Shyamolima
A Selection of Short Contributions on Tagore
Commemorating the Opening of
Rabindranath Tagore's Dance-Drama
Shyama
Production: Sur-O-Chhando of Connecticut
April 15, 2000
Editor: Nitis Mukhopadhyay
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In Memoriam
Professor Atindra Mojumder, Ph.D.
(January 1, 1924 B March 6, 1993)
It is hard to forget his music composition and rendering of
Jibananando Das=s lyric
Abar ashibo phiré Dhanshiritir tiré
(Shall return again at the bank of the Dhanshiri river)
He was a pioneer in fostering AIndian Studies@
on the Australian soil. He was the Head of the
Indian Studies Department at the University of Melbourne.
He was a historian, Indologist, linguist, painter,
poet, composer and musician.
The Editor dedicates this magazine to his
father-in-law=s memory
with love and respect.
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Shyamolima: Table of Content
Editor: Nitis Mukhopadhyay
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction of the Contributors
The Editorial: Does It Matter That Tagore's Dance-Style Is Not ADhrupadic@?
Carlo Coppola
Tagore and Western Composers
S. Selina Jamil
The Creative Act of Listening in Tagore=s AFlute Music@
Amitabha Bhaumik
Sketch of a Violinist
Patrick Colm Hogan
Brahman, Bhakti, and Bodhisattvahood: Three Glimpses of Tagore's Politics
Shusmita Sen
So I am Waiting for the Message from the Poet of the World
Lalita Pandit
Emotion and Narration in Rabindranath Tagore's Fiction, Poetry, and Drama
Amitabha Bhaumik
Sketch of a Conductor
Gautam Kundu
Rabindranath Tagore and the 'Menace of Nationalism'
Nitis Mukhopadhyay
A Layman's Translations: Two Verses From Geetabitan
Sudipta Bhattacharya
Tagore's Work in Bengali Films: A Collage of Thoughts
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Introduction of the Contributors
Carlo Coppola holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Chicago, where he also completed the course work for doctorates in linguistics and in Sanskrit. He teaches South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, where he is also the Director for the Center for International Programs. From 1963 to 2000 he served as co-editor of the Journal of South Asian Literature, and has published scores of articles on and translations of South Asian literature, especially modern Urdu literature, as well as on English-language literature written by South Asians.
After receiving her Ph.D. in English from Michigan State University in 1997, S. Selina Jamil joined the University of Hartford as assistant professor of English. Two of her articles on Tagore are forthcoming in the Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies and in a book entitled Rabindranath Tagore in the New Millennium - Questions of Gender, Nation, Science and Tradition. Apart from her interest in South Asian literature, her areas of work include research in American literature. She has published an article on Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in Harvest: Jahangirnagar Studies in Literature (1992). Her book on Henry James is forthcoming from the University Press of America. She has also published poetry in literary magazines, and two of her poems are forthcoming in Ariel: A Review of International English Literature.
Amitabha Bhaumik is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the Department of Statistics at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He enjoys both drawing and painting.
Patrick Colm Hogan is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut, where he teaches literary theory, Indic literature, and Anglophone African and Caribbean literature. He is the author of six books, including the recently published Colonialism and Cultural Identity which has been hailed by Columbia University Professor Ainslie T. Embree as a Apioneering work that marks a breakthrough in scholarship in the field.@
Shusmita Sen has been a faculty member in the Department of English at Spokane Community College, Spokane, Washington for the last ten years. She has Masters degrees from Visva Bharti University, Santiniketan, India; Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma; and Eastern Washington University, Cheney, Washington. Special Interests: Twentieth-Century Fiction, Short Stories, and Women=s Literature. Hobbies and Pastime: Photography and Travel; Viewing Movies and Listening to Classic-Rock Music. Professional Affiliations: American Association of Women in Community Colleges (AAWCC) and Washington Assessment Group (WAG).
Lalita Pandit is a Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. She is an associate editor of College Literature, has co-edited, with Patrick Colm Hogan, Criticism and Lacan: Essays and Dialogue on Language, Structure, and the Unconscious; Comparative Poetics: Non Western Traditions of Literary Theory (Special Issue) and Literary India: Comparative Studies in Aesthetics, Colonialism, and Culture. Pandit has published essays on Literary Theory, Shakespeare, Tagore, Postcolonial Theory. She has also published short stories, and poems in English and Hindi. In recognition of her Poetry, the Kashmir Overseas Association honored Pandit with their 1999 Award for Outstanding Contribution to Kashmiri Culture.
Gautam Kundu is a an Associate Professor in the Department of Literature and Philosophy at Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia. He teaches American literature, modern British fiction, and Postcolonial Literatures and Theory. He is the editor of Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies. His current research interest includes comparative religion and cultural studies lives and works in South Georgia. His current interest is comparative religion.
Nitis Mukhopadhyay is a Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut. He coauthored two Ph.D. level books published by Marcel Dekker, Inc. and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., respectively. A solo book has been published recently (March, 2000) by Marcel Dekker. He is an Associate Editor of four international journals. He enjoys all sorts of music, including the Indian classical music as well as Rabindrasangeet. As a founder-member of Sur-O-Chhando, he participates and helps in organizing serious cultural programs, both in and out of state. He loves to translate into English some of the works of Tagore and other poets from Bengal. He writes critical essays and poems, both in English and Bengali. Some of his English poems have appeared in recent American anthologies.
Sudipta Bhattacharya is pursuing a Ph.D. degree in the Department of Statistics at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. He enjoys writing about films and short stories.