Mukulika Dattagupta, Author at Adamas University

#LitNext : Pandemic and Literature

Human history has survived many moments of crisis and natural calamity. Pandemics are one such natural calamity and they are not new in the history of mankind. Many a times they are referred in many works of literature and sometimes they have given birth to several well-known works of literature. Currently when we all are quarantined online tools have become our best friends in terms of connectivity, as they connect us virtually to each other. But at the same time there is also the aspect of online fatigue which cannot be ignored at all. At this juncture books become our friends.

There are many books which referred and in some cases came into existence as a result of a pandemic. A very early record of such a Pandemic could be found in The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (c. 460-400BC), where he refers to the typhoid fever that took over the Athenian army during the war making them weak.

Apart from typhoid fever, measles and smallpox, plague occupies a very prominent place in the history of pandemics around the world. There are references of Antonine Plague (165-180 A.D), that came to the Italian peninsula with the soldiers. In Rome an outbreak of Cyprian Plague (251-266 A.D.) was recorded. Bubonic Plague or the Justinian Plague (541-750A.D.) started in Egypt and reached Constantinople killing a huge number of people. A Byzantine chronicler, Procopius has recorded this pandemic and has talked about the massive number of lives it claimed.

It is the 14^th century plague pandemic in Europe which has given this disease such a prominence not only in the history of pandemics but also in the history of literature. Many scholars believe that the disease originated among the sailors and was spread by them all over the continent.

There are many paintings depicting the impact of the disease in various parts of Europe. Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron is a famous work of literature that has captured the experience of the disaster caused by the disease in the form of stories. Another more recent reference could be Albert Camus’ The Plague, where he describes the pandemic as something which “rules out any future, cancels journeys, silences the exchange of views”. The author mocked at the fact that people actually “fancied themselves free…”, but the fact is “no one will be free as long as there are pestilences”. Thus using the pandemic of plague as a symbol Camus made apolitical statements on the relation of the oppressor and the oppressed.

There are also many other books like A Journal of the Plague Year (1664) by Daniel Defoe, The Last Man (1826) and The Scarlet Plague (1912) both by Mary Shelley where we get the references of Plague. Among Indian writers the celebrated Malayalam author and the Sahitya Akademi Awardee, U.R. Ananthamurthy’s Samskara contains references of plague as a pandemic, where the disease was a symbol of the stagnant orthodox values.

The outbreak of influenza or the Spanish Flu in the year 1918 was also mentioned in many works of literature. In the novel entitled Twilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali, the author says, “Delhi became a city of the dead…”. On the other hand some writers like the well known Hindi poet Surya Kant Tripathi ‘Nirala’ lost his loved ones during the pandemic. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in his Bengali poem Puratan Bhritya has referred to the outbreak of smallpox. The outbreak of smallpox is also referred in the works of Malayalam writers like Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai’s Thottiyude Makan and Kakkanadan’s Vasoori, highlighting the story of the human emotions and the moments of crisis.

Just like the pandemic of Plague, Cholera also occupies a very prominent place as long as pandemic in literature is concerned. In the works of Munshi Premchand like Eidgah, Doodh ka Dam, Rebati and many more we get the reference of cholera. In all these mentioned works there are references where people are dying of cholera and how the disease had an impact in the social life of the common people. The prominent Odia writer Fakir Mohan Senapati has also talked about deaths caused due to cholera and the dislocation of the families that took place due to the pandemic. Similar references of cholera could be found in the novel entitled Love in the Time of Cholera by the Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. All these books talk about the impact of a pandemic in the society and social relationships.

It is believed that with the European sailors many infectious diseases spread and killed massive number of people in various continents. For instance it is believed that it was the European colonizers which brought infectious diseases like plague and so on in Canada killing a huge number of indigenous populations and reducing the human resources of many communities to a large extent. We do not really know how far these stories are true, as it is a historical trend to hold a particular nation or community responsible for the cause of a pandemic.

For instance Roman Emperor Marcus Aurellius blamed the Christians for the outbreak of smallpox in his empire. Similarly during the consecutive outbreaks of plague in Europe brought accusations against the Jews of poisoning the wells. Also during 1980s KGB held the United States of America responsible for the outbreak of AIDS around the world.

The story of blaming each other using pandemic as a medium is thus very old. It seems to be an old trick to claim the top seat of the power hierarchy. But on a positive note, pandemics gave birth to the works of literature that captured the moments of human emotions at the time of a mass crisis. These works of literature help us to find a sense of life when we lead a quarantined life. We have got literature that made powerful statements against the illegal impositions by the authority on the common mass using pandemic as a symbol of protest. These books attach us back to people and life when we actually get detached from each other. Life and human co-existance appears to be precious in true sense in these works of literature.

#LitNext: Children’s Literature: Job Opportunities and Scope for Research

In our day to day lives the term Children’s Literature might not carry so much of importance. But we must not forget that it is the children’s literature which had shaped us into who we are today. Thus our day to day life is actually designed and developed on the basis of Children’s Literature with which we have grown.

At present Children’s literature has grown into a huge academic domain. Honestly speaking there is no specific definition of the term any longer. It now acts like a blanket term which accommodates various literary genres as well as oral narratives and songs. In academia, especially in the field of higher education and research Children’s literature has currently emerged as a very powerful domain, which covers many other fields of research like translation, phonetics, creative writing, arts and drawing and so on. Some well known organizations, like the British Council uses Children’s literature to organize English language teaching as well as creative writing workshops for the students.

Today the field of Children’s literature has also emerged as a powerful avenue in the publication industry. For instance around 10, 000 children’s books are published annually in UK alone. Popularity of Children’s Literature among the publishers clearly indicates job opportunities in this field. Also for a long time Children’s Literature remained a western dominated arena. Now the scenario is changing. Researchers and academicians are looking for the Children’s literature in various non western parts and communities around the world.

This changing trend has opened up new job opportunities. A requirement of translators in huge number is felt currently in the publication industry to translate the Children’s Literature of other regional languages into English and vice-versa so that they can be published and reach out to a bigger readership. Being Indians most of us are trilingual on an average. Indian students of English Language and Literature with good knowledge of Children’s Literature may nail such jobs in the publication industry in India and abroad.

For obvious reasons in the field of research and higher education Children’s Literature has gained a lot of importance with time. Many celebrated universities like, University of London, University of Alberta, Deakin University and many more have introduced Children’s literature as an important paper and some even have turned it into a separate department altogether.

Following the current footsteps of the international trends in higher education the Department of English Language and Literature of Adamas University also offers an important elective paper for its Master Degree students. As a response to this every year almost hundred percent of the existing students take up this paper as their favorite elective. The students enjoy the reading materials of this course for obvious reasons. They enjoy reading the good old stories under a new light and a new perception.

Children’s Literature is now a vibrant area of research. As it is already mentioned earlier that it is interlinked with various other disciplines like phonetics, linguistics, psychology, art, music and even politics, Children’s Literature offers an immense scope for the young researchers. In foreign universities as well, young scholars have the scope to pursue their research in this field.

Children’s literature though sounds very innocent and is meant for the innocent is actually not that innocent. From the time immemorial Children’s literature has remained an active field of politics. It has always acted as a medium of education and instruction. Children’s Literature has the power to shape a community and a nation. History has witnessed the use of Children’s Literature by the oppressors to oppress and impose stereotypes on the oppressed community and to stop the oppressed community from asking questions. On the other hand it has also witness a reverse motion where the Children’s Literature is used by the oppressed community to tell its own story and to train the children of the community to question their oppressors.

Children’s Literature is also used to make comment on the contemporary social and political issues like racism, gender, sexual harassment and so on. Such an active and vibrant filed of Children’s Literature always offers immense scope for jobs as well as for research. In both cases the student is free to explore the international avenues as well. Our childhood may end but our journey with Children’s Literature may never end.

George was not the Blue Eyed Black Boy: Police Brutality and African American Community

The identification of recent case of George Floyd with a class lecture on African American History by one of my students attracted my attention to reevaluate the aspect of police brutality as a tool of oppression and its expression of its effects in the lives of the oppressed people in the works of many African American intellectuals.

African American bodies were always treated like objects of brutality of every genre even medical as expressed in the book by Harriet Washington entitled Medical Apartheid (2007). Adding to this sexual exploitation and toils of slavery were present from the very day the first ship full of slaves embarked on its voyage from a coast of the African continent to touch another coast across the Atlantic ocean, where their dark complexioned bodies would be sold at a high price, to eventually turn slave trading into a hundred percent profitable trade.

Books like Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) and Cudjo’s Cave (1864) though showcase a sense of mercy by the ‘Whites’ towards their ‘colored’ counterparts yet depict a grotesque picture of violence practiced by the ‘White’ masters upon their slaves. Both these works have characters of runaway slaves. In numerous autobiographies by the runaway slaves like, A Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (1860), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) and so on we get a first hand record and sometimes experience of these brutalities over the bodies of the slaves.

After the abolition of slavery in the era of Ku Klux Klan, lynching and mobbing of African Americans became a common practice in the name of protecting the body of the white woman from the African American male. History has seen many examples of police brutality becoming a part of this practice. Many African American writers of the Harlem Renaissance have questioned and have criticized this brutal practice over the body of the African Americans.

Playwright like Georgia Douglass Johnson protested lynching and mobbing of the African Americans in her plays. One of her famous one act plays is Blue Eyed Black Boy (c.1930). Racist society along with biased police and judiciary system against an innocent ‘Black’ boy occupies the centre state of this play. In this short one act play the playwright has put the power hierarchy on the basis of complexion, present in her contemporary United States of America, under scrutiny. The end of the play takes the audience to a realization that the birth of the Blue eyed Black boy was also a result of an exploit and his death would also have been the result of a similar brutality.

Jack, the absent protagonist of the play Blue Eyed Black Boy reminds us of various colored victims of police brutality like George Floyd in Minneapolis, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Eric Garner in New York and many more. Such cases also got dramatic and fictitious depictions in various political and court room dramas like Scandal, The Good Wife and so on.

While talking about the victim we ignore the family members who are indirectly and sometimes even directly get affected by such brutalities. In this play Georgia Douglass Johnson has tried to depict the pain suffering and anxiety of the family members of these victims. While looking into the collective aspect of the impact of police brutalities we land up at the conclusion that racial oppression and sexual oppression are not different from each other they get triggered from each other.

Modern feminist scholars tend to identify feminism as a collective movement. In other words it is a movement against injustice of every kind and in support of every victim of any oppression, irrespective of the sex, creed, color, ethnicity or nationality. Modern African American collective feminist movements have kept such collective racial issues at their focal point.

In the year 1970 one such communist feminist Dr. Angela Davis was arrested on account of her association with the protest movement against the wrongful imprisonment of three African American youngsters in Soledad prison of California. These three young men were together referred to as Soledad Brothers. It is interesting to note that the then President of the United States of America Mr. Nixon congratulated the FBI immediately after the arrest of Dr. Davis saying:

“…capture of the dangerous terrorist, Angela Davis.”

History then witnessed a huge movement almost all over the world demanding freedom of Dr. Davis.

This picture seemed to have remained unchanged even after almost 50 years of Dr. Davis’s arrest. President Trump’s statement regarding the protest movements across the United States of America against the police brutality towards the African Americans gives us a similar picture as he said:

“You’ve got to arrest people, you have to track people, you have to put them in jail for 10 years and you’ll never see this stuff again…,”

These collective movements never remain limited to family and friends but involve the whole community. Sometimes such movements even gather supporters of social justice from every part of the world. The works of various African American writers give us an insight within the complex framework of racial oppression and Black feminist theories. Thus encouraging the study of the intertwined issues of race, gender and class as represented in works of African American authors during different time periods. Interestingly incidents of lynching, mobbing and police brutality remained at the centre of these works. It would not be wrong to consider Anti-lynching plays as an early way to give expression to today’s Black Lives Matter movement.

Anti-lynching plays are the forms of protest theatres which foregrounds the struggle against the white male dominant order of the American society. It would be interesting to note that in the first half of twentieth century both White and Black playwrights were documenting anti-lynching plays. Anti-lynching plays are important references to the public movements protesting the brutality practiced on the Black bodies. Many of these plays highlight the role of both Black and White women in such protests, sowing the seeds of defining feminism as a collective movement.

A painful past is always difficult to reconnect with. But as the well known African American author Toni Morrison has always emphasized on the fact that it is extremely important to stand face to face with the history irrespective of its unpleasantness, otherwise it haunts us. These anti-lynching plays may serve as the historical documentation of the struggle of a community for social justice. Through their works they have developed a collective movement which is still going on.

Current protests all over America can looked upon as an extension of the same protest movements that took place in the past. A literary piece can be banned, people can get killed but ideas and concepts hardly die. These movements have proved that ideas and concepts related to social justice never remain limited to pen and paper. The protests on the streets are the practical reflections of people’s understanding of their history and their identity. It is now setting new dimensions to the race relations in the country.

The apologetic gesture of various government and non government organizations across the nation can actually be read as the joining of voices in favor of social justice around the world. The dialogue between the two races which was always a matter of emphasis of all the social reformers from the very beginning, is probably going to commence very soon. Are we witnessing an important juncture of history? The answer is resting deep in the womb of time.

Children’s Literature in a Quarantined Community

In the current quarantine times it is important to support each other and to build up a stronger and healthier community feeling. Together as a team and with immense cooperation we can win over such difficult and trying times. These words are not new. These are the survival strategies which human beings have taken up from the time immemorial.

It is only that our current illusion of remaining connected to the world that has turned us into lonely beings and has made us forget these old survival tactics. It seems that the current crisis of the human existence has again reminded human beings of humanity. As human beings we were suddenly reminded of our co existence in the community together.

The lessons of coexistence have to be learnt afresh. These age old values of sharing, compassion and a concept of collective experience is the essence of various oral narratives around the world. These oral narratives were basically designed to educate the children of the community. But this wonderful world of oral narratives has always fascinated people of every age group.

These oral narratives from around the world have one trait in common. Most of these narratives talk about the responsibilities which human beings have towards their community and towards nature. These narratives always remind us that we are a part of nature. Most of these narrative uses incidents and symbols to imply that human beings are not born to dominate or exploit nature rather we exist to nurture our natural surroundings.

Almost all communities around the world have got narratives of origin. For instance some origin stories of certain indigenous communities in Canada describe the aid of the natural elements given to the human beings to secure land and to thrive on it. Such narratives also talk about the sense of eternal gratitude which human beings must have towards nature and all its sources. Ancient Indians believed in worshipping all the natural resources which later on took the form of gods. Same is the case with the Egyptian stories of origin and Mesopotamian cultural discourse. Of course one cannot forget the Greco-Roman tradition and the oral narratives which describe the story of origin and now are a part of the Greco-Roman mythology.

Again coming back to the idea that children’s literature is a blanket term. Generally the oral narratives we are talking about are accommodated under the broad category of children’s literature, of which the art of storytelling is the key component. Storytelling is considered to be a fascinating medium of instruction till date. Children learn to think and evaluate incidents around them from these oral narratives. These narratives have an objective to train the children of their respective community but at the same time they are also valuable pieces of knowledge for grownups. For example Jataka Tales told by Gautama Buddha to preach the lessons of life.

Keeping the idea of instruction in mind let us now look into the aspect of nature in these oral narratives. We have discussed that how these narratives try to train the children about their responsibilities towards their community and society with an emphasis towards the fact that human beings are a part of nature.

In this digital world where we all are netizens, survive under the illusion of remaining connected to each other. In our fancy to remain virtually connected to the big bright world outside we generally forget to remain connected with the little yet bright world around us sometimes even neglecting that. Children nowadays hardly go out to play. They hardly listen to any story. The art of oral story telling is gradually losing its grounds. Yes though it sounds bad yet we have to accept the fact that we live and depend on digital world for our survival. Thus we cannot do away with this virtual world around us but maybe we can look for a way out to harmonize and to strike a balance between the digital and the natural world.

At present the term quarantine seemed to be very popular. Delve deep in thought and we will probably end up realizing that how quarantined we actually were in our digital world long before COVID-19 invaded our real world. Today as we are literally unable to make it outside our home, thus these digital tools are literally connecting us. Our long lost connection with the nature around us may get reconnected n the current hard times and the digital tools around us may play a vital role in truly reminding us of the real natural world around us and our responsibilities towards the same.

Today’s digital platforms are introducing some animated audio-visual series based on oral narratives. These series are technically meant to cater the child audience though anybody can watch and enjoy them. These audio-visual initiatives for children, which are inspired from oral narratives, are trying to remind the child of the digital world about his/her responsibilities towards the real and the natural world around him/her.

Masha and the Bear (2009) by Oleg Kuzovkov, is one such creation. The stories of Masha depict a mischievous little girl and her animal friends from a wood nearby. She wonders around in the woods on her own. Masha’s family is never depicted in the stories, as if the forest and the animals in it are her family. She shares a very special bond with the Bear, who acts more like a guardian towards her, just like a parent.

Masha’s little stories and adventures with all her friends are inspired by various Russian oral narratives. Masha is very mischievous yet very helpful. She tries to make the bear happy though many a times she ends up in a mess. Similarly the bear happily cleans up and tolerates all her mess and in turn tries to make her happy. For instance, Masha’s desire to go to school inspired the bear to use his skills in carpentry, sewing, teaching and so on to prepare a school like atmosphere for Masha in his own house.

There are also instances when the bear wants to prepare Jams using fruits to keep them in store for his period of hibernation, but he feels very tiresome to do all that amount of work alone. Masha, with help of other animals, helps the bear to accomplish the task. Masha, though is little, she is very clear about her ideas of sharing the natural resources with other animals and to coexist with them. She is very responsible towards her friends in the woods. She tries to help them out whenever they are in need. Of course she gets the same in return.

Both Masha and the Bear compliment each other’s loneliness. This series is now available on digital platforms like Netflix, Youtube and so on. The series was translated into twenty five languages and was broadcasted in almost one hundred nations around the world. Masha depicts the concept of coexistence of humans with their natural surroundings and resources. She believes in sharing love, food and shelter with her little community of friends who are animals of a forest.

Through this series, Kuzovkov has tried to take us back to the long forgotten values of community feeling and sharing the natural resources and its importance for the human existence. Masha and the Bear is like an old wine in a new bottle. Like a well-wisher she portrays the fact that even when we remain glued to our computers we must not ignore our responsibilities towards the community as it is the key to overcome and survive any difficult time.