Rabindranath Tagore in the 21st Century Theoretical Renewals [Hardcover]

This critical volume addresses the question of Rabindranath Tagore's relevance for postmodern and postcolonial discourse in the twenty-first century. The volume includes contributions by leading contemporary scholars on Tagore and analyses Tagore's literature, music, theatre, aesthetics, politics and art against contemporary theoretical developments in postcolonial literature and social theory. The authors take up themes as varied as the implications of Tagores educational vision for contemporary India; new theoretical interpretations of gender, queer elements, feminism and subalternism in Tagore's literary and social expressions; his language use as a vehicle for a dialogue between positivism, Orientalism and other constructs in the ongoing process of globalization; the nature of the influence of Tagore's music and literature on national and cultural identity formation, particularly in Bengal and Bangladesh; and intersubjectivity and critical modernity in Tagores art. This volume opens up a space for Tagores critique and his creative innovations in present theoretical engagements.

Chapter 1. Introduction: Theory and the Performative Politics of Punctuation.- Chapter 2. The Rustle of Language.- Chapter 3. Translating Tagore: Shifting Paradigms.- Chapter 4. Two Giant Brothers.- Chapter 5. Tagores Idea of World Literature.- Chapter 6. Rethinking Cosmopolitan Modernity: Rabindranath Tagore on Nationalism and Internationalism.- Chapter 7. The Bauhaus, Rabindranath Tagore and his Paintings.- Chapter 8. Why Ratan fell in Love Unnoticed and Why Ashu was Ashamed: Tagores Short Fiction and the Ethics of Feeling.- Chapter 9. Remembering Robi: Childhood, Freedom and Rabindranath Tagore.- Chapter 10. The Educational Efforts of Rabindranath Tagore.- Chapter 11.