literature is also a point in contemporary World Literature study. Though they have an age old literary tradition and heritage of Syria is well reflected in Syrian literature. 4 After surpassing the political hardships, the modern Syrian authors has been succeeded to reestablish its lost virtue of literature. Salim Barkat wrote a plethora of literary works in present Syria. He can write novels, short stories, poetries all along with same ease. He has been considered as the pioneer to introducing magic realism in Arabic literature. One of the most significant example of this kind is The Caves of Hydrahodahose. Hanna Mina is also credited for introducing the novelistic traditions in Syria. One of his famous piece is The Swamp.1 MODERN IRAQI LITERATURE: At the end of the Ottoman Empire, Modern Iraq was established by Britain in 1921. In 1932, Britain established 'Kingdom of Iraq' and in 1958 by the '14th July Revolution’ Hashemut monarchy was overthrown and Republic of Iraq was established2. In the year of 1979, Saddam Hussein took the charge of the state. He remains chief of the state until the US-led invasion occurred in March 2003. In his regime, a lot of politically tumultuous incidents took place, such as Iraq-Iran war (1980-1988), Invasion of Kuwait, Gulf war etc. All these political incidents have their imprints in Literature. Iraq has no lack of writers to portray about their motherland sincerely. Therefore one side there was wide reflection of culture, tradition and heritage of Iraq and the other side the contemporary political problems and complexities were portrayed in literature. Badr shakir al-Sayyab (1926-1964) Nazik al- mala'ika (b.1923), Abd al-wahhab al-Bayah(1926-1999), Buland al-Hydani 1926-1990) all of them were most important poets in World Literature who belong to this country. They had given a whole new dimension and thematic structures to the Arabic poetry. For the other literary branches Salih j. Altoma's remarks on his 'Iraq's Modern Arabic Literature in English 1 The information about the West Asian Literature is collected from this book mainly. Therefore different chapters of this book is considered here. For further Reading please follow this link. https://books.google.co.in/books?id=YopTyDFI1U4C&pg=PA685&lpg=PA685&dq=studies+in+west+asian+litera ture+sumathi+shivakumar&source=bl&ots=OF4hGAVKkA&sig=TX3z5CX7n4CJhN7afYJnell9MtI&hl=en&sa=X&v ed=0ahUKEwjr362Z7fTSAhXCM48KHVm3AHQQ6AEIHjAB#v=onepage&q=studies%20in%20west%20asian%20li terature%20sumathi%20shivakumar&f=false 2 http://adst.org/2014/07/the-iraqi-revolution-of-1958/ 5 Translation 1950-2003', is significant.