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Asit Biswas

Abstract

Shakeepeare studies In India started as early as in the early decades of the 19^th century when the Indians seldom engaged in Shakespeare interpretation and so the term 'ecocriticism' was unheard of. What we mean by the phrase 'Critical studies of Shakespeare' started in India in 1917 when Hindu College (later on Presidency College and now Presidency University) was founded. Then Shakespeare began to be evaluated from an oriental point of view. Some of those interpretations may be considered ecocriticism, The same thing was done by Purna Chandra Basu (in his article "Sahitye Khoon ", D. L. Roy (in his book, Kalidas O Bhababhuti) etc. Ecocriticism as a literary movement, as Yogesh K. Tiwari and N.D.R. Chandra say, began in the 1990s. But ecocritical evaluation of Shakespeare's plays from Indian point of view is yet to flourish well. In A Midsummer Night's Dream one can find plethora of materials relevant not only for the students of literature but of environmental studies also. The aim of the present play is to reinterpret Shakespeare' play A Midsummer Night's Dream from ecocritical point of view and thereby justify the contemporaneity of the Bard. Now-a-days many in many universities in India the students have to read English and Environmental Studies as compulsory subjects, Shakespeare being a part of the former. As the students of Literature they would be keen to trace out the aesthetic aspects of the dramas of Shakespeare while belonging to various disciplines they would naturally seek for the relevance of Shakespeare in the present context. So the paper is an attempt to bring out Shakespeare's anticipation of the environmental problems and thereby prove Shakespeare as a topic of both literature and environmental studies.

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Asit Biswas

Abstract

British Bengal was a famous place for Shakespeare studies. But the Bengalis were interested mainly in enjoying the stage performances of dramas, both Bengali and English. It might be a result of the babu culture. The babus (Zammdars) patronized various dramas. As a result numerous theatre groups sprouted up in Kolkata. Prof. Darshan Choudhury names at least 5.5 famous theatre groups in Kolkata, in his book Bangla Theatarer Itihas (The History of Bengali Theatre). Among them a famous one was Jorasanko Theatre at the residence of Tagore who belonged to a Zamindar family. A number members of Tagore's family, including Tagore himself took part in the stage performances. So Tagore grew a fondness for drama from his childhood. Many Bengali authors attempted to translate/transcreate Shakespeare into Bangla. Tagore also, then a boy of 13 translated Macbeth in 1874(?) but only a few fragments of if are found, as evident in his comment, "Apart from this he (Jnanchandra Bhattacharya) used to tell me the Bengali meaning of a portion of Macbeth and to confine me into a room until I translated it into Bengali rhymes". Tagore probably left no branch of literature untrodden. But the identify of Tagore as a Shakespeare-critic is still in dark. The aim of this paper is to bring it to light. Almost all the comments Tagore made on Shakespeare were collected by the Bengali poet Mr. Purnendu Patri but they are yet to be revaluated from morden critical point of view. Tagore wrote not a single complete book or essay or an article or a chapter, save a sonnet, on Shakespeare, in particular. But very often he referred to Shakespeare in order to defend his own works. But probably this is the first attempt to give Tagore's fragmentary comments a theoretical framework and revaluate them from critical viewpoints. Now-a-days many critics deal with ecocriticism, a new born term; but some of Tagores comments may be considered to be ecocrticism. The comments of Tagore are not found in a consolidated form but as fragments. In this paper the comments are categorized and revaluated from critical viewpoints i.e. eco-colonialism, subjectivity and realism. Research on colonialism in Shakespeare is nothing new; but Tagore dealt with colonialism in Shakespeare from environmental point of view. So it should better be termed 'eco-colonialism' Which is shown in this paper.
Although a much fragmented area, Shakespeare and Rabindranath Tagore's popularity and contemporaneity still goes unabated. Needless to say, the whole world of literature knows Tagore as a litterateur; but another identity of Tagore, i.e. a Shakespeare-critic, is still in dark. The aim of this paper is to bring to light the hitherto unexplored identity of Tagore. The complete works of Tagore can provide us with an ample opportunity to have a preliminary idea of Tagore's Shakespeare-thoughts. Most of the comments Tagore made on Shakespeare were collected by the Bengali poet Mr. Purnendu Patri but they are yet to be revaluated critically. Tagore, who wrote not a single complete book or essay or an article or a chapter, save a sonnet, on Shakespeare, in particular, was an important critic in British Bengal. Like Dr. Johnson, Tagore is neither a blind supporter nor a scurrilous opponent of Shakespeare: rather he is an impartial judge of the Bard. In Tagore's writings Shakespeare appears at various occasions, just as the name of Maharshi Valmiki does. Tagore never attempted to be a direct Shakespeare-critic but he again and again referred to shakespeare, sometimes in order to defend his own points by citing instances from Shakespeare and, sometimes, in order to point out the limitations (in his opinion) in Shakespeare. Probably no other researcher before me attempted to give Tagore's fragmentary comments a theoretical framework and thereby revaluate them from any critical view-point. So the end of this paper is to do this.

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