Abstract
Beginning with how Tagore’s views on the partly given, partly constructed nature of social identity are pertinent to understanding the ideas of selfhood and community, this chapter focuses on the paradoxes of identity in his novels Gora and Ghare Baire. The chapter examines the construction of fictional identities in relation to questions of history, nationhood and the self and relates them with some of the views expressed in the essay ‘Atmaparichay’ (1912), arguing that Rabindranath attempted to understand identity as a form of difference.
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Notes
- 1.
This essay draws upon three previously published pieces by me: South Asia: 35:1 (2012), pp. 97–117; Datta 2003, pp. 45–65; and Mukherjee 2011, pp. 87–99.
- 2.
- 3.
His disquiet is reflected in several articles and addresses composed around this time, such as the presidential address delivered to the Pabna Pradeshik Sammilani in February 1907, published in Prabasi, Phalgun 1314, ‘Byadhi o Pratikar’, Prabasi, Shravan 1314, ‘Path o Patheya’, Bangadarshan, Jyaishtha 1315, ‘Samasya’, Prabasi, Asharh 1315, ‘Sadupay’, Prabasi, Shravan 1315, and ‘Deshahit’, Bangadarshan, Ashvin 1315, i.e. between February 1907 and September 1908–October 1908.
- 4.
The English translation I have used for in-text citations is that made by W.W. Pearson, corrected by Surendranath Tagore, in the author’s lifetime (London: Macmillan 1924): for these references, see pp. 17, 60. Pearson’s translation is reasonably adequate, though superseded by that of Sujit Mukherjee (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi 1998). One difficulty is that the chapter divisions do not correspond to those in the Vishva Bharati text.
- 5.
‘Bauler Gan’ (composite text adapted from reviews of parts 1 and 2 of the anthology Sangit Sangraha: Bauler Gatha, published in Bharati, Vaishakh 1290 and Ashvin 1291, as found in Rabindr Rachanabali: Visva Bharati, vol. 2); trans. as ‘Baul Songs’ in Chaudhuri et al. (2001, p. 42).
- 6.
My translation.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
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Chaudhuri, S. (2017). History, Identity and Nation in Tagore’s Fiction. In: Tuteja, K., Chakraborty, K. (eds) Tagore and Nationalism. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-3696-2_10
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