Abstract
This essay postulates a “late style” to Tagore’s works, representing a shift from his earlier stance to a radically new ontology. “The Unanswered Question” referring to Tagore’s poem 13 from his Last Poems, where the last sun asks the last question of reality and receives no answer, becomes the entry point of this hermeneutic exploration of Tagore’s paintings and final poems. Relating his late poems to his paintings, the essay argues for the recognition of a late style in Tagore that moved away from a poetics of disclosure to a poetics of uncertainty.
Different and earlier versions of this paper were read at two conferences, one in Beijing (University of Beijing) and one in Kolkata (Netaji Research Bureau), both marking the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. The title of the paper—“The Unanswered Question”— is the name of a remarkable musical composition by Charles Ives, which in my view broaches some of the same issues of ineffability and uncertainty raised in this paper. Throughout the paper I will refer to the subject of the essay Rabindranath instead of Tagore, following the customary Bengali habit of calling our poets and artists by their first names.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
This becomes evident when one hears the monumental alap/vilambit jods of his later performances where melodic progression, much like Beethoven’s late quartets composed in an altogether different language of contrapuntal sensibility, attempts to summon the sublime moment of musical stillness. A comparative discussion of the nature of ‘lateness’ across musical cultures can be the topic of an altogether different, yet-unwritten essay.
- 3.
These works are seldom seen but some marvelous examples can be found reproduced in Siva Kumar (2009). In the context of ‘lateness’, his miniature sculptural constructions are also relevant.
- 4.
Both the excerpts are from Radice’s remarkable translation (2004: 124–125). Perhaps Radice is thinking about this poem alone in his comments on the later poems quoted earlier.
- 5.
The English translation is taken from Radice (1991: 17).
- 6.
He proceeds to write “this idea of mine found at a later date its expression in some of my poems addressed to what I called jīban-debatā.”
- 7.
In this line, the poet names the Real the goddess of deception and says that she has scattered deception-nets throughout the paths of creation.
- 8.
See, for instance, Dyson (2013).
Bibliography
Barker, W., & Tagore, S. (Trans.) (2001). Rabindranath Tagore: Final poems. New York: George Braziller.
Dutta, K., & Robinson, A. (Eds.) (1997). Selected letters of Rabindranath Tagore. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dyson, K. K. (2013). Rabindranath Tagore and his world of colours. Retrieved from http://www.parabaas.com/rabindranath/articles/pKetaki2.html. Last accessed January 28, 2013.
Kant, I. (1987). Critique of judgement. Indianapolis: Hackett.
Lyotard, J.-F. (1993). Answering the question: What is postmodernism? In T. Docherty (Ed.), Postmodernism: A reader. Harlow: Pearson.
Neogy, P. (1992). Drawings and paintings of Rabindranath Tagore. In Rabindranath Tagore: A centenary volume. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Radice, W. (1991). Introduction. In R. Tagore (Ed.), Selected short stories. Harmonsdworth: Penguin.
Radice, W. (2005). Introduction. In Rabindranath Tagore: Selected poems. London: Penguin.
Schrag, C. (1994). Philosophical papers: Betwixt and between. Albany: SUNY Press.
Siva Kumar, R. (2009). Paintings of Abanindranath Tagore. Kolkata: Pratikshan.
Solomon, M. (2004). Late Beethoven: Music, thought, imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Sullivan, J. W. N. (1960). Beethoven: His spiritual development. Vintage.
Tagore, R. (1969). Atma paricay. Kolkata: Visva-Bharati.
Tagore, R. (1975). The religion of man. London: Unwin Books.
Tagore, R. (1999). My pictures. In S. K. Das (Ed.), The English writings of Rabindranath Tagore: A miscellany (Vol. 3). New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi.
Wittgenstein, L. (1981). Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer India
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Tagore, S. (2015). The Unanswered Question: Some Remarks on Tagore’s Late Style. In: Banerji, D. (eds) Rabindranath Tagore in the 21st Century. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 7. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2038-1_18
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2038-1_18
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi
Print ISBN: 978-81-322-2037-4
Online ISBN: 978-81-322-2038-1
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)