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Mahasweta Devi occupies a singular position in the history of modern Indian literature and world literature. This book engages with Devi's works as a writer-activist who critically explored subaltern subjectivities, the limits of history and the harsh social realities of post-independence India.
List of contents
List of photographs
Preface to the Series
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
The Searing Vision of Mahasweta Devi
RADHA CHAKRAVARTY
PART I
Spectrum: The Writer’s Oeuvre
- Fictionalised Biography – The Queen of Jhansi (extract)
TRANSLATED BY SAGAREE AND MANDIRA SENGUPTA
- Novel – Mother of 1084 (extract)
TRANSLATED BY SAMIK BANDYOPADHYAY
- Short fiction – Giribala (extract)
TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY
- Drama – Bayen (extract)
TRANSLATED BY SAMIK BANDYOPADHYAY
- Children’s Writing – Nyadosh the Incredible Cow (extract)
TRANSLATED BY PARAMITA BANERJEE
- Literary Criticism – Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (extract)
PART II
Kaleidoscope: Critical Reception
- Novelist Mahasweta Devi: The Critical Tradition
ARUP KUMAR DAS
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
- Mahasweta Devi: In Search of a Rare Uniqueness
DIPENDU CHAKRABARTI
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
- Hajar Churashir Ma, Mahasweta and the Next Phase of the Bangla Novel
DILIP KUMAR BASU
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
- Mahasweta Devi: Forests and Nature
PARTHA PRATIM BANDYOPADHYAY
TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY
- Mahasweta Devi’s Writings: An Evaluation
SUJIT MUKHERJEE
- Reading "Pterodactyl"
GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK
- Douloti as a National Allegory
JAIDEV
- Re-ordering the Maternal: Histories of Violence in Mahasweta Devi, Toni Morrison and Amrita Pritam
SHREEREKHA SUBRAMANIAN
- The Politics of Positionality: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Samik Bandyopadhyay as Translators of Mahasweta Devi
SHREYA CHAKRAVORTY
- Reconsidering ‘Fictionalised Biographies’: Mahasweta Devi's Queen of Jhansi and Mamoni Raisom Goswami's The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar
ARUNABH KONWAR
- Writing for the Stage: The Plays of Mahasweta Devi
ANJUM KATYAL
- Sahitya as Kinesis: Performative Potential in Stage and Screen Adaptations of Mahasweta Devi’s Works
BENIL BISWAS
PART III
Ablaze With Rage: The Writer As Activist
- Tribal Language and Literature
MAHASWETA DEVI
TRANSLATED BY MAITREYA GHATAK
- Eucalyptus: Why?
MAHASWETA DEVI
- Palamau is a Mirror of India
MAHASWETA DEVI
TRANSLATED BY IPSITA CHANDA
- The Adivasi Mahasweta
G.N. DEVY
- Haunted Landscapes: Mahasweta Devi and the Anthropocene
MARY LOUISA CAPPELLI
PART IV
Personal Glimpses: A Life in Words
- Our Santiniketan
MAHASWETA DEVI
TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY
- "Talking Writing: Conversations with Mahasweta Devi"
NAVEEN KISHORE
- ‘To find me, read my work’: Dialogues with Mahasweta Devi
RADHA CHAKRAVARTY
- Family Reminiscences
- I Am Truly Amazed
- Baba, Ma, Our Home
SOMA MUKHOPADHYAY
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
- The Didi I have Known
SARI LAHIRI
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
- My Mother
NABARUN BHATTACHARYA
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
- Mahasweta Devi: The 'Mashi' Who Wrote Fearlessly About Caste, Class and Patriarchy
INA PURI
- Shobor Mother Mahasweta Devi
RANJIT KUMAR DAS
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
- Small Big Things
ANAND (P. SACHIDANANDAN)
- A Legend Who Lived on Her Own Terms
ANITA AGNIHOTRI
TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA
- "Every Dream Has the Right to Live"
Dakxin Bajrange
Bio-chronology
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Index
About the author
Radha Chakravarty is a writer, critic and translator. She has co-edited The Essential Tagore, nominated Book of the Year 2011 by Martha Nussbaum. She is the author of Feminism and Contemporary Women Writers and Novelist Tagore: Gender and Modernity in Selected Texts. Her Tagore translations include Gora, Chokher Bali, Boyhood Days, Farewell Song: Shesher Kabita, Four Chapters and The Land of Cards: Stories, Poems and Plays for Children. Other works in translation are Bankimchandra Chatterjee’s Kapalkundala, Mahasweta Devi’s Our Santiniketan and In the Name of the Mother (nominated for the Crossword Translation Award, 2004), Vermillion Clouds: Stories by Bengali Women, and Crossings: Stories from Bangladesh and India. She has edited Shades of Difference: Selected Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Bodymaps: Stories by South Asian Women and co-edited Writing Feminism: South Asian Voices and Writing Freedom: South Asian Voices. Her poems have appeared in numerous books and journals. She has contributed to Pandemic: A Worldwide Community Poem, nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2020. Her forthcoming books include The Tagore Phenomenon and translations of Kazi Nazrul Islam’s essays. She was Professor of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, India.
Summary
Mahasweta Devi occupies a singular position in the history of modern Indian literature and world literature. This book engages with Devi’s works as a writer-activist who critically explored subaltern subjectivities, the limits of history and the harsh social realities of post-independence India.
