Contemporary Literary Review India

9-22

Authors: Fujeena Abdul Kader

When censorship acts as a means to restrict information in India, translation plays a significant role in bringing the knowledge of texts and updating readers despite linguistic and cultural diversities. In this situation, censorship and translation have become exciting aspects of studying in a developing and changing India. From the second half of the 20th century, Indian writing in all languages has been influenced by political ideologies such as communist, free, non-aligned, and gradually right-wing. Another factor that made everyone understand the aspects of translation and censorship in India is the emergence of predominant access to the internet and the invincible flow of information through media and social media. At this point, studying the concept of censorship and translation is highly significant, mainly to understand the nuances of changing scenarios in the writings of the Indian subcontinent. The hypothesis of the present paper is to study the notion of translation and censorship with reference to Maadhurobaagan (2010), written by Perumal Murugan, and its translation in English as One Part Woman, which won the Sahitya Akademi award for translation by Aniruddhan Vasudevan. This paper explores the authors’ recollections and depictions of various situations in the texts. It examines the notion of censorship and translation under the impact of media and social media from different perspectives. The study also analyses cases before and after translation, evaluating many questions around marginalized literature, their translations, and readership.

43-53

Authors: Jamirul Islam

During partition, Hindus and Muslims were not only affected, division of a country called India put every community in the ocean of troubles. The novelist named Bapsi Shidwa was a Parsi and she has experienced the pains and agonies of that existed times and periods. The novel Cracking India/Ice Candy Man is not a mere novel. According to Houston Chronicle, this novel is “a multifaceted jewel of a novel”. Washington Post and Book World praised this book and said “a mysterious and wonderful novel”. Being a reader one can easily notice a tremendous gaps in relations during pre and post partition. Lenny, the narrator of the novel, is a small character and physically she is polio-stricken. Ice-Candy-Man by Bapsi Sidhwa is a straightforward and honest analysis of the shifting sociopolitical complexities of the Indian subcontinent just before division of India. The narrative's central themes are communal disharmony, self identity, geographical statuary, and political viciousness. It displays the Parsi Pakistani viewpoint on separation as well as the Parsi sticking point of maintaining allegiance to political representatives. The novel by Bapsi Sidhwa informs the reader that they should learn and take lesson from past. She is a good-natured Parsi who investigates the effects of partition, diffusion, displacement and polarization. Her imagination creates various scenery. Bapsi Sidhwa is opposed to any communal view point. Ice-Candy-Man portrays Ayah's kidnapping, as well as communal acrimony. Lenny, an innocent girl, observed the division and the victimization of people.

66-74

Authors: Kanika Yadav

Love, passion, and desire often shape the trajectories of many literary characters. The culmination of love or the lack thereof often leads protagonists to embark on a journey of self-exploration. Amruta Patil’s Kari (2008) often called India’s first lesbian graphic novel, is one such tale. Patil’s narrative explores newfound desires against the backdrop of a darkly illustrated city after Kari survives an attempt at joint-suicide with her lover. Her journey, as she wades through the waters of a big city along with friends and acquaintances remains marked by a lost love- that of her lover who has since escaped. Thereon, the novel charts a course that is marked by Kari’s strenuous yet stellar mental dialogue. A graphic representation and articulation of such a dialogue lay bare the manifold challenges that often remain ignored in the larger discourse of love and desire. These challenges include but are not limited to one’s body image issues, sexual orientation, etc. This paper discusses same-sex desire and love contextualised within a cityscape as in Kari. It seeks to explore the tedious lived experiences of a single lesbian as she embarks on a journey of perhaps self-discovery and survival.

96-105

Authors: Reva Puri

This paper comprises reviewing and analyzing the documentary “India Untouched” by Stalin K through a critical lens, with an emphasis on creating new meanings around the theme of resistance. I align myself here with the critical school, rooted through psychoanalytic and cultural understandings. This documentary is a significant contribution towards our understanding of caste; to engage with it psychologically is an attempt to bring to the fore a nuanced interdisciplinary discussion on a relevant social issue which mainstream disciplines of prefer to keep at an arm’s length. To conduct my analysis, I primarily make use of writings by award winning author and psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar, and critical Psychologist Ashis Nandy.

114-140

Authors: Sayani Mukherjee

With the publication of Robert Lowell’s “ Life Studies” written for the “ Nation” in 1959 the history of poetic outlets took a swerve and marked as an intense breakthrough (as Plath stated in an interview) against the established, academic, classical channel of poetic tradition of Pound and Eliot and shifted “ towards the personal mode; from the impersonal mode there came a shift towards the personal mode; from the outer wasteland to the wasteland within” in post war America. It was M.L.Rosenthal who first used the term “confessional” while reviewing Lowell’s “ Life Studies” entitled “Poetry as Confession” labelling this autobiographical body of writing as direct, therapeutic and unflinchingly truthful making a sharp departure from the earlier classical stance of complex symbolism and formal language which later came into surface for dealing sensitive and taboo topics such as personal trauma, domestic violence, strained marital relationships coupled with pregnancy and abortion. With an intense probing into the inner self of the highly sensitive persona that found its concretization in the words of Robert Lowell, Theodore Roethke, Anne Sexton, W.D.Snodgrass and Sylvia Plath, this confessional poetry emerged as a breakthrough from the shackles of earlier tradition.

150-161

Authors: Shramana Ganguly

The 19th century Bengal was a saga of English colonialists dominating Bengal. It was also the time of Bengal Renaissance which was heralded by eminent social reformers like Raja Rammohan Roy, Dwarakanath Tagore, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and many more. While the movement ran with the active cooperation of Hindus but few Muslims like Kazi Nazrul Islam and Sake Dean Mohamed wrote verses to spread awareness. They were all united in their concept of promoting rational thoughts and rebelling against the conservativeness of the parochial society. It was the age of transgression as Hindu elites realised the importance of Western education which puts them at par with the colonialists. Renaissance in Bengal was centered around Calcutta and gained the attention of likeminded people who wanted to bring in changes. With social reformations and abolishment of Sati and polygamy, came acts allowing widows to remarry and have claims upon their husband’s property. My paper deals with the response of the female characters to these social reformations that were occurring in the early 19th century Bengal in ‘Those Days’ which is the translated version of Sunil Gangopadhyay’s novel ‘Shei shomoe’.

185-208

Authors: Harlan Yarbrough

Nangkha! is a story by Harlan Yarbrough.

218-228

Authors: Ranjan Sen

All In The Stars is a story by Ranjan Sen.

232-237

Authors: Christopher Barnes

Niggardly Triumphs Flare, World-Shaking Decisions, Queasy, Frisk, and You're Political are the poems by Christopher Barnes.

243-252

Authors: Dr. Anmol Ashok Patwari

Book Review of Ashok Patwari’s Poster Boy And Other Stories by Dr Anmol.

260-266

Authors: Subhajit Bhadra

Book Review of Jajabor’s Quiet Flows the River Jhelum by Subhajit Bhadra.