“...kahāniyā͂ ākhir bantῑ kaise hai͂?!” (“…how, after all, do stories originate?!”). The Clash between Indian and Western Literary Traditions in Ajñeya’s Short Stories Cover Image

“...kahāniyā͂ ākhir bantῑ kaise hai͂?!” (“…how, after all, do stories originate?!”). The Clash between Indian and Western Literary Traditions in Ajñeya’s Short Stories
“...kahāniyā͂ ākhir bantῑ kaise hai͂?!” (“…how, after all, do stories originate?!”). The Clash between Indian and Western Literary Traditions in Ajñeya’s Short Stories

Author(s): Teresa Miążek
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: KSIĘGARNIA AKADEMICKA Sp. z o.o.
Keywords: Ajñeya; Hindi literature; short story; kahānī; realism; East-West encounter; rasa

Summary/Abstract: an application of traditional poetics of rasa to contemporary texts is investigated. The paper leads to the conclusion that while mastering the skill of short story writing, Ajñeya acted also as a theoretician, who attempted to teach Hindi writers and critics how to save their own tradition and identity in a clash with the West. He postulated that modernity should not exclude exploring one’s own traditional literature and art, it should focus on its transformation into modern idioms. This claim is presented as the writer’s literary manifest. Ajñeya’s demands analyzed in this paper are explained as resonating with some criteria of a modern short story later defined by the writers of naī kahānī school. It leads to the final conclusion that his achievements is this genre possess model features for creating modern short stories in Hindi.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 17
  • Page Range: 169-211
  • Page Count: 43
  • Language: English