Bengali Literature
#Perspective / Madhusudan Dutta: The writer who played with the gods
Hailed as the first modern poet and the first rebel poet of Bangla literature, Madhusudan’s rebellion against the conservative society and the contemporary style of literature was daring and the first step towards modern Bangla literature.
Home is where my books are
How do you pack 25 years of your life in two suitcases?
FEATURE / Begum Rokeya and Begum Sufia An enduring “mother-daughter” bond
Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) and Begum Sufia Kamal (1911-1999), two icons in Bangla literature and culture, were not kins but kindred spirits.
The rebels of Madhusudan
Neeldhaja is the first Bangla poem to be written in the form of a letter; it places a female figure with a rebellious demeanor as the protagonist of a historical narrative.
Interview / ‘We are translators every day’: Arunava Sinha
You must read like a reader and not like an academic student. If the book you’re translating is a general book, it’s going to be read by readers. Intelligent readers perhaps, but readers nevertheless.
Where to start reading Samaresh Majumdar
Dipabali’s character in Satkahon said aloud what was on every girl’s mind.
‘The room by the window was Baba’s favourite’: Doel Majumdar
The last rites of the renowned writer, beloved by readers in both Bengals, was held yesterday.
Samaresh Majumdar—A rebel to look up to
In his novels, Samaresh Majumdar always made his characters walk against the current.
Akhteruzzaman Elias: There is always an other to be purged
Shill edited the present volume as a rich collection of memories and evaluations of Akhteruzzaman Elias by his friends and relatives, some renowned literary figures of the Bangla language, as well as some occasional thoughts by Elias himself.
Ahaduzzaman Mohammad Ali's 'Nakhshatra Nivey Jai': Poems well worth waiting for
A series of poems also reflect his ecological sensitivity to the machine in the garden and snakes and hyenas imperiling forests and rivers and Dhaka—the city he has lived in for most of his life.
Shaheen Akhtar’s ‘Beloved Rongomala’ (trans. Shabnam Nadiya) in a new edition from Westland Books
Based on an 18th century legend from Bangladesh’s Noakhali region, Beloved Ronglomala tells the story of one Queen Phuleswari, a child bride, and of Rongomala, a woman of legend.
In ‘Nehai’, Yusuf Muhammad’s doha verses explore the ceaselessness of life
The aim of a dohakar has always been to open the eyes of the masses. Many of the dohas written by the two prominent dohakars, Soroho-Pa and Kabir Das, have modernist, anti-establishment themes, criticising the social, political and religious conventions of their times.
Niaz Zaman's 'An Ekushey Anthology': Reminiscing Ekushey, 70 years on
Zaman has classified the pieces in two groups: "the early stories focus on the events that took place on 21 February—the processions, the police action and the deaths—while the later ones show how the attitude to Bangla has changed in these 70 years.
DhakaYeah designs book cover for HarperCollins India
The novel, first published in Bangla as Narach, is set in late 19th century colonial Bengal.
Humayun Ahmed and the language of Bangladeshi novels
His written language came close to spoken language due to the primitive and original style of Bengali syntax—simple sentence structures.
Mundanities, magic realism, Bangladesh—Shahidul Zahir’s novellas
The personal space is the same as the political sphere, the individual on the same strand as the collective.
July’s ULAB Literary Salon discusses Bangladeshi short story anthologies
An engaging discussion on translations unfolded at the event.
How it feels when you can’t finish reading a book
As I have grown older, my mind is calmer but it’s a void now, empty of any voice.
‘The Great Bengali Poetry Underground’: More poets than crows
If this collection proves anything, then it’s that Bangalees will take to poetry like flies take to freshly cut mangoes on a hot summer day.
