Sumantra Baral, Amity University Kolkata
Keywords: 19th Century, Bengal, Hutom, Reform, Festive
Please leave comments, feedback, and research suggestions below.
Keywords: 19th Century, Bengal, Hutom, Reform, Festive
Please leave comments, feedback, and research suggestions below.
Hi Sumantra! I am also interested in the use of humor (particularly satire) in nineteenth-century texts, and I had a lot of fun reading your work!
I was wondering about your opinion of the use of humor in nineteenth-century literary realism. You write, “Humour was important as without it the text would have become a specimen of the history book collecting facts, describing incidents and making progress.”
Do you see satire, irony, etc. as a tools that serve realism in _Hutom_ or do they work to challenge the text’s genre (maybe “diluting” its realism, so to speak)?
Also, since you are interested in the act of history-writing, if you haven’t checked out Hayden White’s work on Metahistory, it could be helpful!
Thank you for sharing!
Hi Sumantra, the emergence of a new caste of Babu in the context of a radically shifting social hierarchy, and their creation of a distinct literary form, is a very interesting tale. Please keep me apprised of the progress of your research. I will very much like to share it with my students one day.