Review Details

                                             BOOK REVIEW by RISHAKHI CHAKRABORTY   

 rishakhi1996@gmail.com

Song Offerings And Gitanjali - A Meta-critical Aesthete in Rabindranath Tagore

Author : AVIK GANGOPADHYAY                      Published by BOOKSWAY, KOLKATA

Reviewer : Rishakhi Chakraborty

Song Offerings And Gitanjali - A Meta-critical Aesthete in Rabindranath Tagore by Avik Gangopadhyay portrays the author's venture into the so-called traditional texts of Tagore with modern and postmodern critical approach to reach a point where the viability or the result of such delineation can be questioned. Any conclusions that can be drawn from such analysis are not taken into account by the author, he deliberately does so, and in 'Moments with the Readers' he says "I have never allowed the poet to recede behind the veil of theoretical superstructures."

Divided into four parts, the book concentrates on 'The Acritical Fact File', 'The Tradition Of Critical Approaches: East And West', 'New Idiom Of Ideas Beyond Traditional Criticism Of 'Song offerings' and another part, without a particular headline as the introduction, later titled as 'Rabindranath Tagore And The Idiom Of Poetic Criticism'.

This book revolves around the originality of Tagore in his 'Song Offerings', barring the underlying senses of Upanishads, Bible, Kabir's Dohe, Wordsworthian ideas, Keatsian concepts, etc. Though the source of spiritualism in Tagore originates from Upanishads, his poems and songs reflect his perspective of spirituality. The book also highlights the difference of 'Gitanjali' and 'Song Offerings', and the fact that the English 'Song Offerings' is not the translated version of the Bengali 'Gitanjali'. The two books and the poems may have a direct share of concepts, ideas, patterns, stylistics, yet, they are not completely same. The author also focuses on Tagore's poetic aestheticism, and the dilemma of the transcreating psyche of the poet.

The author talks about the essence of beauty to satisfy the independent individuality, Tagore's hymns, impact of Tagore on modern Bengali literature and, the union of European and Indian doctrines of beauty and the little scope of it, attainable in Tagore's literature, in the introduction of the book. Then, in the second part he goes on focusing on the English Gitanjali and its reviews in the West, and their perceptions. The author analyses the inspiration behind Gitanjali, Tagore's spirituality and spiritual beliefs, background and the events of Tagore's contemporary time, the then happenings, Tagore's lectures in his Shantiniketan - all in the context of Gitanjali. Then comes the topic of 'Transcreating Gitanjali', the source of inspiration, the role of inspiration, the context and everything else related to it. Part three focuses the search light on the differing approaches of East and West. Avik Gangopadhyay effectively analyses the timeline of publication of the poems in the Bengali 'Gitanjali', before discussing the compositional background of the two books, and their distinctive features. The compositions, their thematic angles, chronological threads, variation of genres, different schemes are discussed separately, for the two books, and then, their similarities and dissimilarities are highlighted. Vaishnavism, Baul, Doha's of Kabir, Upanishads - all their doctrines, threads, psychological traits, consciousness, all are found as pillars of the Gitanjali, on which rests the greater creativity of Tagore and his aesthetic thoughts. Oriental motifs are discussed profoundly before shifting the attention to western ones, like, Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, and their imagery, symbolism and stylistics. Tagore's use of resources and their merging with his original senses amuse us, as well as the author, as he goes on analyzing the aspect. He then gives his attention to the impact of the 'Song Offerings' on different sources, the independent poetic values of Tagore's creation, his style and poetic forms. The conflicting - spirituality and aesthetic ideas, and the quest of the poet are looked through. The book ends with a much interesting 'Mystic Harmony and Romantic Craving', where the author marks the power and strength of intense lyricism, fusion and interfusion of - concrete and abstract, construction and deconstruction.

The book is a wonderful take on 'Gitanjali' and 'Song Offerings', their similarities and the dissimilar aspects, with a complete decoding of the inspirations, the compositions and the types, the different genres, stylistics, sources, impacts, motifs, etc. To know Tagore in his purest form, barring the influencing pillars; to know Tagore within his creations, barring the not-so-original contents this book will be a path breaker for such a mind, lost in the quest.