Humour in Rabindranath Tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading

This essay is intended to fill the gap in the discussion of humour in Rabindranath Tagore’s writings, particularly his short stories. It argues that although Tagore is often seen as a serious writer, dealing with significant issues concerning religion, politics and culture in his work, he also had a...

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Main Author:	Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Flinders University, Australia 2014
Subjects:	PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN0080 Criticism
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/39320/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/39320/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/39320/1/Humour_in_Rabindranath_Tagore.pdf

id	iium-39320
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-393202018-05-24T05:21:13Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/39320/ Humour in Rabindranath Tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading Quayum, Mohammad Abdul PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN0080 Criticism This essay is intended to fill the gap in the discussion of humour in Rabindranath Tagore’s writings, particularly his short stories. It argues that although Tagore is often seen as a serious writer, dealing with significant issues concerning religion, politics and culture in his work, he also had a lighter side to his personality, which enabled him to laugh at certain inherent human weaknesses, such as excessive piety, sentimentality, affectedness, arrogance and sexual jealousy, in a comic spirit, rather than being derogatory or sarcastic about them. Sometimes, this laughter was even at his own expense, caricaturing a certain drollery or oddity in his own personality, or at the expense of a close family or associate. The essay investigates four of Tagore’s short stories – “The Path to Salvation” (Muktir Upai), “The Professor” (Addhyapak), “Privacy” (Sadar O Andar) and “The Auspicious Sight” (Subhadristi) – all written during the first phase of his writing career, when he was living at Shelaidah, East Bengal, to bring home the argument that during these early years Tagore was capable of responding to life in its fullness. Thus he could empathise with its sorrows and sufferings as much as relishing its mirth and amusement, which he saw as an inalienable part of the human experience. Furthermore, the humour we encounter in these four stories is different from that in his later stories – such as “Kabuliwala,” “The Editor” (Symapadak), “Number One” (Paila Number) and “Deliverance” (Uddhar) – in that they are written in a tender and sympathetic tone, merely to tease and prod, vis-ŕ-vis his use of, in Freud’s phrases, “tendency wit” or “tendency comedy” in the latter stories. Flinders University, Australia 2014-11-18 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/39320/1/Humour_in_Rabindranath_Tagore.pdf Quayum, Mohammad Abdul (2014) Humour in Rabindranath Tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading. Transnational Literature, 7 (1). pp. 1-14. ISSN 1836-4845 http://fhrc.flinders.edu.au/transnational/home.html
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
topic	PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN0080 Criticism
spellingShingle	PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN0080 Criticism Quayum, Mohammad Abdul Humour in Rabindranath Tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading
description	This essay is intended to fill the gap in the discussion of humour in Rabindranath Tagore’s writings, particularly his short stories. It argues that although Tagore is often seen as a serious writer, dealing with significant issues concerning religion, politics and culture in his work, he also had a lighter side to his personality, which enabled him to laugh at certain inherent human weaknesses, such as excessive piety, sentimentality, affectedness, arrogance and sexual jealousy, in a comic spirit, rather than being derogatory or sarcastic about them. Sometimes, this laughter was even at his own expense, caricaturing a certain drollery or oddity in his own personality, or at the expense of a close family or associate. The essay investigates four of Tagore’s short stories – “The Path to Salvation” (Muktir Upai), “The Professor” (Addhyapak), “Privacy” (Sadar O Andar) and “The Auspicious Sight” (Subhadristi) – all written during the first phase of his writing career, when he was living at Shelaidah, East Bengal, to bring home the argument that during these early years Tagore was capable of responding to life in its fullness. Thus he could empathise with its sorrows and sufferings as much as relishing its mirth and amusement, which he saw as an inalienable part of the human experience. Furthermore, the humour we encounter in these four stories is different from that in his later stories – such as “Kabuliwala,” “The Editor” (Symapadak), “Number One” (Paila Number) and “Deliverance” (Uddhar) – in that they are written in a tender and sympathetic tone, merely to tease and prod, vis-ŕ-vis his use of, in Freud’s phrases, “tendency wit” or “tendency comedy” in the latter stories.
format	Article
author	Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
author_facet	Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
author_sort	Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
title	Humour in Rabindranath Tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading
title_short	Humour in Rabindranath Tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading
title_full	Humour in Rabindranath Tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading
title_fullStr	Humour in Rabindranath Tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading
title_full_unstemmed	Humour in Rabindranath Tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading
title_sort	humour in rabindranath tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading
publisher	Flinders University, Australia
publishDate	2014
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/39320/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/39320/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/39320/1/Humour_in_Rabindranath_Tagore.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:56:29Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:56:29Z
_version_	1777410338265759744

Humour in Rabindranath Tagore's selected early short stories: a freudian reading

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