Imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of Rabindranath Tagore and Saul Bellow, two Nobel Laureates

R.K. Narayan, a pioneer of South Asian fiction in English, once argued that the underlying objective of every Indian story is to create a “distinction between good and evil” and show that “goodness triumphs in the end… if not immediately, at least in a thousand years; if not in this world, at least...

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Main Author:	Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
Format:	Conference or Workshop Item
Language:	English English English
Published:	2015
Subjects:	PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN Literature (General) PS American literature
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/1/Imagining_the_%E2%80%9CEnemy%E2%80%9D-Tagore-Bellow.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/2/symposium_-schedule-abstract-programe.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/3/approval-letter-Japan_conference_-Quayum.pdf

id	iium-44601
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-446012015-10-07T03:48:18Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/ Imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of Rabindranath Tagore and Saul Bellow, two Nobel Laureates Quayum, Mohammad Abdul PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN Literature (General) PS American literature R.K. Narayan, a pioneer of South Asian fiction in English, once argued that the underlying objective of every Indian story is to create a “distinction between good and evil” and show that “goodness triumphs in the end… if not immediately, at least in a thousand years; if not in this world, at least in other worlds.” This literary trend of pitting “good” against “evil,” or creating an adversary for the protagonist who (s)he eventually defeats in a palpable or impalpable form, is not just an aspect of South Asian imagination, but a core ingredient of the human consciousness, as is evident in the pervasive duality of God/Satan, truth/falsehood, papa/punya, in all the major global religions. In this paper, I wish to examine the various representations of the adversary or “enemy” in selected fiction of two Nobel Laureates from two different historical periods and cultural backgrounds, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) and Saul Bellow (1915-2005). My contention is that, despite his reputation as a religious and mystical writer, Tagore often portrays the unscrupulous agents of decadent socio-cultural-religious practices as the “enemy” in his fiction, while Bellow, often categorised as a post-modern and existentialist writer, habitually sees the enemy in modern materialism and its temptations that stand in the way of soul’s quest for self-fulfilment and freedom. 2015 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/1/Imagining_the_%E2%80%9CEnemy%E2%80%9D-Tagore-Bellow.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/2/symposium_-schedule-abstract-programe.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/3/approval-letter-Japan_conference_-Quayum.pdf Quayum, Mohammad Abdul (2015) Imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of Rabindranath Tagore and Saul Bellow, two Nobel Laureates. In: Fifth International Symposium on Comparative Culture - Know Thine Enemy: Cultural Perspectives on Antagonistic Dynamics, 13 June 2015, Kanagawa University, Yokohama, Japan. (Unpublished) http://human.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/kenkyu/symposium/20150613en/index.html
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English English English
topic	PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN Literature (General) PS American literature
spellingShingle	PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN Literature (General) PS American literature Quayum, Mohammad Abdul Imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of Rabindranath Tagore and Saul Bellow, two Nobel Laureates
description	R.K. Narayan, a pioneer of South Asian fiction in English, once argued that the underlying objective of every Indian story is to create a “distinction between good and evil” and show that “goodness triumphs in the end… if not immediately, at least in a thousand years; if not in this world, at least in other worlds.” This literary trend of pitting “good” against “evil,” or creating an adversary for the protagonist who (s)he eventually defeats in a palpable or impalpable form, is not just an aspect of South Asian imagination, but a core ingredient of the human consciousness, as is evident in the pervasive duality of God/Satan, truth/falsehood, papa/punya, in all the major global religions. In this paper, I wish to examine the various representations of the adversary or “enemy” in selected fiction of two Nobel Laureates from two different historical periods and cultural backgrounds, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) and Saul Bellow (1915-2005). My contention is that, despite his reputation as a religious and mystical writer, Tagore often portrays the unscrupulous agents of decadent socio-cultural-religious practices as the “enemy” in his fiction, while Bellow, often categorised as a post-modern and existentialist writer, habitually sees the enemy in modern materialism and its temptations that stand in the way of soul’s quest for self-fulfilment and freedom.
format	Conference or Workshop Item
author	Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
author_facet	Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
author_sort	Quayum, Mohammad Abdul
title	Imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of Rabindranath Tagore and Saul Bellow, two Nobel Laureates
title_short	Imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of Rabindranath Tagore and Saul Bellow, two Nobel Laureates
title_full	Imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of Rabindranath Tagore and Saul Bellow, two Nobel Laureates
title_fullStr	Imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of Rabindranath Tagore and Saul Bellow, two Nobel Laureates
title_full_unstemmed	Imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of Rabindranath Tagore and Saul Bellow, two Nobel Laureates
title_sort	imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of rabindranath tagore and saul bellow, two nobel laureates
publishDate	2015
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/1/Imagining_the_%E2%80%9CEnemy%E2%80%9D-Tagore-Bellow.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/2/symposium_-schedule-abstract-programe.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/3/approval-letter-Japan_conference_-Quayum.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T21:03:24Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T21:03:24Z
_version_	1777410773328330752

Imagining the “enemy”: adversarial roles in the fiction of Rabindranath Tagore and Saul Bellow, two Nobel Laureates

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