The Oxford India Anthology of Bengali Literature: 1861-1941

The Oxford India] Anthology of Bengali Literature: Volume I (1861-1941) spans a period of 80 years and includes the writings of some of the most representative figures in Bengali literature. Offering a judicious selection of a vast number of writers, the anthology includes works belonging to a wide range of genres including poetry, short story, novel, memoir, and essay, among others. The chronological listing of works by authors enables the readers to develop a sense of evolution of the various genres and sub-genres across the late nineteenth and early to mid twentieth centuries, while savouring this veritable feast of material.
The volume is divided into three sections. The poetry section begins with Michael Madhusudan Datta (1824-73), includes the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Sukumar Ray, Jibanananda Das, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Buddhadeva Bose, and Bishnu Dey, among others, and ends with Samar Sen (1916-87). The section on short fiction includes celebrated practitioners like Bankimchandra Chatterjee, Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath Thakur, and Sharatchandra Chatterjee, among several others. Rashsundari Devi, Debendranath Thakur, Jagadish Chandra Bose, and Indira Devi Chaudhurani are some of the names that figure in the section on prose non-fiction.

Kalpana Bardhan is Research Associate, Center for South Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.