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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my.iium.irep.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 REM 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 |
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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 |
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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.
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Conference or Workshop Item |
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Quayum, Mohammad Abdul |
author_facet |
Quayum, Mohammad Abdul |
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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 |
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2015 |
url |
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 http://irep.iium.edu.my/44601/ http://human.kanagawa-u.ac.jp/kenkyu/symposium/20150613en/index.html |
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1643612605451862016 |
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13.18916 |