My Interview Published by a Foreign Daily 14/11/2017 Education | Published : 12 Nov 2017, 16:58 Interview of Avik Gangopadhyay Ahmed Tahsin Shams talks to the contemporary Indian author on the literary industry of Bengal and its impact beyond borders 1540000 Online Desk The early age of Bangla literature is said to have an enriched historical background. Would you shed some light on the early age Bangla literary productions and practices and its chronological journey to evolution in course of time? I have a perception of my own about the study of Bangla literature and the methodology of reading its history. Having my roots spread over from Faridpur to Dhaka and myself being born and brought up in this part of Bengal, I can’t evade the conflict that there exists a trend in dividing literature as theirs’ and ours’. But the conventional approach, curriculum, writing of books on Bangla literature didn’t offer much scope to depart for a different level of study. To me, original writers were always few, imitators were many, some good and the rest inferior. Neither imitation nor continuation of trends and genres are evolution. Trend-setters were usually original. The taken-for-granted timeline in the history of Bangla literature seems somehow fragile to me—how can we say that this is the end of a literary age and the beginning of the other? A publication of a text and its subsequent following could be a more viable alternative that the critical historians should concentrate at more precisely. Could chronological study of literary works get us into the perception of evolution in literature? I still ponder… What difference you perceive in this journey comparing to the past productions and present productions? Do you think the glorious age of Bangla literature is gone or is it the contemporary? If not the contemporary, what could be the reasons that made the glory decline at present? I think, the early Bangla literature was framed by idealism, aesthetic harmony, pleasant narrative flavoured by a sense of structure and realism. This continued with extreme highs and average lows in the hands of the great writers and among their imitators. Both the growth –from- within and western influence have brought Bangla literature to create a new idiom, narrative experimentation, destruction of conventional plot--all flavoured by a socio-centric new-wave realism. Still the glory didn’t flee. The contemporary is not synonymous to decadence. When I started reading Joad’s Decadence during adolescence, I could see the traces of decadence in the cross-section of the society—gradually the blistering barnacles devoured every sphere---I still believe that a writer, without or with less reading, attains premature intellectual menopause—misconceptions on modernism, mannerisms or gimmickry in the name of realism made the decline visible---miscomprehended subaltern literature dominates the pages, it remained centered around a hyped-slang, deliberate attack on form, anti-culturism, immorality, rampant sexuality, drug-favouritism, loud but blunt political sloganism, now flavoured by artificial loose-fishplate-jerky broken sentence construction. As a result, authors with thematic uniqueness and narrative subtleties struggle hard. The syndrome is not yet over. Certainly, other sources of enlightenment created a competitive market for the book industry around the world. In order to flourish economically and aesthetically what steps you believe should be taken? Yes, books are on the back seat for the first time. It is difficult for me to answer, as most of my ventures are research-oriented, both myself and my publishers are well aware about the reach of my books. Here, a section of publishers are not informed or equipped enough to enhance their reach. The quality of production has undergone a sea-change but I think MBA in Publication and Marketing as a subject needs to be included to make a breakthrough in this sphere. In terms of aesthetics, share the role of censorship in literary productions and pros and cons of its impact. I don’t support literary censorship in any form. At the same time, I don’t champion misinformation in the name of interpretation with distortion of recorded facts. As the tradition of writing critical biography hasn’t been in the vogue here, demeaning personalities is the way left to some to come to focus. When some writers find in the life of an individual the worms in his or her shit more an admirable and realistic topic than his or her relaxing on the sofa by the sound-system playing Beethoven, the furor ripples out. Nowadays Bangla literature is reaching beyond borders via translation works, though in a limited way. To what extent, according to you, aesthetics in translation is maintained and how to measure that aestheticism in translation? I still fail to relent to the view that in translation, aesthetic considerations are usually secondary to clarity and accuracy. The material you’re translating has a lot to do with how important aesthetics is in the translation. For example, in translating a novel while accuracy and fidelity to the original remain important, the style you employ is just as important to the perceived success of the work. If one fails to render the coalescence of classical sobriety and poetic mellifluity of Rabindranath, the withering class aristocracy in Tarashankar, the pulsating inaudible tender nuances of Nature and spiritualism of Bibhutibhushan, the ornament-free naked realism of regional idiom in Manik Bandyopadhyay, the subtle all pervading underlying humour in a newly sought narrative of Shatinath Bhaduri---then the purpose is lost. A tiny amount of aesthetic sense in your translations is crucial, because your translations must be readable. If you’ve captured the information accurately but your sentences are so tortured that they are difficult to read, you’ve failed – clarity requires a bit of style. So while you can’t devote much time to it, you do need to incorporate a dash of aesthetic quality to your translation work. An artistic translation can succeed even if it isn’t very close to the original, in a way -- and in such cases perhaps aesthetics is even more important than accuracy. No, it is too difficult to measure. When it comes to translation very frequently the readers of a translated novel or poem or play cannot read it in the original language, and therefore may not have any way of comparing the style to the original. Translation works, at times, create wings for the original productions as they reduce language barriers. On the other hand, translation work deforms the original too, in many cases it is said. How to balance between these two critical issues? When it deforms the original essence, the original work loses the impression to the non-native readers. Do you think a community or group should have the power of evaluating translation works as well as permit which translation should be published? Or it should be the way it is now--- anyone can publish anything? Translation or ‘Transcreation’ as a distinctive discipline is still not here in the curriculum proper. The stray courses on translation are mostly amateurish. How many of us could bank upon a career of a translator? This passion-driven discipline is still subjective in nature. Theoretically, a subjective approach is not at all viable in translation---yes, wider readership is the coveted fruit but often it touches new lows to spoil most original works. I have translated 3 of my own English titles into Bengali--books related to the theories of art, literature, philosophy-had to create new Bangla words---with hesitation, audacity and discomfort yet with least effective help from any authority. In fact, no great writers are great translators. Europe has a rich expertise in translation where one can even get a postgraduate degree in Transcreation. We all know the potential of Bangla, its linguistic flexibility, subtlety---any ideational treasure can be voiced. Today the corpus of translation of Bangla works have increased but as you have rightly pointed out, ‘quality’ has remained a big concern. Well, anyone can’t translate & publish anything---it must not be---a regulatory body is always welcome involving ‘people of worth’ to do justice with the creative or critical work -- but there is also a caveat—it must not stoop to settle as a ‘selection’ or ‘rejection’ committee of nepotism. To what extent book fairs and literary festivals encourage author-publisher-reader relationship? What modifications you believe to be taken in this aspect? A ‘Fair’ has always its own impulse. Literary festivals or book fairs are no doubt a great exposure, an immense lure. But beneath the façade of the very ambience of the feel-good-factor, there are so many blank pages—people understand how things are made-up these days-- it is the number of people visiting fairs, the queue, the status-crowd, the celeb-shows from film-pop- sports, the cuisine of the numerous food courts, live reality shows, street-drama, bank stalls for home -loan and car-loan have usurped the vibrant presence of the genuine book lovers. At times I feel tempted to write at the giant gates of these fairs “Books are also available here”. Media attention revolves around all these pomp and grandeur. Book inaugurations are there, showcased authors do meet their fans but it has become quite a struggle to find out so many good titles lying under the dust of obscurity, in the shelves of unknown or least publicized publishing houses. The sale is plummeting down. The author- reader- publisher interactions do take place, often formal, few cordial, some effective and few-always-known hyped ones. I consider the free-entry of the fun-loving crowd or to use a cockney ‘coming-going, doing-nothing, buying-nothing’ public has been a hindrance for the genuine book lovers and readers to move and reach upto the shelves, have a close look into the pages of the world of the unknown. Like most of the European countries and some of the Latin American countries, purchase of books of a reasonable minimum amount is to be made compulsory. Share your literary works and ventures till now. It all started with the world of poetry as it appealed to me most. Most of my poems, written in late teens, are confined to me, often rendered in literary assemblages, finding print space in little magazines and weekend literary columns of newspapers, later published both in English and Bengali in Editions like The Murmur of the Mist( 2002), The Shadow before Dusk(2002), Shells Upon the Shore(2002), Rup Arup Aparup(2002), Vishanna Chhaya(2002), Ekaler Kobita(2004), Ekaler Chorita(2004). My short stories are published in the collections Morshumi Mon(2004), Anurag Golpo Samvar(2002), Ekhon Golpo(2010). Getting critical attention at home and abroad after editing 6 books of poems and short stories in Bengali and English, with a confident thrust, as a writer of critical literature I felt an urge to unravel the not-so-discussed or untrodden regions of the interdisciplinary studies. Aesthetics, theories of art and literature, the science of language and criticism beyond modernism, dead languages, not-so-discussed historical issues, philosophical and religious ‘ISMS’, reinterpreting myths and Indological studies became my frame. My core research was initiated with a collection of critical essays on the craving of creative psyche for ‘uncertainty’, my first publication, Quest for Uncertainty (2000). Then came two books, one on the philosophical ISMS and key terms that captures the essence of the eight major religions of the world, Philosophical and Religious ISMS (2005) and the other, a bilingual edition, Literary Theories and Criticism, Beyond Modernism (Sahityotatwo O Somalochona-Sahityo, Bibortone Onubortone, 2012) that attempts to see through the definitions, judgments and the characteristic features of the literary theories and the critical schools of literature, sweeping the critical consciousness of the 20th century. After a brief encounter with some Academic titles on Linguistics, English, Welsh and American grammatology, I worked for 7 years to complete another bilingual work on the existing literary genres, their evolution and aesthetic poignancy down the corridors of history across the globe, Literary Essays on Types Trends and Genres (2007, Sahityer Sanrup, 2013). I put an end to these types of works with my title Redefining the Definitions(2010), a collection of essays on the exponents of the postmodern theories in critical literature that emphasise the notions of unitary language, realities of heteroglossia, neo-identity of the writer, the innumerable centres of culture, language as a comforting illusion, that are inextricably intertwined with structuralism, semiotics, deconstruction, intertextuality, myth, deep structure, social identity and linguistics conjectured in the twentieth century. But I think Diaspora and Trauma Literature, (Diaspora, Tatwe O Obhighat Sahtiye), where I ventured in detail on Diasporic Theory and Literature, the reality of the refugees, asylum-seekers, returnees, internally displaced and stateless persons across the globe, capturing the psyche of the unwelcome migrant and refugee, linguistic imperialism, cultural hybridity through the narratives of immigrant literature, and Bhashar Mrityu, Lupto o Biponno Bhashar Khoj, an edition for the first time in Bangla that explores the world of the dead languages, extinct languages, endangered languages, the withering cultural heritage along with death of languages, the languages about to die, the causes of death of a language and reconstruction of language—are my seminal endeavours. Ahmed Tahsin Shams is Lecturer, Department of English Language and Literature, Notre Dame University Bangladesh (NDUB) View in Publication Site