After the proud publication of our inaugural issue on Ognijug, the age of revolutionary nationalism in Bengal, and the consecutive issues respectively on Bengali Cinema: Bengalis and Cinema (Vol.1, No.2), Bengali Theatre: Bengalis and Theatre (Vol.2, No.1), Science and Technology in History: Bengali Perspectives (Vol.2, No.2), Journal of Bengali Studies (JBS), a peer reviewed academic interdisciplinary online journal (ISSN: 2277- 9426) meant for discussions into the history and culture of the Indic Bengali people, is pleased to announce the Call for Papers for its fifth issue on the theme of Literature of Movements: Bengali Crossroads (Vol.3, No.1), due to be published on the occasion of Buddha Purnima, 14 May 2014. The final date for submission of article/review/workshop is 30 April 2014.
Literature and Movements: Bengali Crossroads
The theme of this issue is centred on the interrelationship between the literature produced by the Bengalis (not necessarily written in Bengali alone) during a given historical period and the social, cultural and political ferments of that age. We argue that since antiquity, Bengal witnesses a number of intellectual, cultural and social ferments which have actively interacted with literature; here it may be pertinent to recall Tamal Dasgupta's theorisation of the interactions between history and literature from his article "Understanding Hi-story" in JBS inaugural issue:
Thus the relationship between literature and movements during a given historical period is dynamic, multi-faceted and interactive.
The relationship is never one way, and literature is never simply a reflection of social, cultural and political movements: literature is sometimes the most significant determinant of those movements.
The important topics for contribution will include the following (but will not be exclusively limited to the same):
Ancient times to the early middle ages and the flourish of literature in Bengal. Sanskrit and Prakrit literature produced in Bengal and the Indic religious and social ferments. Chorjapod and Buddhism;
the seeds of tantra, shakti, mystical cults of baul-sahajiya etc.
Jayadeva's Gitgovinda and Vaishnavism. Jayadeva as an essentially Bengali poet whose Gitgovinda celebrates Radha-idea which is in tune with Bengal, not with the Jagannath worship of Orissa (for historical evidences of Jayadeva as a Bengali poet, one may refer to P K Dasgupta's excellent treatise, Jayadeva and Some of His Contemporaries).
Chandidas's ShriKrishnaKirtan. The flourish of Vaishnav literature in the middle ages and Chaitanya movement.
Social engineering of the middle ages and Mongol Kabyo.
Shakto literature and the flourish of Shakti worship: from late middle ages to the modern period; beginning of Durga Puja and Agomoni songs. Shyama songs and Kali puja.
Bengal Renaissance and literature.
Registers of popular ferments: literature of Bot tola.
Hindu Revival and literature: Bankim Chandra and others.
Literature celebrating the glorious past of Bengal, and Bengali nationalism.
Literature and Ognijug.
Literature and the communist and naxalite movements.
Literature and the refugees; registering the trauma of the Hindus uprooted from East Bengal, the experiences of Noakhali, Marichjhapi and post-independence Bangladesh. Taslima Nasrin's Lajja, Amitav Ghosh's Hungry Tides.
The Eurocentric turn of modern and postmodern Bengali literature (Buddhadeb Basu wanted to emphasise that Bengal was culturally a province of Europe) and the dominant left-liberal-universalist milieu of the bhadralok-comprador classes. Globalisation and contemporary Bengali literature.
Group theatre movement and Bengali theatrical literature.
The Hindu response to Eurocentrism:
The non-communist, non-materialistic movements of literature, most notably the works of Kamal Kumar Majumdar.
Poetry and politics in Bengal.
Literature and the overturning of the communist regime: Bratyo Basu's plays, Joy Goswami's poetry and Kabir Suman's songs.
General details about submissions to Journal of Bengali Studies:
Journal of Bengali Studies is published in English and is an online journal. A contribution must be electronic and in English language. It should consistently follow any one of these three scholarly styles of citation: MLA style, Chicago Manual of Style and APA style. Contributions must always be double spaced. An article, with notes and bibliography, should not be more than 10000 words. In case of reviews, the upper limit is 2000 words; we welcome reviews of new books as well as old and out of print ones, not necessarily of books written in English alone; we accept reviews of books, texts and artworks (new and old alike) which are related to our theme. From our Cinema issue onwards, we started a section (in addition to articles and reviews) called Workshop: Theory in Practice. This section features creative/critical works which are related to our theme. Any kind of creative/literary writing that concerns the relationship between Bengalis and social, cultural and political movements is welcome in this issue; a priority may be given to historical and political fictions/plays/poetry, which may be originally written in Bengali, in which case it has to be in English translation, or it may be originally written in English. In either case, it should focus on our theme and be relevant to the CFP. The workshop may also include critical writings, for example, the narration of the experiences in one's creative/literary/artistic field/profession, exploring the question of a writer's involvement with social, cultural and political movements. Upper Limit of Creative Workshop: 10000 words. We have no lower word limit for the contributions, the authors are free to use their discretion. Contributions should either be in MS Word, Open Office, or RTF format and should be emailed to all of these three email ids: editorbengalistudies@gmail.com, editjbs@gmail.com and shoptodina@gmail.com. Before submission, please see our Submission Guidelines and Terms and Conditions for further details at
http://bengalistudies.blogspot.in/. For further ideas about the objectives of our journal, please see the JBS Manifesto at http://bengalistudies.blogspot.in/.
Editor: Mousumi Biswas Dasgupta
Editorial Board: Tamal Dasgupta (founder-editor), Sourav Gupta, Joydeep Bhattacharya, Saptarshi Mallick.
Literature and Movements: Bengali Crossroads
The theme of this issue is centred on the interrelationship between the literature produced by the Bengalis (not necessarily written in Bengali alone) during a given historical period and the social, cultural and political ferments of that age. We argue that since antiquity, Bengal witnesses a number of intellectual, cultural and social ferments which have actively interacted with literature; here it may be pertinent to recall Tamal Dasgupta's theorisation of the interactions between history and literature from his article "Understanding Hi-story" in JBS inaugural issue:
The relationship between history and story (narrative/art/literature) works at multiple levels. Historical fiction in Bengal is well established as a genre that began with Bankim Chandra. Secondly, fictionalised history (different from historical fiction) is a popular format and just like popular science it offers documentary-fiction, and as a classic example of that we have Sailesh Dey's
Ami Subhash Bolchi (This is Subhash Speaking). In recent times, Shankar's Ami Vivekananda Bolchi (This is Vivekananda Speaking) is a specimen that falls within this genre. Thirdly, history can be made by stories as well, so the novels of Bankim which created nationalist history, like Anandamath did, constitutes another category; stories which gave birth to history. A similar example from abroad is the Russian novel What is to be Done by Nikolai Chernyshevsky (Lenin, who was a lifelong admirer of Chernyshevsky, took the title of his eponymous history-making treatise from this novel). Another category, the fourth one includes the plethora of narratives and legends and stories/songs/poems which accompanied the events of revolutionary nationalism, for instance Sharatchandra's Pother Dabi (The Demand of the Path), and the revolutionary songs and poems of Nazrul Islam (both the writers were actively involved with the revolutionaries); later on, similar narratives were made to describe the continuity, legacy and heritage of the revolutionary nationalist movement as inherited by the communist party.
Thus the relationship between literature and movements during a given historical period is dynamic, multi-faceted and interactive.
The relationship is never one way, and literature is never simply a reflection of social, cultural and political movements: literature is sometimes the most significant determinant of those movements.
The important topics for contribution will include the following (but will not be exclusively limited to the same):
Ancient times to the early middle ages and the flourish of literature in Bengal. Sanskrit and Prakrit literature produced in Bengal and the Indic religious and social ferments. Chorjapod and Buddhism;
the seeds of tantra, shakti, mystical cults of baul-sahajiya etc.
Jayadeva's Gitgovinda and Vaishnavism. Jayadeva as an essentially Bengali poet whose Gitgovinda celebrates Radha-idea which is in tune with Bengal, not with the Jagannath worship of Orissa (for historical evidences of Jayadeva as a Bengali poet, one may refer to P K Dasgupta's excellent treatise, Jayadeva and Some of His Contemporaries).
Chandidas's ShriKrishnaKirtan. The flourish of Vaishnav literature in the middle ages and Chaitanya movement.
Social engineering of the middle ages and Mongol Kabyo.
Shakto literature and the flourish of Shakti worship: from late middle ages to the modern period; beginning of Durga Puja and Agomoni songs. Shyama songs and Kali puja.
Bengal Renaissance and literature.
Registers of popular ferments: literature of Bot tola.
Hindu Revival and literature: Bankim Chandra and others.
Literature celebrating the glorious past of Bengal, and Bengali nationalism.
Literature and Ognijug.
Literature and the communist and naxalite movements.
Literature and the refugees; registering the trauma of the Hindus uprooted from East Bengal, the experiences of Noakhali, Marichjhapi and post-independence Bangladesh. Taslima Nasrin's Lajja, Amitav Ghosh's Hungry Tides.
The Eurocentric turn of modern and postmodern Bengali literature (Buddhadeb Basu wanted to emphasise that Bengal was culturally a province of Europe) and the dominant left-liberal-universalist milieu of the bhadralok-comprador classes. Globalisation and contemporary Bengali literature.
Group theatre movement and Bengali theatrical literature.
The Hindu response to Eurocentrism:
The non-communist, non-materialistic movements of literature, most notably the works of Kamal Kumar Majumdar.
Poetry and politics in Bengal.
Literature and the overturning of the communist regime: Bratyo Basu's plays, Joy Goswami's poetry and Kabir Suman's songs.
General details about submissions to Journal of Bengali Studies:
Journal of Bengali Studies is published in English and is an online journal. A contribution must be electronic and in English language. It should consistently follow any one of these three scholarly styles of citation: MLA style, Chicago Manual of Style and APA style. Contributions must always be double spaced. An article, with notes and bibliography, should not be more than 10000 words. In case of reviews, the upper limit is 2000 words; we welcome reviews of new books as well as old and out of print ones, not necessarily of books written in English alone; we accept reviews of books, texts and artworks (new and old alike) which are related to our theme. From our Cinema issue onwards, we started a section (in addition to articles and reviews) called Workshop: Theory in Practice. This section features creative/critical works which are related to our theme. Any kind of creative/literary writing that concerns the relationship between Bengalis and social, cultural and political movements is welcome in this issue; a priority may be given to historical and political fictions/plays/poetry, which may be originally written in Bengali, in which case it has to be in English translation, or it may be originally written in English. In either case, it should focus on our theme and be relevant to the CFP. The workshop may also include critical writings, for example, the narration of the experiences in one's creative/literary/artistic field/profession, exploring the question of a writer's involvement with social, cultural and political movements. Upper Limit of Creative Workshop: 10000 words. We have no lower word limit for the contributions, the authors are free to use their discretion. Contributions should either be in MS Word, Open Office, or RTF format and should be emailed to all of these three email ids: editorbengalistudies@gmail.com, editjbs@gmail.com and shoptodina@gmail.com. Before submission, please see our Submission Guidelines and Terms and Conditions for further details at
http://bengalistudies.blogspot.in/. For further ideas about the objectives of our journal, please see the JBS Manifesto at http://bengalistudies.blogspot.in/.
Editor: Mousumi Biswas Dasgupta
Editorial Board: Tamal Dasgupta (founder-editor), Sourav Gupta, Joydeep Bhattacharya, Saptarshi Mallick.
