CU-BA-Eng-SEM-V-English literature-V-Second Draft

know what offense was – I swear by my mother, I didn’t! I insisted on marriage. So I could live my beautiful, lovely dreams openly. Like others! But all of them including my mother – were opposite to it. After this hurtful experience, she wanted to kill herself by any way but she didn’t. She looked for an identity of her own in an exclusively unfavorable society where men have little love for women; where men are more excited and hungry for the physical pleasures of women. Despite her previous mistake, again she falls in love with Prof. Damle, whom she worships as a Lord. But he too used her body for physical pleasure and turns his back to her. This dissertation and embarrassment is insufferable to a abandoned woman. In the court, Miss. Benare’s crimes of infanticide and unlawful maternity are recognized by the suit as crime against society. The mock trial holds reflect to our social response to ethical values. Sex is a private matter in one’s life, but there are definite social and ethical values also associated to it. Before marriage or after marriage sexual relations are condemmed in society. The rules of society in practice are most severe for women than for men. Tendulkar highlights on the insincerity of the society that excuses men and women for the same types of offence. Benare’s maternal uncle no where expresses as charged of committing incest with her. Likewise Prof. Damle is only a witness in the trial court of the case. While Benare is blamed of the society of law. We also find that the true opponent of a suffering woman in society is not only the social forbidden traditions, customs, rites and male prejudice, but also the unresponsive and cold dealing of a womam with other woman. Benare’s mother turns a deaf ear to her while Mrs. Kashikar, one of the members of the play carried out physical violence to pull her to the dock. She has negative views against her and does not hesitate to say that this young unmarried girl gets everything without marrying. She demonstrates her doubt, how can Benare stay without marriage at the age of thirty-four?” It is interesting that Mrs. Kashikar reflects here a traditional housewife who has no concern with the progressive and contemporary attitude of a young girl in the modern societal. According to her, her whole life is the family in which she is brought up and for which happiness she had to go ahead a future life. But consequently, Benare stands for a progressive and educated life. She wants to emerge out of the command of a patriarchal supremacy. Ms. Benare’s character recalls us of the unlike characters represented by the women novelists like Shashi Deshpande, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Shobha De in their literarary works. These novlists also uncovered the miseries of the women at the hands of the male dominated society. Except the character of the play, nearly all the other characters are suffering from cruelty and inferiority complex. Sukhatme is a failure lawyer, Mr. and Mrs. Kashikar has no issues, they are childless. Ponkshe is an interfailed scientist. Thus as Karnik is concerned, he is failed actor. The same is the case with Rokde, who failed to achieve an independent life. In other words we can say that these characters have no individuality of their own. Tendulkar in his creation ‘Silence! The court is in session’ chooses a term of the legal register as the title of his play to make a influential command on society with a weighty patriarchal bias that makes justice unfeasible. A court is supposed to be a seat of justice, significance and respectability. 51 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

All through this play, He also makes an assessment of the today’s court procedures, and finds out the problem of the ruinness of the court. The role of the judge in this play is itself – ironic a judge is normally free from prejudice and unusual uttering. But here the case is just otherwise. The judgement itself seems more ridiculous. Mr. Kashikar says to Benare : “The crime you have committed are most dreadful. There is no pardon for them … no momento of your offense should remain for next generations. Hence this court hereby sentences that you shall live. But the child in your womb shall be smashed.” She is sensitively harassed but still starves to search for her survival. She has a immense tolerance to endure. She is the picture of blamelessness and sympathy. However she is offended at every stage, she has not done harm to any one. If she did harm to anyone, it is her own self. The difficulty and plunder of a weak woman has been best articulated in the play. He has always been controversial because he has always been contemporary in his concerns, both social, political and theatrical. All his plays deal with the domination of the weak by the powerful. He treats his female characters with understanding and compassion. ‘Silence! The court is in session’, is a naturalistic play. 3.9 FEMALE CHARACTERS AND THERE SIGNIFICANCE Angry Young Man of Marathi Theatre: With the production of Silence! Court is in Session in 1967, Tendulkar became centre of general controversy. He had already gained the name Angry Young Man of Marathi Theatre. But now he is definitely identified as a rebel against the established values of a fundamentally orthodox society. A theatre group from Bombay comes to a village to stage a play in a mini cross-section of middle-class society. The members of group are representatives of sub-strata. Their spiteful attitudes to Leela Benare, the central character of the play, reflect their malicious and spiteful attitude towards their fellow beings. A well targeted conspiracy is hatched out against her, and in the name of a mock trial, they expose and dissect her personal life and blight her psyche. Their attitudes towards her reveal the basic 86 hypocrisy and double standards of society. The play exposes the vulnerability of women in Indian society. Critics and scholars have quite often accused Tendulkar of taking off ideas from western plays and films and given them an Indian grab in his plays. But at the same time it is clear that in early days Tendulkar was influenced by western films, mainly the Hollywood films of the forties, and western playwrights like Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and J. B. Priestley in particular. He was also stated that, he has consciously or unconsciously been inspired by just about everything around him: real life experiences, hearsay, news items, films, plays and literature in general... But the basic urge has always been to let out his concern viz-a-viz his reality: the human condition as perceive it. His plays span varied issues which explain their appeal to a cross section of society ‘Kamala’ attacks the media’s credo of ‘anything for good story’, to Mitrachi Gost there is a bold look at hetero and homosexual love (116) Tendulkar is Osborne of Indian theatre. His Leela Benare in Silence! Remind us Ibsen’s Nora who challenges outdated customs and traditions. Sakharam is duplicate copy of 52 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Jimmy Porter, representative of frustrated post 1970 generation. Encounter in Umbugland, which was written and produced a year after ‘Silence!’ is a play that is totally different in nature. It falls in separate class in comparison with Silence, Kamala, Gidhade (Vultures) and Sakharam Binder. It is essentially a political allegory but not devoid of dimensions. It is helpful to trace reflections of the political situations in India of the late sixties and early seventies in the royalist regime of Umbugland. The play is not merely topical but also 87 unveils the essential nature of the game of politics as also basic craving for power in human nature. Tendulkar weaves, exposes the intricate political intrigues calculated to attain positions of authority and the corruption involved in holding on to them. It is easy to identify the characters with political figures that held ministerial positions in those years. This play has usual three act structure. In this play apparent observations are made on the recent developments of political situation of Umbugland. Tendulkar’s Ghashiram Kotwal is another political satire that raised hue and cry in political circles. In ‘Ghashiram’ power is designed ‘horizontally’ in terms of individuals against individuals, from humiliation, to revenge in assertion, to eventual victimization; played out against a background of political and moral decadence and degeneracy, with sexuality impinging on strategies of power. Religion manifest in caste dominance and ceremony is a device of power in ‘Ghashiram’. But it is more as an abstraction of awe than as material force. Nana needs Ghashiram, and Ghashiram needs Nana. But in the shifting game of power, it is temporary adjustment that Nana exploits as long as necessary and can drop unceremoniously the moment it has served its purpose. Samik Bandopadhyay makes a comment about Tendulkar’s political plays, Tendulkar in his social criticism is more concerned with the Mechanism of power operating within the society than With the economic and political implications and sources of That power.7 Gidhade (The Vultures) is chronologically the next play by Tendulkar (1970). It is entirely different kind of work that underlines 88 the astonishing range of Tendulkar’s dramatic genius. Tendulkar seems keen to demonstrate the basic and essential complexity of human nature, which is neither black nor white, but varying shades of grey. The function of art is not to provide answers or solutions but to raise questions. While exposing hypocrisies and foibles of an individual as well as society, Tendulkar urges upon the audience to ponder over problems. All the characters of Tendulkar are combination of good and evil, weakness and strength. Sakharam, though apparently crude, aggressive and violent, has his own laws of personal morality. He is a man who is primarily honest and frank. This opener of his personality becomes in itself a criticism of the hypocrisy of the middle-class. Sakharam ridicules the double standards of the middle class society. His straightforwardness in dealing with helpless women such as Laxmi, demands a certain admiration. Tendulkar’s another play in naturalistic manner is Kamala. It is also a topical play. It was inspired by a real life incident based on the 90 ‘Indian Express’ exposed by ‘Ashwin Sarin’, who actually bought a girl from a rural flesh market and presented her at a press conference. At the centre of the play Kamala is a self- seeking journalist, Jaising Jadhav. Jadhav treats the woman he has purchased from the fleshmarket as an object that can buy him promotion in his job and a reputation in his 53 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

professional life. He is one those modern day individuals with a single-track mind, who pursue their goal doggedly. Jadhav never stops to think what will happen to Kamala after this depiction. Tendulkar makes a dig at the much talked-about modern concept of the so-called investigative, journalism which stresses the sensational unmindful of the damaged psyche of the victim. Tendulkar depicts Jadhav’s concept of newspaper reporting in a critical light by highlighting the rat-race that goes on in this scenario. Tendulkar’s play portrays different aspects of human characters. All of them underscore the complexity of human relationships. Most of his plays deal with the individual pitted against the society and explore the tensions between the two. In all of them, women play key roles in the plot. All the plays contain a subtle critique of modern middle-class and lower middle-class Indian society. Most of Tendulkar’s dramas follow the naturalistic model of dramaturgy. Although there is similarity; the plays are clearly distinct from each other. Silence! The Court is in Session combines social criticism with the tragedy of the individual. Gidhade (Vultures) deals with a strange blend of brutality and compassion, the economic and moral degeneration of a family. Sakharam Binder shows the great objectivity and complications in human nature, two necessary components of which are sex and violence. Kamala is a denunciation 91 of the success-oriented male dominated society where women are often victims or stepping stones in men’s self-advancement. Tendulkar’s plays open end may be seen as one of its striking features. Tendulkar’s theme as well as form; from purely naturalistic plays and dark tragedies to farces, from musical set in traditional folk modes to absurd drama and from full length plays to one act plays. In the thematic point of view, his plays are ranged from social individual tensions to the complexities of human characters. From the exploration of man- woman relationship to the reinterpretations of historical episodes, the greatest quality of Tendulkar as a creative writer and dramatist rests in the fact that he can simultaneously involve and distance himself from his creation. This affords his works with infinite subtlety. Two other hallmarks of his creative self are his sense of humour and his intense compassion, which are sometimes difficult of notice because of their invisible quality. Tendulkar is a great name in Marathi theatre and he has refurnished it with vigour and vitality to awaken the dormant conscience of society through the medium of art. 3.10 SUMMARY  While the play is set in modern independent India that has a constitution that provides equal rights to everyone irrespective of caste creed or gender, Tendulkar’s play demonstrates that this is not the case in real life situations.  The wielders of authority, the controllers of opinion, the initiators of action are usually powerful people with a long history of support systems. Their understanding of their new role is not as citizens of a democracy, it dates back to a hierarchical socio-economic system that is much older. 54 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Their notion of social reform and change is largely superficial. As Tendulkar proves, by scratching a little, their deep seated convictions and prejudices are uncovered. It takes very little to rupture the thin façade of emancipation and liberalism that they try to project.  Women in this world are still extremely vulnerable and subject to most danger, both in the private sphere and in the public sphere.  How is this society, ostensibly free and rational an improvement on that which existed before? Is this the question that the playwright would like the audience to ponder over?  This is where the very important role played by literature is highlighted. By creating a real-life situation and giving us all the points of view through a host of characters the playwright expects us to mull over the issue, Benare’s story ends sadly, but it has definitely alerted us to women’s vulnerability and exploitation in patriarchal societies. It has also alerted us to the prejudice and meanness displayed by people in positions of power and control.  Like Benare, we as readers, are unable to avenge ourselves on the Damles, Kashikars and Sukhatmes of this world. However, they have been demystified for us. We no longer look at them with awe nor do we feel anything other than anger and contempt for them.  The play also sensitizes us to Benare’s precarious position in this hostile and unfair society. It also enables to understand why Mrs. Kashikar and Rokde behave in the way they do. Completely under Kashikar’s control, neither of them has the power to break free from him and think differently. They are allowed to survive because they collude with the authority figures and are hostile to Benare, who threatens them by her free thinking and independence. 3.11 KEYWORDS  Bhajan -a devotional song 55  Schoolmarm -a female schoolteacher  Barrister-lawyer  Flamboyant-elaborate, colorful, and bold  Sahib -a term for \"sir\" or \"master\"  Symposium -a gathering to exchange ideas on a topic  Keen -to be alert, sensitive, aware  Infanticide- killing a baby CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

 Injurious -harmful  Aforementioned -mentioned previously  Irksome -annoying, obnoxious  Reprimand-to chastise  Abrogating-abolishing; refusing to undertake; suppressing or preventing  Farce - an empty or patently ridiculous act, proceeding, or situation (m-w.com)  Exemplary -excellent, deserving commendation  Insolence -impudent, contemptuous, bold  Decorous -in good taste, correct  Promiscuity -a state of having multiple sexual partner 3.12 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. Write how nationalism affect the writer ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. State the significance of the female characters in the play ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 3.13 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. Write a character sketch of Leela Benare 2. Why did Benare slap Rodke? 3. Why does having a \"woman in the dock\" mean that \"the case has a different complexion\" 4. State the part which shows the particary in the Indian society. 5. Write the character sketch of Mr and Mrs.Kasikar. Long Questions 1. The play’s main narrative line and several of its secondary ones all explore its overall thematic interest in the struggle of an individual to achieve independence. 56 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

2. Children … are so much better than adults. At least they don’t have that blind pride of thinking they know everything. There’s no nonsense stuffed in their heads. They don’t scratch you till you bleed, then run away like cowards.” -- Miss Benare –Explain 3. Describe about the play which portrays the failure of the judicial system. 4. Write about the pains of a women in the society faced at times unknowingly. 5. A speech of ten seconds changed the complete atmosphere of the court. Explain how speech can be so powerful. B. Multiple Choice Questions 1.Tendulkar has written original scripts for film makers like ---------------------------------------- ------------------ a. Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani. b. Stepen King and Govind Nihalani. c. Shyam Benegal and J.P.Dutta d. Shyam Benegal and Jaising Jadhav 2. The First Title Vijay Tendulkar chooses Judicial Register as the title of his play to make a powerful comment on a society with a ------------------------------------------that makes justice impossible. a. heavy patriarchalbias b. heavy matrial c. heavy communal d. Satrical story 3. A ---------------------------------of infanticide was leveled against Miss. Benare one of the members of the show. a. playwright b. Elegy c. Mock epic d. mock accuse 4. A theatre group from Bombay comes to a village to stage a play in a -------------------------- of middle-class society. a. Sectional division b. mini division 57 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

c. cross-section d. mini spectrum 5. Critics and scholars have quite often accused Tendulkar of ------------------------------------ and given them an Indian grab in his plays. e. taking off ideas from ancient plays and films f. taking off ideas from politician plays and films g. taking off ideas from western plays and films h. taking off ideas from eastern plays and films Answers 1-a, 2-a, 3-d, 4-a, 5-b 3.14 REFERENCES References book  \"Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar dies\". IBN Live. Retrieved 17 December 2013.Vijay Tendulkar profile at India club  The Frontline Archived 20 February 2012 at the Way back Machine, Dec. 2005  \"Vijay Tendulkar: Indian theatre's only complete philosopher\". India Today. Retrieved 23 July 2018. Shanta Gokhale, Theatre critic and writer  Violence 'Gidhade' and beyond Shāntatā! Court Chālu Aahe on IMDb  THEATER REVIEW, 'SAKHARAM BINDER', New York TimesLokvani, 07/30/2003  Ashis Nandy on Violence in Vijay Tendulkar's works  An Introduction to 'The Cyclist', 2001 58 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT -4: ROBINTON MISTRY :SUCH A LONG JOURNEY STRUCTURE 4.0 Learning Objectives 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The Early Phase :Until 1950 4.3 The second Phase : 1950- 90 4.4 Life of Robinton Mistry 4.5 Overview of the story 4.6 Analysis of the story 4.7 Political and Social issues in ‘Such a Long Journey’ 4.8 Literary significance of the work 4.9 Summary 4.10 Keywords 4.11 Learning Activity 4.12 Unit End Questions 4.13 References 4.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to:  Describe nature of Parsi Literature  Identify the political angle in writing  State the need and importance the writings of Robinton Mistry  Explain the literary aspects of the writing 4.1 INTRODUCTION The growth of Indian writing in English is exceptional. From the likes of Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan, Jayant Mahapatra to Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, Shashi Deshpande etc., literature lovers have tasted India in its bare reality. As soon as any writer’s creativity is out in black and white, the writer gets drawn under the spot-light. And Rohinton Mistry is no exception to it. Such a Long Journey (1991), which happens to be Mistry’s debut novel, acquaints us with how brilliantly he uses and sometimes experiments with his language. The 59 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

accent he uses gloriously to tell his tale and the description of the piquant reality of the common man getting entangled in the socio- political issues of the society as well as the country is absolutely crafty. Considered a masterpiece, Such a Long Journey, heralds Mistry’s arrival as a gifted novelist. This paper delves into two such dominant themes, which shape the entire novel. First, the declining social stature of Parsis in post independent India that remains one of the gravest concerns for the Parsi community. Their dissatisfaction is beautifully portrayed through an internal analepsis technique. Second, politics that strikes the characters’ lives stands as another major theme in the novel. The manner in which the political scenario happens to directly have an impact the common mass is equally laudable. Rohinton Mistry’s works instantly draw our attention towards the Parsi Community, for the Parsis and their culture are one of the most dominating aspects of Mistry’s novels. The Parsis are a small, united and religious community in India. They are followers of Zoroastrianism, the faith originally propagated by the prophet Zoroaster between 1500 B.C. and 600 B.C. Parsis are basically, the natives of Iran (ancient Persia). Their ancestors fled due the growth of Indian writing in English is exceptional. From the likes of Mulk Raj Anand, R. K. Narayan, Jayant Mahapatra to Arundhati Roy, Salman Rushdie, Shashi Deshpande etc., literature lovers have tasted India in its bare reality. As soon as any writer’s creativity is out in black and white, the writer gets drawn under the spot-light. And Rohinton Mistry is no exception to it. Such a Long Journey (1991), which happens to be Mistry’s debut novel, acquaints us with how brilliantly he uses and sometimes experiments with his language. The accent he uses gloriously to tell his tale and the description of the piquant reality of the common man getting entangled in the socio- political issues of the society as well as the country is absolutely crafty. Considered a masterpiece, Such a Long Journey, heralds Mistry’s arrival as a gifted novelist. This paper delves into two such dominant themes, which shape the entire novel. First, the declining social stature of Parsis in post independent India that remains one of the gravest concerns for the Parsi community. Their dissatisfaction is beautifully portrayed through an internal analepsis technique. Second, politics that strikes the characters’ lives stands as another major theme in the novel. The manner in which the political scenario happens to directly have an impact the common mass is equally laudable. Rohinton Mistry’s works instantly draw our attention towards the Parsi Community, for the Parsis and their culture are one of the most dominating aspects of Mistry’s novels. The Parsis are a small, united and religious community in India. 4.2 THE EARLY PHASE: UNTIL 1950 Parsis as an immigrant community have displayed a remarkable linguistic adaptability. When they arrived in India in the seventh century, they willingly made Gujarati, one of the Indian languages, their native tongue. But most Parsis are bilingual, and they retained their links with Persian, the language of their culture and tradition. Parsis were among the first communities in India to have acquired acquaintance with European languages. In the first phase of European colonialism—the phase of commercial ventures—many Parsis became 60 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

mediators to transact the business of the French, Portuguese, and British traders. Parsi association with the British and the English language goes back to the seventeenth century and is reflected in some of the Parsi family names, such as Merchant, Doctor, Batliwala, Sodawaterwala, Readymoney, and Paymaster, derived from English words. The process of Westernization, thus, began much earlier among the Parsis than among other sections of Indian society. They were among the earliest to have opted for English education because they realized they needed English for social and occupational mobility under the new dispensation. When the British started the Elphinstone College to impart higher education to Indians, Parsis represented the largest number of pupils. A new generation of Anglophile Parsi intellectuals, English in “spirit,” “manners,” and “morals,” emerged by the turn of the century, and the first set of Parsi writers in English belongs to this class. Poetry In the early phase, Parsi writers showed a preference for poetic forms. English enthusiasm for poetry was fervently imitated by young Parsi intellectuals. These writers were brought upon the English literary tradition and were immensely influenced by the British romantic and Victorian poets. They wrote sonnets, lyrics, and odes imitating the English masters of verse such as Wordsworth, Shelley, and Tennyson. Most colonial peoples and their writers went through a phase of imitation in the initial stages of their colonial experience, but Parsi attempts at assimilation into the colonizers’ culture appear to be unprecedented. As a minority group, they always believed that they could survive only by being loyal to the ruling authority. In addition, they were conscious that they owed their prosperity to the British raj. Their loyalty, therefore, sprang from conviction, and their prime objective was to follow the British as closely as possible in every aspect of life, including arts and literature. Behramji Malabari (1853-1912), who played a vital role as a journalist, editor, and social reformer for nearly three decades and rendered yeoman service to Indian society through his intellectual and thought-provoking journals, The Indian Patriot, The Voice of India, and East and West, is one of the most important literary figures of this early phase. His long verse autobiography, The Indian Muse in English Garb (1876), was hailed as the first book of the first Parsi poet. It is a collection of poems dealing with everyday experience of life—both joyous and sorrowful, in easy and effortless language. The poem, written in rhyming couplets, offers delightfully satiric portraits of the poet’s contemporaries and contains echoes from Dryden, Pope, and Goldsmith. Satire, which was to become the mainstay of Parsi writing later, was the singular strength of Malabari’s work. Even as Parsis sought affiliation with the British, they retained their steadfast faith in their religion. A great deal of Parsi poetry in the early phase is religious. Poets often expressed their prophet’s teachings or their own religious experience and sentiment in measured poetic lines. Maneckji Bejani Pithawala’s Afternoons with Ahura Mazda (1919) is a poetic celebration of the power of the Divine; his Links with the Past (1933) offers an authentic 61 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

interpretation of the thought and ideals of the sacred books of Parsis. D. M. Gorwalla narrates the life of the prophet in his long devotional poem The Light of Iran or the Coming of Zarathushtra (1935). Khabardar Ardeshir Framji’s Zarathushtra, the First Prophet of the World (1950) consists of 101 religious sonnets that touch upon the life and teaching of the Parsi prophet Zoroaster. It is interesting to see how these poets adapt the English poetic discourses, such as a sonnet, ode, and narrative poem, to communicate the message and essence of their own religion. Parsi poetry often turned eulogistic as the writers paid poetic tributes to their colonial masters. Parsis generally believed that the British brought welfare, prosperity and progress to India. A number of Parsi writers published occasional verses celebrating some important event or other in the colonial history. Rustom Barjorji Paymaster was, for instance, one of the most accomplished poets of this phase. His early works declare his loyalty to the British and pay handsome tributes to the rulers. The Nazrana or India’s Offerings to Her King Emperor on His Coronation (1902) and Sunset and Sunrise: Being Odes on the Death of Queen Victoria (1917) are a part of his imperialist writings. There was also a small body of nationalist poetry. While the majority of Parsis kept off the nationalist movement, some influential Parsis, such as Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozshah Mehta, and D. E. Wacha, played an active role in the movements launched by the Indian National Congress. A few Parsi writers, inspired by the triumvirate of Parsi congressmen, wrote nationalist poems with patriotic fervor. Paymaster himself wrote Navroziana or the Dawn of the New Era (1917), paying a handsome tribute to Naoroji, “the Grand Old Man of Indian Politics.” F. J. Karaka’s The Fight for Freedom (1940) celebrates the sacrifices rendered by freedom fighters. Since the Parsi involvement in the nationalist movement itself was marginal, nationalism did not have much impact on Parsi writing. A large number of Parsi poets of this period drew their inspiration from the British romantic poets, mainly Wordsworth, Shelley, and Keats, and produced imitative verse of short-lived eminence. The thematic scope of Parsi romantic poetry included a wide range of human emotions, such as love and fulfillment, loss and loneliness, friendship and fellow feeling. While lyric was the most popular form, traditional metrical structures, such as ode and sonnet, were also used with deftness and felicity. However, the imagery and symbolism largely remained borrowed, and the verse lacked originality and authenticity. Fredoon Kabraji’s A Minor Georgian’s Swan Song; Fifty One Poems (1944); Homi Co-wasji Dotiwalla’s My Ramblings on the Sacred Parnassus (1939); Peshoton Sarobji Goolbai Dubash’s Romance of Souls: A Philosophic Romance in Verse (1918) and Spiritual and Other Poems (1930); and Jehangir R. P. Mody’s Golden Harvest (1932), Golden Gleanings (1933), and Verses Grave and Gay (1933) are some of the works belonging to this trend. Drama and Theater 62 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

The Parsi contribution to the development of drama and theater in preindependence times is worth recording. As early as 1850, Elphinstone College, Bombay, had its Parsi Dramatic society for the performance of English plays. At this stage, no Indian had yet ventured into writing plays in English; this early theater staged several successful performances of Shakespeare’s plays. Sometimes, the dramatists parodied Shakespeare’s works, and such performances drew large audiences. Parsis were responsible for starting professional Gujarati theater as well. Around 1867-68, Victoria Natak Mandal began under the guidance of K. N. Kabraji. Plays dealing with Gujarati life and manners, as well as contemporary social and political issues, were performed. Fardoon Marzban and Jehangir Marzban were among the earliest to have given a boost to Parsi drama. Jehangir Marzban presented vignettes of Bombay life in his humorous plays and won the title “the Mark Twain of Parsis” for his satiric portrait of men and manners. In terms of technique, the Parsi theater blended Western theatrical traditions and local forms of dramatic representation for popular entertainment. It evolved no new forms but adapted the borrowed techniques for an effective dramatization of contemporary life. While drama as performance was quite active, drama as literary form was almost nonexistent during this period. Historical accounts show that C. S. Nazir’s The First Parsi Baronet, a verse play in English, appeared in 1866. But this obviously remained an isolated effort and did not develop into a trend or tradition. Barring some adaptations of classical plays, such as K. H. Dastur’s The Tragedy of Nero (1905), Jehangir Mody’s Hector, Prince of Troy (1932) and a lone social play, Meherjee Peroze’s Dolly Parsen (1918), there were no published plays during this period. Fiction There was very little Parsi fiction in the preindependence times. Kaikhusrau Edalji Ghamat’s My Friend, the Barrister (1908) is a hilarious account of a Parsi’s going to England to study law. Ardeshir F. J. Chinoy and Dinbai A. J. Chinoy published a novel, Pootli, A Story of Life in Bombay (1915), about Parsi life at the turn of the century. It is a simple and straightforward chronicle of Parsi life. D. M. Gorwalla’s Saarda the Tale of a Rajput Maid (1931) is a historical romance. D. F. Karaka is the most important novelist of this phase since he attempted serious political novels, running the risk of raising controversial issues at a politically sensitive time. A brilliant journalist and reputed biographer, Karaka published three novels between 1940 and 1944. Just Flesh (1940) deals with the English life in the early decades of the twentieth century. It presents ideological conflicts between two generations of Englishmen through the clash between a conservative father and his socialist son. There Lay the City (1942), set in Bombay, fictionalizes the impact of World War II on the lives of the city dwellers. We Never Die (1944) is a political novel focusing on the struggle for independence in a small north Indian village. Karaka’s anxiety to make ideological statements mars the artistic quality of his work. Yet, his work is significant, as it marks the end of imitation and the beginning of self-assertion. However slight the Parsi writing in the 63 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

early phase may be, it reveals two of the distinctive characteristics that are to form the Parsi literary sensibility in the later phases—social reform and satire. 4.3 THE SECOND PHASE: 1950-90 The end of British rule in India in 1947 brought great changes for Parsis, threatening the community’s unity and kinship ties. Throughout the nationalist struggle, most Parsis largely maintained an attitude of aloofness, not only because they enjoyed a special status in the British government but also because they felt estranged from the ideology of Indian nationalism, which entailed a revival of cultural heritage of India, in general, and Hinduism, in particular. Parsis could not identify themselves with the process of formation of a new Indian historical consciousness, as they lacked a corresponding access and attachment to Indian history. Indian independence, hence, created a sense of insecurity, a crisis of identity, and a strong need for self-definition among Parsis. The root of the identity crisis of Parsis lies in the consciousness of most of the Parsis of being, first of all, Parsis and only secondly Indian/Iranian citizens. Belonging to the Parsi community was not, however, in view of political social structures, dependencies, and relationships, adequate for them to form an autonomous identity. Parsis had to orient and reorient themselves to different systems and authorities—the Hindu kings of Gujarat, the Moghul rule, the British government, and the new India after independence—due to historical exigencies. The orientation of Parsis to various reference systems led to various identities, which sometimes endangered the community’s unity. Indian independence, for instance, indirectly effected further fragmentation of Parsi community. The partition of India resulted in a violent division of the minority community into two nations; the departure of the British left them in a state of stasis until they regained their will to survive and seek realignments; a large number of Parsis who felt they had no future in independent India migrated to the U.K., the United States, and Canada in search of a better break. With all these rapid changes and further dispersal, Parsis in India felt their identity menaced. Postcolonial Parsi writing, hence, addresses the problems of identity and belonging and attempts redefinitions of self and society. Poetry The modernism of Joyce and Pound provided the suitable aesthetic for the poetic expression of postcolonial disillusionment of the Parsi poets. All the major poets of this phase—K. N. Daruwalla, Adil Jussawalla, Kersey Katrak, and Gieve Patel (popularly known as the Parsi Quartet)—began writing in the modernist mode, but, in the course of their writings, what may be called “Parsi modernism” takes shape. The first major characteristic of these modernists was setting out on a search for new values in the face of changing social and political structures. The years that followed independence were not those of fulfillment of promise. Independence did not usher in an era of the expected prosperity. The postindependence political chaos, the holocaust of world wars, the blood-baths that followed the partition, 64 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

widespread corruption, scarcity of essential commodities, unemployment, and poverty, along with a general moral and ethical decline, created a feeling of futility and frustration among people. Parsis, as a progressive minority, felt disillusioned by the decline in the general standard of living. The writers, hence, urge social change and reform. Another significant feature all the Parsi writers seem to share is the need for self-definition. They often try to reexamine their own ethnic identity and analyze their own cultural situation: what it means to be a Parsi. Third, the poets turned to secular themes. They turned away from religion and sought meaning and order in everyday existence. They moved away from the idealism and romanticism of their predecessors. They were no longer lured by the “sacred Parnassus,” “spring blossoms,” and “spiritual romances;” instead, they described the dirt, squalor, and poverty of their environs in an unsentimental tone. Finally, poets employed irony and satire as their modes of representation, since these provided them with the advantages of a binocular vision. Keki N. Daruwalla is the most prolific and accomplished of the Parsi poets of this phase. His work is particularly significant since it steers clear of religious and sectarian conflicts seeking anchorage in the land and landscape. Talking of his religious background, he is reported to have said, “I am neither a good Parsi—hardly ever having lived like one, nor a Hindu or Muslim.” … A bit of everything which really means nothing” (Nabar 1977, 1). He does not melancholically brood over this aspect of his experience but roots himself deeply in the sociopolitical ethos in which he grew up. He is deeply involved with the predicament of his country and people, and, to him, poetry, above everything else, becomes “a social gesture.” Social satire, demystification of myth, and realistic rendering of contemporary sociopolitical situations are the significant features of his poetry. He elaborates the contradictions, paradoxes, ironies, hypocrisy, violence, and corruption that pervade contemporary India. He exposes and lashes with his satiric whip all sections of Indian society—academicians, bureaucrats, politicians, poets, priests, pseudo-Gandhians, police officers, and the masses. In Under Orion (1970), his first collection of poems, the dominant mood is anger, and these verses cover a wide range of subjects, including curfew, riots, crime, corruption, death, disease, and poverty. Being a police officer by profession, he was exposed to life in the raw, and he turns this experience into evocative poetic images. Satire is the strong point of his second collection, Apparition in April (1971). He retells the familiar legends of Karna and Car-vak and resurrects the heroes of history, Martin Luther King and Gandhi, and dispels the aura that surrounds these legendary figures by positing them in the present, which has no respect for any values. Daruwalla’s characteristic humor can best be seen in the poem addressed to Gandhi. He shows how Gandhism has become a much-bandied-about, little understood concept in contemporary Indian sociopolitical life. Gandhi is remembered once a year, says Daruwalla, on the Gandhi Jayanthi day as butchers shut up shop, and people go without mutton. In Crossing of Rivers (1976), a more serious and much better organized collection of poems, he projects the intriguing paradoxes with which the holy city of Varanasi 65 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

bristles. There are filth and poverty here; there are also faith and devotion. Varanasi becomes the microcosm of India. Winter Poems (1980), as the title suggests, is a rather sad account of people’s predicament as they are faced with the violence of hostile nature; greed and avarice of power mongers; the erosion of social and religious values; and the indifference of God. In his more recent work, Daruwalla moves out of the modernist skepticism and frustration. He begins to feel that existence extends beyond the immediate phenomenal reality and that poetry in the last 10 years has become increasingly spiritual. He now turns to religion to seek meaning in the present. The Keeper of the Dead (1982), which won the poet the Sahitya Akademi Award for 1985, deals with the themes of love, desire, and death. The poet probes the mystery of death, deriving insights from Parsi eschatology and the Islamic view of life. Daruwalla has always been labeled “a landscape poet,” and he calls his sixth collection by the same title, Landscape (1987). These poems are rooted in landscape both outer and inner and offer graphic verbal images. “The Round of the Seasons” in this collection is a powerful poetic evocation of Indian seasons: Vasantha, Grishma, Varsha, Sharad, Hemanth, and Sisir. To Daruwalla, the place is real, and the only identity one can find is with the soil where one is born. In sharp contrast, Adil Jussawalla shows a persistent preoccupation with the theme of exile and alienation. In his own words, his writing is about the effect of living in lands he can neither leave nor love nor properly belong to (1973, 89-90). Lands End; Poems (1962), his first collection of poems, lacks a unifying focus and reads like a collection of disconnected musings, covering a wide range of themes, such as time, nature, love, man-woman relationship, autobiographical reminiscences, and contemporary social context. These early poems of Jussa-walla show the influence of British poets like Donne and Eliot. His better work is contained in the second anthology, The Missing Person (1976). “The missing person” in this anthology largely appears to be the alter ego of the poet himself and typifies a middle- class intellectual educated abroad trying to relocate himself in his own, but no longer familiar, social milieu. In “The Exile’s Story,” Jus-sawalla tells the tale of a Parsi emigrant to England. When the Mahatma and his followers got what they wanted, the Parsi community was unsure about its future in independent India. The elders advised their youth “to pack” and leave; thus arrives the Parsi emigrant in England. His only urge is to prove and to succeed. Jussawalla deals with the theme of the return of an exile in poems such as “Approaching Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay,” “Nine Poems on Arrival,” and “Immigrant Song.” Much of his writing revolves around the psychic fragmentation experienced by an exile or émigré. Gieve Patel shares common concerns with Daruwalla and locates his poetry firmly within the social matrix. But what one finds in his work is an unvarnished tale of horror, pain, torture, and death. He is a doctor by profession, and, hence, human pain and agony are a part of his everyday experience, and he voices them in a direct, unemotional, yet forceful tone. Consequently, the reader is shocked out of his or her complacency into a sudden realization of violence and pain in all their grim reality. His first two collections, Poems (1966) and How 66 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Do You Withstand, Body? (1977), deal with the suffering of humans in a dehumanizing environment. His focus is on a tormented soul caught in a tormented body. The poet observes the ugliness and violence of the world around him with a dispassionate and ironic detachment, though occasionally involvement and emotion stage a sudden return. In a more recent collection, Mirror, Mirroring (1991), the poet moves into the postmodernist phase, calling into question the observing self in his poetry. “Postmodernism” as it appears in Parsi writing of the last decade or so is, in essence, adopted from the West and has not taken any indigenous form or shape. Kersy D. Katrak is different from the other three of the Parsi Quartet: he avoids the serious and somber tone and chooses the comic vein, although the subject remains the social situation. His first two anthologies, A Journal by the Way (1968) and Diversions by the Wayside (1969), contain a number of personal poems addressed to his friends Keki Daruwalla and Nissim Ezekiel, to his wife, Usha, and to his newborn child. He blends gentle satire and genial mirth in these early poems. In his later work, Underworld (1979) and Purgatory: Songs from the Holy Planet (1984), Katrak shows preference for verbal effects and indulges in a great deal of wordplay. He uses a variety of new devices ushered in by postmodernism, such as parody, pastiche, collage, and intertextuality. He parodies earlier poets like Yeats and Eliot, re-creates the rhythms of nursery rhymes, and deals with the serious in a comic tone. His poems, written in mono/disyllabic lines with the brevity of telegraphic messages employing apparently unconnected images, read like jigsaw puzzles. The poet makes fun of everything and everyone: religion, God, Godmen, academe, and poets, including himself. He erases the margins between the sacred and the profane, the serious and the comic, the public and the private, dealing with all experience in playful mirth. He neither complains about, nor sulks over, his marginality but affirms it as an alternative tradition and celebrates it. Thus, Parsi poetry in English in the last 40 years, began in a rising wave of modernism; evolved an idiom and expression suitable for an effective expression of Parsi experience of change, transition, exile, and marginality; and entered a new phase of postmodernist self-reflexivity. Drama and Theater Unlike poetry and fiction, Parsi drama has not registered very notable gains in the postindependence period. Srinivasa Iyengar attributes the paucity of Indian drama in English to the “fact that the natural medium of conversation” among Indians “is the mother tongue rather than English” (1962, 236). The Parsi community, however, shows an instinctive preference for, and interest in, the dramatic mode. In the postindependence period, Bombay theater groups continued to play an important role in play production, and the Parsi contribution to this has been considerable. Gieve Patel, the Parsi poet, has been an important figure in the emergence of Indian experimental drama in English. His plays deal with social issues in a witty, satiric tone. Princes (1970) dramatizes a feud between two Parsi families over the possession of a male child; Savaksa (1982) is about the marriage between a 60-year- 67 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

old man, Savaksa, and 20-year-old Perin; Mr. Berham (1981), his most successful play, allegorizes the colonial relationship, projecting a kind of Prospero-Caliban paradigm through the relationship between Mr. Berham and Naval, a tribal boy the former adopts. Another important Parsi playwright of this period is Dina Mehta. She chooses real-life incidents and dramatizes them effectively. The Myth Makers (1969) is a three-act play dealing with a sudden spurt of communal violence in the city of Bombay. Her Brides Are Not for Burning (published 1993) is a powerful dramatization of the devastation wrought by the dowry system in Indian society. Despite antidowry legislation, dowry continues to be in vogue, often claiming a heavy toll of human lives. Dina Mehta’s play won the BBC prize for radio plays in 1979. Farrukh Dhondy wrote a number of plays, all of which were produced in London. Mama Dragon, Romance, Romance, and The Bride were some of his well-known productions. Romance, Romance, a play based on the Asian experience in England, dramatizes the generation conflict in the context of an immigrant population. While a father tries to have an arranged marriage for his daughter, the university-educated girl asserts her freedom of choice, and the ensuing conflict is dramatized in a comic vein. Parsi drama in English, like the Indian English drama in general, has been slight and has not been able to revitalize the Indian dramatic tradition. Fiction The Parsi novel in English was the last to make its appearance but made quick progress in terms of both quantity and quality. Perin Bharucha’s The Fire Worshippers (1968) is the first significant work of fiction in the postcolonial phase. It gives a comprehensive account of Parsi life and culture. This novel is of greater historical and sociological value than literary interest. Minari (1967) by Nargis Dalal also appeared in the 1960s but made little impact, since it reads more like a routine film story and shows little literary merit. The last two decades, 1970-90, have been particularly fruitful in the field of Parsi fiction. Several young Parsi writers who settled abroad published their first novels during this period, creating ripples in the Indian and the world literary scene. The fiction written by Parsis in these 20 some years has added up to form a significant portion of Indo-English fiction and has acquired the distinction of a subgenre. A large number of these novelists—Saros Cowasjee, Rohinton Mistry, Farrukh Dhondy, Firdaus Kanga, and Boman Dasai—live abroad, and this body of writing may well be described as expatriate Parsi writing. These writers have arrived on the scene after the high tide of modernism almost subsided. Most of them, living as members of minority groups in Western coun-tries—the U.K., the United States, or Canada—experience a double colonization and often address problems of postcoloniality in their work. It is, therefore, useful to look at their work primarily as “minority literature” engaged in the evolution of a counterhegemonic discourse. The Parsi novel in English shows all the distinctive features of “minority discourse”: (1) a persistent preoccupation with the problems of identity, (2) articulation of collective 68 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

consciousness, (3) political involvement, and (4) an active assertion and even celebration of marginality. At the heart of the Parsi novel is the issue of identity. The responses here range from conflicting and even shattering feelings of unbelonging and alienation to a reconciliation of differences into a multicultural ideal. Saros Cowasjee’s writing exemplifies the first trend. His two novels Goodbye to Elsa (1974) and Suffer Little Children (1982) present the confessional autobiography of Tristan Elliott, an Anglo Indian settled in Britain. In the predicament of Elliott, Cowasjee portrays the sense of loss and rootlessness experienced by a minority community. Goodbye to Elsa narrates a series of sexual misadventures Elliott goes through in his search for love and companionship. He ends up in an asylum at the end of the novel. Suffer Little Children is more in the form of a farce and deals with Elliott’s involvement in the feminist movement and his foiled efforts to find a female companion. These half-serious, half-comic tales of expatriate living unmistakably project the exile’s pathetic urge for recognition and acceptance. Cowasjee’s short stories in the two volumes Stories and Sketches (1970) and Nude Therapy and Other Stories (1978) also generally deal with the predicament of exile, but some stories in the second collection set in India of the 1940s and 1950s such as “My Father’s Medals,” focus on the sociopolitical situation of India of the times. While Cowasjee’s handling of the theme of exile, in spite of its witty presentation, conjures up a predominantly pathetic view of emigrant life, Rohinton Mistry’s short stories deal with the same theme in a genuinely comic tone. “Squatter” and “Swimming Lessons,” both included in Tales of Ferozshah Baag (1987) and set in Canada, relate the tribulations of two immigrants—Sarosh (Sid) and Kersi, respectively. While Sarosh, who strives to become completely Canadian, abandons his obsession and returns to India, Kersi makes peace with his new home. In either case, Mistry rules out the need for pessimism. Much of Parsi fiction, however, treats exile as a mere phase and seeks to root itself in the ethnic locale of the Parsi community. The writers, despite being expatriates, locate their work in Indian-Parsi life, more specifically in Bombay, which has always been the epicenter of Parsi culture. They write with a deep sense of admiration for their community, an intimate knowledge of its virtues and weaknesses, a warm affection for its eccentricities, and a loving consideration for the preservation of its cultural identity. They do not try to romanticize or apotheosize their community. Their preoccupation is with the commonplace emotions, habits, and rituals that define quotidian community life. The Parsi community in all its diversity comes alive in these works. Bapsy Sidhwa’s The Crow Eaters (1978) deals with the fluctuating fortunes of Junglewallas, a Parsi family under the raj, in the early twentieth century. Fredoon Junglewalla, Freddy for short, who starts from nothing, gradually rises to the level of being listed in “the Zarathusiti Calender of Great Men and Women.” This meteoric rise, as Sidhwa ironically observes, is made possible by sycophancy, allegiance to the British, and Anglicization. Freddy, like several others of his community, views the nationalist movement with suspicion. He 69 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

pointedly disapproves of the movement launched by Dadabhai Naoroji, “a misguided Parsi from Bombay,” and is afraid that independence might simply mean sharing of the national cake by the majority communities—Muslims and Hindus. Bapsy Sidhwa’s book met with initial resistance, since her frank and forthright portrayal of Parsi life was construed as an unfair representation of the community. In Sidhwa’s own words, this saga of Parsi life springs from her enormous affection for the community and is a “labour of love” (1980). Rohinton Mistry’s Tales of Ferozsha Baag records the vibrations of Parsi life, Ferozsha Baag’s choosing a residential apartment complex in Bombay as its focus. Mistry’s focus is on the psychological problems associated with margin-ality. Firdaus Kanga’s Trying to Grow (1990) is built around the painful experience of a physically handicapped boy—Daryus Kotwal—in trying to grow into adulthood. The flowering of the adolescent sensibility is unraveled against the background of the close-knit family of the Kotwals. The novel is at once a bildungsroman and a family saga. Boman Desai’s The Memory of Elephants (1992) has all the characteristics of a family chronicle, though presented in science fiction garb. Hormus Seervai, the central character of the novel, is a young Parsi scientist doing research in an American university. He makes a memory machine or mono scan to study how memories become encoded in the brain. The problem starts when Homi uses this gadget to relive the intensity of a sexual experience he has had with his girlfriend. As Homi repeats this replay experiment, the machine malfunctions, and he slips from his personal memory into the collective consciousness. Homi collapses into a coma physically, while his consciousness becomes a voyeur to the history of his family and race as well; and a marvelous panorama of Parsi life unfolds. Farrukh Dhondy’s work steers clear of the pangs of alienation and lacks the ethnic identity of typical Parsi writing. A new agenda of multiculturalism emerges clearly from his writing. As a writer working in the multiracial British society, Dhondy sees his own role as a catalyst in bringing about the assimilation of, and understanding between, varied and culturally divergent groups and traditions. Most of his short stories deal with multiethnic situations and view multiculturalism as the reality of our times. This major thrust of his work is most forcefully expressed in his novel The Bombay Duck (1990). Here the two central characters—Gerald Blossom and Xerxes Xavaxa (for short, Mr. XX)— are shown to be engaged in a struggle for survival. They resort to various means, including changing of names, religion, and identity in their quest for lucrative jobs. They try their hand at different trades ranging from playacting to baby trading, and their struggle is portrayed against multicultural settings, including India, Britain, and America. Dhondy attacks religious fundamentalism and parochialism and portrays the multiethnic reality of our times in all its complexity. As in Parsi poetry, the sociopolitical issues figure prominently in fictional writing as well. Parsi novels turn explicitly political, picking on specific political events for elaborate treatment and analysis. This political nature of Parsi fiction is significant in view of the 70 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

earlier evasion of political issues. This may be viewed as the writers’ emancipation from the impact of colonization, which compelled them to remain outside the political and policy- making processes. Parsis show an accuracy in documentation and a deep involvement with the sociopolitical situation. The major political events of the last 50 years, including the partition, the emergency, Indo-Pakistan and Indochina Wars, and the Bangladesh war, find representation in Parsi accounts of contemporary life. Bapsy Sidhwa’s The Bride (1983) unfolds the travails faced by a young girl, Zaitoon, married into the tribal community of Kohistan, as she tries to break the fetters and escape back into freedom. Zaitoon is portrayed as a child of partition, since all her woes begin in her being orphaned at the age of four on account of the communal violence that broke out following the partition. Sidhwa’s next novel, Ice-Candy Man (1988), is yet another powerful account of partition. The novelist traces the impact of this important political event on human destinies. Rohinton Mistry’s Such a Long Journey (1991) re-creates the sociopolitical situation of the 1970s in India. It is the story of Gustad Noble, a little man who puts up a brave fight against a largely hostile society as he gets entangled in a series of complications and finds himself implicated in several crimes during the Bangladesh War of the 1970s. Mistry combines fact with fiction, the real with the imaginary, and tells a compelling tale of a common man’s struggle to retain dignity in the face of crises. Gustap Irani’s Once upon a Raj (1992) is a hilarious farce dealing with the conflicts between an Indian princely state and the British government. Dina Mehta’s And Some Take a Lover Too (1993), set against the backdrop of the Quit India movement, authentically records the responses of a Parsi girl, Roshni Wadia, to Gandhism and the Indian national movement. Roshni has all the admiration for Gandhi and his way of life, but she feels like an outsider in the Gandhian scheme of things. Her response typifies the ambivalent attitude of Parsis to the Gandhian movement. All these writers are engaged in an active exploration of marginality. Their protagonists are propelled by a desire to identify themselves by achieving some kind of centrality but they are often betrayed and remarginalized. The struggle will continue until they learn to celebrate their own marginality and define themselves through it. However, their struggle against the hegemonic systems is, in itself, a declaration of their autonomy and their refusal to be controlled by, or co-opted into, the dominant culture and is, in a way, a celebration of their own marginality. The greatest strength of Parsi fiction lies in its successful evocation of the comic. It is fair to say that an important part of Parsi literary imagination is critical, ironic, and mockingly humorous. Parsis as a mature community have learned to laugh at themselves. All the Parsi novelists portray the oddities and eccentricities of their community more with a sense of indulgent affection than with one of chastisement. Whatever the theme they elaborate, whatever the general mood they portray, the comedy of life always breaks through, energizing their narratives and placing their works in a larger human perspective. They choose the satiric mode and view the world around them from an ironic point of view. Their 71 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

satire is devoid of bitterness or didacticism. It is, in fact, accompanied by a bemused indulgence and an affectionate tolerance. The writers seem to hold that incongruity is a part of existence and is more a reason for a comic, rather than a tragic, response. Parsi novelists, having been educated in the West and exposed to the modernist and postmodernist movements in fictional writing, show a preference for experimental constructs. They create counterdiscourses in reorienting the Western discursive strategies to the narrative needs of their own peculiar postcolonialist and marginal experiences. Saros Cowasjee’s work uses confession and autobiography as the basic mode, shares the features of the “campus novel,” and unmistakably belongs to the tradition of black humor writing. Firdaus Kanga’s Trying to Grow is a commendable achievement in autobiographical fiction. Bapsy Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man is historiography in the postmodernist sense. Boman Desai’s achievement lies in adapting the science fiction mode to suit the requirements of a family saga. In some of his tales, Rohinton Mistry employs a writer-narrator and uses the self- reflexive techniques of metafictional narration. On the whole, all these writers show an intimate knowledge of the life they portray and a firm control over fictional form. Their work is a significant contribution to the emergence of the new Indo-English novel. 4.4LIFE OF ROBINTON MISTRY Rohinton Mistry , (born July 3, 1952, Bombay [now Mumbai], India), Indian-born Canadian writer whose works—in turns poignant, stark, and humorous—explored the everyday lives of Indian Parsis (descendants of Persian Zoroastrians). Like many of the characters in his stories, Mistry was of Parsi origin. He obtained a degree in mathematics and economics from the University of Bombay (now the University of Mumbai) before moving to Canada in 1975. In the early 1980s he enrolled at the University of Toronto to pursue a degree in English and philosophy. He began writing short stories and won the university’s literary competition two years in a row. Mistry attracted wider attention when he won Canadian Fiction Magazine’s annual Contributors Prize in 1985. His collection of short stories, Tales from Firozsha Baag (1987; also published as Swimming Lessons and Other Stories from Firozsha Baag), was warmly greeted by critics and general readers alike for its insights into the complex lives of the Parsi inhabitants of Firozsha Baag, an apartment building in Mumbai. Mistry’s debut novel, Such a Long Journey (1991; film version, 1998), is an intricate tale of the triumphs and disasters of a kindhearted bank clerk’s friends and family set in India in 1971, a time of domestic turbulence and war with Pakistan. The book received the Governor- General’s Award, the W.H. Smith/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for best book. A Fine Balance (1995), which also received the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize as well as the Giller Prize for best Canadian novel, was another study of Parsis living at close quarters in varying degrees of harmony during difficult times, in this case India’s 1975 state of emergency. Mistry’s third novel, Family 72 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Matters (2002), was set in a tiny two-room flat in modern-day Mumbai and presented a compelling portrayal of a family of Parsis living in exigent circumstances. His novella The Scream (2008) is narrated by an aging, isolated resident of a Mumbai apartment building. In 2012 Mistry was awarded the Neustadt Prize. 4.5OVERVIEW OF THE STORY Such a Long Journey, written by Canadian-Indian author Rohinton Mistry, follows Gustad Noble as he navigates interpersonal conflict and political scandal in early 1970s India. Indira Gandhi’s corrupt government and India’s war with Pakistan provide the story’s political backdrop. Critics widely praised the novel’s compassion and humor. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. A strong and capable man, Gustad Noble carries a personal history of sadness. He lives in Bombay with his wife, Dilnavaz, who takes care of the house and the family. They have three children: Sohrab, who has been accepted to technical college but doesn’t want to go; Darius, the second son; and Roshan, the youngest, who is a girl. The family lives in an apartment in the Khodadad Building. Blackout paper has covered their windows since the war with China years before. Jimmy Bilimoria, a major, is an old and trusted friend of many years who has disappeared. Gustad feels the betrayal deeply, as he loved Jimmy like a brother. Gustad arranges a birthday dinner for Roshan, and his friend Dinshawji from work comes to help celebrate. Dinshawji is a jokester who has been very ill. During dinner, Sohrab makes it clear to his father that he has no intention of going to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). They argue, and Gustad declares that Sohrab is dead to him. Gustad receives a letter from Jimmy, who now works for the Secret Service and needs a favor. Remembering that Jimmy helped him recover from a broken hip, Gustad agrees. Dilnavaz seeks advice from Miss Kutpitia about resolving the trouble between Gustad and Sohrab, beginning a practice of superstitious behaviors that last throughout the novel. Roshan wins a doll in the school raffle; Tehmul, the disabled man who lives in the building, falls in love with its creamy skin and blue eyes. Gustad meets Ghulam Mohammed, an associate of Jimmy’s who gives him a package from Jimmy containing 1 million rupees. Jimmy wants Gustad to deposit the money in a fake bank account. Dilnavaz wants to send the money back. Gustad agrees, but over the next few days finds two dead animals and a threatening note in his bushes. He decides to deposit the money and enlists Dinshawji’s help, deciding they will deposit two stacks of money each day to avoid suspicion. Meanwhile, Roshan falls ill, and Sohrab packs a bag and goes to stay with friends. Gustad takes Roshan to their family doctor, Dr. Paymaster, whose office is near a well-known brothel. 73 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Roshan’s health improves just as Dinshawji’s health declines. A report of Jimmy’s arrest appears in the paper. Gustad stops depositing the money and goes to see Ghulam, who says Gustad must return all the money to him in 30 days. Gustad retrieves the money five days ahead of Ghulam’s 30-day deadline. Just as Dinshawji hands the last of the money to Gustad, he collapses and is taken to the hospital. Gustad returns the money to Ghulam, and Ghulam gives Gustad a letter from Jimmy. Jimmy wants Gustad to travel to Delhi to see him; he wants to explain everything to his old friend. Meanwhile, Gustad regularly visits Dinshawji, helping him eat and entertaining him with gossip about the bank. Gustad’s old friend Malcolm takes Gustad to a Catholic shrine where he experiences peace, but upon returning home, Gustad learns that Dinshawji has died. Gustad goes to the hospital and sits with Dinshawji’s body until his wife arrives. He attends both the family funeral and the public ceremony. Gustad travels to Delhi and visits a sick Jimmy in the hospital. Jimmy apologizes to Gustad for involving him. Gustad now feels that there is nothing to forgive. On the return journey to Bombay, Gustad hears the prime minister announce on the radio that India is at war with Pakistan. Indian forces advance, and Bangladesh’s independence seems imminent. Pakistan surrenders and, reading the newspaper during his lunch hour, Gustad comes upon a short piece announcing the death of Jimmy Bilimoria. Gustad is the only mourner at the funeral. Meanwhile, Dr. Paymaster and Peerbhoy Paanwalla lead a column of protestors marching against the city to protest poor living conditions. Workmen have come to Khodadad Building to widen the road in front of the complex. Fighting erupts between the protestors and the city workers. Tehmul steps outside, is hit in the head by a brick, and dies. Tehmul’s death brings peace between Gustad and Sohrab. Inside his apartment, Gustad pulls down the blackout paper that has covered his windows since the war with China years before, marking a new beginning. 4.6 ANALYSIS OF THE STORY –SUCH A LONG JOURNEY Such a Long Journey wove a vivid picture of the Parsi community in India. The culture, customs and their concern for the declining status of their community is well depicted in the novel. According to Jaydipsingh Dodiya, the concern of Parsi community figures prominently in Such a Long Journey. The inhabitants of Khodadad building are representatives of a cross-section of middle-class Parsis expressing all the angularities of dwindling community. The novel also focuses on some customs and rituals of the Parsi community. The kusti or the gridle must be tied with ‘Vohu Manik Vastra’- the garment of Vohumana, the good mind. One is not a true Zoroastrian till he or she is invested with sudra and kusti, the 74 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

two great ambles of their religion. The religious significance of the kusti could be very well observed during the Morning Prayer done by the protagonist Gustad Noble. The funeral procession of Gustad’s colleague Dinshawji and Gustad’s best friend Jimmy Billimoria to the Tower of Silence or Dakhma, throws light on yet another custom of the Parsis. The Tower of Silence is one of the central symbols of the Parsi culture which distinguishes it from other cultures. Whenever death occurs in a Parsi household, a corner of the sick room is washed and a clean sheet is spread. The priest lights the sacred fire with sandalwood and chants prayers to soothe the departing soul. A close relative or a dear friend whispers “ the Yatha Ahu Varyo, five times, and Ashem Vahoo, three times” (336). Then two men take bath, recite the kusti, put on clean white clothes and enter in the room holding a piece of white tape, to withstand any infection from the corpse. The whole body is covered with a white shroud except the face. Three kashas or circles are drawn round the corpse. Then the sag-did (sag- dog; did-sight) ritual takes place. A dog is brought and made to look at the body to ensure that there is no life. After having done the initial ceremony for the dead the nassasalers (professional pallbearer) carry the body to the Tower. The men follow in “twos or threes, linked by white handkerchiefs” (252). Only the nassasalers are allowed inside the Tower, where they keep the dead body on the outermost of three concentric stone circles. Then with special hooked rods tear off the cloth to make the body naked for the vultures, who feed upon it. In the meantime outside the Tower the men offer prayers to the dead’s ascending soul. wash their hands and faces, do their kustis and return. In order that the water, the fire and the earth are not made unclean, the Parsis prefer being eaten up by vultures, unlike the Hindus, Muslims or Christians, which surely provide them a separate identity. Another significant aspect is also prevalent in Mistry’s maiden novel which is the concern of the Parsis for their declining status. The Parsis were once the masters of banking but the present situation is such that they have lost all their glory. Moreover, with the advent of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra government, their condition has even more deteriorated. They hold the government responsible for their demotion to second-class citizens. They never miss a chance to accuse the government to show their contempt. Though, the novel is enveloped with the essence of the Parsi religion, Mistry narrates a story rich in subject matter, characterization and symbolism. Set in India, the novel highlights the chaotic times of 1971, during which India and Pakistan went to war over the liberation of East Pakistan, now, Bangladesh. The political context creates certain unavoidable circumstances, thus engulfing the protagonist, his family members and friends. Mistry has a firsthand knowledge about the political history of India. Having spent twenty-three years on the Indian soil, he has learnt a lot about the socio-political background of our country. The Indira Gandhi Government of 1970’s was the cause of much dissatisfaction, especially for the Parsis, and hence corruption, politically motivated schemes, political decisions, common people’s sufferings, caste problem, etc. occupy considerable space in the novel. Mistry skilfully parallels public events involving Indira Gandhi with the misfortunes of the novel’s 75 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

principal characters. The chief theme is the Nagarwala Conspiracy case in which the Prime Minister gets directly involved. The fictional enactment of this case brings turmoil in the life of the protagonist, Gustad Noble. There are numerous references to the wars or the events related to war against the neighbouring countries. Events such as the 1948 Pakistan invasion of Kashmir, Indo-China war in 1962, Indo-Pak war during 1965 and 1971 and the birth of Bangladesh are knitted well within the story. Year 1962 was both a remarkable and a dreadful year for India as well as Gustad. He saw the birth of his youngest daughter Roshan and, in the same year, he met with an accident in an attempt to rescue his son. This broke his hip, which left him limping for the rest of his life. The year 1962 also experienced the Indo-China clash in which India saw, “such a humiliating defeat, everywhere people talking of nothing but the way Chinese had advanced as though the Indian army consisted of tin soldiers” (9). This thrashed Nehru’s utopia and his slogan ‘Hindi-Chinese bhai-bhai’ proved wrong. The common man rated this as Nehru’s incapability to handle political disturbances, unlike Lal Bahadur Shastri, whose proficiency was seen during “the twenty one day war with Pakistan in which he fared better than Nehru had in the War with China” 4.7 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ISSIES RELATED TO ‘SUCH A LONG JOURNEY’ Such a Long Journey has also attacked Indira Gandhi for the nationalization of banks, for her encouragement to make a separate Maharashtra state that caused bloodshed and riot, and for her creation of Shiv Sena to divide people on class basis. Indira Gandhi’s idea to nationalize the banks was loathsome to the Parsis as earlier Parsis were considered the kings of banking and were respected for the same. But nationalization had spoiled everything. Gustad says, “Nowhere in the world has nationalization worked. What can you say to idiots” (38). Mrs. Gandhi’s decision to give a separate identity to Maharashtra resulted in rioting and bloodshed thus destroying the peace of the nation. With the formation of Shiv Sena the conditions worsened. “The Sena raised the bogey of “the other”- the religious other, the Muslim; the linguistic other, especially Tamil speakers; and the regional other, those who came from other parts of India” (Bharucha 28). Amidst such decision makings the Parsis were the worst sufferers for they had lost the authority and status of which they were used to before independence. Being demoted to second-class citizens their future became unpredictable and possibly blank. Along with the corrupted center, the Municipality too is shown as a nuisance for the common man. The municipality is shown as not paying heed to people’s problems and hence its entire mending works remain pending. The petitions and letters of complaint against overflowing sewers, broken water-pipes, pot-holed pavement, rodent invasions, bribe extracting public servants, uncollected hills of garbage, open manholes, shattered street lights etc. are consistently ignored. The corruption at the center extended its branches to the periphery as the Municipality too is shown as a nuisance for the common mass. The incapability to uplift 76 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

and strengthen the nation remains a bitter truth. This is the reason why politics turns out to be a debatable issue in most of the chapters of the novel. Rohinton Mistry proves himself to be an expert in delineating the middle-class and lower middle-class Parsi families. His fiction ranges from the 1960s, through the Emergency, to contemporary India and shows how the political upheavals hamper the daily life of the common mass. With great subtlety he describes the routine of the people, their daily chores from morning to night, constantly safeguarding it from the ‘larger-than-life’ concept. His protagonists are unlike Shakespearean heroes who are full of zeal, vigour, and courage; who belong to the highest level of society and make their destiny themselves. Mistry’s characters are very common, down to earth, easily moved by emotions and are governed by the incidents happening around them. Pramod K. Nayar gives a similar opinion when he writes the foreword to The Novels of Rohinton Mistry: A Critical Study. He says, “Mistry’s realism enables the smooth expression of, the everyday and the common which assumes paramount importance. Mistry’s characters are believable in their very ordinariness”(viii). Though not a prolific writer, Rohinton Mistry is yet formidable and one of a kind. What remains noteworthy is the subject of all his writings that highlight life of Parsis in Bombay. Mistry successfully conveys the common human issues of spiritual questions, alienation, fear of death, family problems and economic hardships. However, hope prevails in these stories, as Mistry’s compassionately drawn characters survive and work through difficult circumstances towards a brighter future. His novels have helped him in earning a distinct place in the annals of the post independence Indian English fiction. His eminence as a novelist lies in his endeavours to narrate his community, his country and crises of humanity in fictional terms, in a manner in which only Rohinton Mistry can do. 4.8LITERARY SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORK As a postcolonial text, the novel attempts many things. It is a celebration of Indian English which is used not for the sake of achieving or introducing a comic effect, but to convey the present status of this form of English (Indian English of the Parsi variety) with its own characteristic features as one of the global “englishes”. This kind of use and appropriation of English also functions subversively as a mode of resistance to colonial discourse. The Master Tongue (i.e. English) of the Western academy has been hybridized and interspersed with native words. In fact, Mistry shouts his subversive intent by not providing a glossary of native words / phrases for the Western reader. At another level, the appropriation or taking over of English also means repossessing our own histories which have been filtered through the prism of either colonial or even postcolonial perspectives. A significant aspect of this text is the metaphor of journey. In fact, journey is a central and most favored motif in diasporic writing. The title Such a Long Journey proclaims this motif and is re-inforced by the three epigraphs that preface the novel. The first is from Firdausi’s ShahNama, which hints at the glorious past of the Iranian empire and the present downgraded state of Parsis. The second epigraph is from T. S. Eliot’s poem, “The Journey of the Magi”, which recalls the belief that 77 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

the three magi or wise men who traveled far to witness the birth of Christ were Zoroastrian priests. It also gives a sense of a journey that has not ended. A sense of dejection is also implied in the title which is offset by the promise of the end of this long journey and the hoped-for new order. The third epigraph which is taken from Tagore’s Gitanjali suggests how some Parsis have moved away to new lands and have had to adapt themselves to new realities. The novel can also be read as a bildungsroman or a novel of formation. The experiences of Gustad contribute to the process of his growth and maturity. He moves from a position of unyielding hardness to being a soft humane person He can now accept his son’s decision, forgive his friend and understand the important fact of life – that it is a long journey which requires patience and maturity. 4.9 SUMMARY  The Parsis are an ethnoreligious minority in India living mostly on the west coast of the subcontinent, largely in Bombay. As their name implies, Parsis are of Persian descent. The word “Parsi” means a native of “Pars” or “Fars,” an ancient Persian province now in southern Iran. They are followers of Prophet Zoroaster, and their religion was founded around 2000 B.C. The Parsi religion came to be called Zoroastrianism in the West because its prophet, Zarathushtra, was known to the ancient Greeks as Zaroster. After the Arab conquest of Iran in the seventh century, they fled their homeland and came in large numbers to India, seeking peace and freedom to practice their religion. At the time of their entry into India, their old priest is reported to have promised the then-king of Gujarat, Jadhav Rana: “We shall try to be like this insignificant amount of sugar in the milk of your human kindness” (Nanavutty 1977, 40). They did, indeed, remain true to their promise: they blended with the Indian milieu even while retaining their distinct cultural identity and contributed richly to the socioeco-nomic life of modern India.  According to a recent census conducted by the government of India, the Parsis constitute only 0.016 percent of the total population of India. Although the Parsis are a minuscule community in the vast Indian population, their contribution to the emergence of modern India has been remarkable. They began as agriculturalists, and soon they entered various fields of economic activity, including industry, trade, commerce, social work, and technology. In every field, they set for themselves high standards of excellence and strove to live up to them. They have never been mere survivors; they have, all along, been supreme achievers. They did, indeed, secure a place for themselves in India on the grounds of merit and talent, making their community indispensable to the country.  Business and industry have undoubtedly been the forte of Parsis, but their contribution to literature, too, has been quite considerable. Their wide exposure to the intellectual movements in and outside India, their generally perceptive response to 78 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

life, and their innate adaptability to the vicissitudes of cultural change—all these enabled Parsi writers to produce a significant body of literary writing, which now forms an important component in the Indian literature in English. Parsi writing falls into two phases: the early phase or “colonialism,” which includes the pre-1950 writing, written largely in imitation of the British; and the second phase, comprising works written after 1947 or, for numerical neatness, 1950, which may be termed “postcolonialism,” when Parsi writing settled into an established tradition acquiring a distinct form and identity of its own.  Parsi writing in English, thus, has come a long way, moving from initial imitation to innovation, from diffidence to self-confidence, from dependence to autonomy. Parsi poets and novelists in the postcolonial period continue to draw their forms from the West, but they successfully adapted, reoriented, and sometimes subverted these borrowed structures and developed counterdiscourses to dismantle the hegemonic assumptions contained in the canonical forms. They are alert to the political implications of all contemporary sociocultural developments and respond sensitively to all forms of domination, however subtle they may be. They made a significant contribution not only to postcolonial Indian writing in English but also to the tradition of minority writing. 4.10 KEYWORDS  Community- the people with common interests living in a particular area broadly : the area itself the problems of a large community. b : a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society a community of retired persons a monastic community.  loathsome - disgusting, distasteful, foul, revolting, and yucky  Formidable - inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or capable.  Endeavours - to attempt (something, such as the fulfillment of an obligation) by exertion of effort endeavors to finish the rac  Circumstances - a fact or condition connected with or relevant to an event or action.  Vohu Manik Vastra- Law of Muvafecat or spiritual concordance, cotton cloth is most efficacious for the ritual of Padiav Sazi. The general policy in the community is to Mobeds, or priests, perform the Navjote ceremony, welcoming a person into the Zoroastrian faith. done twice, in the morning on arising and in the evening on retiring. A cord worn round the waist by Parsees, consisting of seventy-two threads to represent the chapters of one of the portions of the Zend-Avesta. The symbolism of this outfit is plentiful. The sudreh is extremely comfortable, absorbs sweat etc etc. 79 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

need to wear a sudreh-kushti to be a good Zoroastrian, but it helps. For these 5 fundamental groups of souls, there are 5 fundamental great Religions, namely, Zarthoshti, Hindoo, Mahomedan, Jewish and Christian  Nationalization - the transfer of a major branch of industry or commerce from private to state ownership or control. 4.11 LEARNING ACTIVITY 1. State the importance of the Early Phase of Parsi Literature ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 2. State political issues in the story ___________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________ 4.12 UNIT END QUESTIONS A. Descriptive Questions Short Questions 1. Describe the bhaiya's job. 2. What happens to Gustad's father's property, and what parts of it remain in Gustad's care? 3. What is the state of Gustad's clothing? Why? 4. Who helps Gustad rescue some of his father's furniture from the bailiff? 5. How old is Sohrab? 6. What covers the windows in the Nobles' home? Long Questions 1. Compare Major Bilimoria before and during his time in prison. What effect does the setting have on his appearance and behavior? What effect does the setting have on the reader's perception of him as a villain? 2. Explain the relationship between character and plot in the conflict between Gustad and Sohrab. 3. Are Dilnavaz's actions toward Tehmul ethical? Are they justifiable in order to save Sohrab? Explain your opinions thoroughly, using examples from the text to support your thoughts. 4. In the beginning of the second part of the first chapter, what is Gustad waiting for? 80 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

5. How does the political and cultural setting influence the way the novel portrays Major Bilimoria? Explain. B. Multiple Choice Questions 1. Parsis as an --------------------------------------have displayed a remarkable linguistic adaptability. a. immigrant community b. Consumer Reservation c. British Community d. None of these 2 Gustad Noble as he navigates --------------------------------------------------in early 1970s India. Indira Gandhi’s corrupt government and India’s war with Pakistan provide the story’s political backdrop. a. Interpersonal conflict and political scandal b. Communal riots c. British Community d. Political and communal community 3 The third epigraph which is taken from ---------------------------------------------suggests how some Parsis have moved away to new lands and have had to adapt themselves to new realities. a. APJAbdul kalam’s book b. Gandhiji’s autobiography c. Nehuru’s Biography d. Tagore’s Gitanjali 4.The novels can also be read as a ------------------------------------or a novel of formation. a. bildungsroman b.melodrama c.Epic d.Communal book 5.The funeral procession of Gustad’s colleague Dinshawji and Gustad’s best friend Jimmy Billimoria to the -------------------------------------------------------------, throws light on yet another custom of the Parsis. a. Tower of Serenity or Dakhma 81 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

b. Tower of Silence or Dakhma c. Tower of Solace or Dakhma d.Tower of Siacrifice or Dakhma Answers 1-a, 2-a, 3-d, 4-a, 5-b 4.13 REFERENCES References book  Bharucha, Nilufer E. “The Parsi Voice in Recent Indian English Fiction: An Assertion of Ethnic Identity.” Indian-English Fiction. 1980-90: An Assesment. Nilufer E. Bharucha, and Vilas Sarang, editors. Delhi: B.R. Publishing Corporation, 1994.  Dodiya, Jaydipsingh. “The Parsi Community in Such a Long Journey.” The Fiction of Rohinton Mistry: Critical Studies. Jaydipsingh Dodiya, editor. New Delhi: Prestige books, 1998.  Mistry, Rohinton. Such a Long Journey. New York: Vintage International, 1992.  Nayar, Pramod K. “The Quotidian Imaginary: The Fiction of Rohinton Mistry.” The Novels of Rohinton Mistry: Critical Studies. Jaydipsingh K. Dodiya, editor. New Delhi: Sarup and Sons, 2004. 82 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

UNIT -5:LITERARY FORMS AND TERMS :PART –II STRUCTURE 5.0 Learning Objectives 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Biography and Autobiography 5.3 Autobiography :History and Description 5.4 Autobiography vs Biography 5.5 How to write an autobiography 5.6 Biography 5.6.1 Tips to write a biography 5.6.2 Examples Of Professional Biography 5.6.3 Best 30 Biography 5.7 Tragedy 5.7.1 Later Greek tragedy 5.7.2 Elizabethan Tragedy 5.7.3 From Comedy to Tragedy 5.7.4 Shakespearean’s Tragic art 5.7.5 The English ‘Heroic Play’ 5.7.6 A new Vehicle ‘ Novel’ 5.7.7 The American Tragic Novel 5.7.8 Tragedy and Modern Drama 5.7.9 Theory of Tragedy 5.8 Neoclassical theory 5.9 Romantic theory 5.10 Tragedy in Music 5.11 Tragicomedy 5.12 Summary 5.13 Keywords 5.14 Learning Activity 5.15 Unit End Questions 5.16 References 83 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

5.0 LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this unit, you will be able to:  State and elaborate the different literary terms  Elaborate the topics and literary works related to them  Explain the evolution of drama  Describe the sphere of learning of terms 5.1 INTRODUCTION Good writing is when the reader meets a voice that is distinct, a voice that is individual and appropriate. The reader meets a human who shares with him some important parts of her life experiences, ideas, and thoughts. Through the words, the writer reveals her personality, her experience, her feelings. Effective Writing is writing which has a logical flow of ideas and is cohesive. This means it holds together well because there are links between sentences and paragraphs. Writing which is cohesive works as a unified whole and is easy to follow because it uses language effectively to maintain a focus and to keep the reader 'on track'. Effective writing can be achieved or improved through the use of a number of devices. Some of these devices are MACRO or whole text devices while some are MICRO or more detailed devices for improving the effectiveness and cohesiveness of your writing. A biography is a description of a real person’s life, including factual details as well as stories from the person’s life. Biographies usually include information about the subject’s personality and motivations, and other kinds of intimate details excluded in a general overview or profile of a person’s life. The vast majority of biography examples are written about people who are or were famous, such as politicians, actors, athletes, and so on. However, some biographies can be written about people who lived incredible lives, but were not necessarily well-known. A biography can be labelled “authorized” if the person being written about, or his or her family members, have given permission for a certain author to write the biography. 5.2 BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY A biography is a description of a life that is not the author’s own, while an autobiography is the description of a writer’s own life. There can be some gray area, however, in the definition of biography when a ghostwriter is employed. A ghostwriter is an author who helps in the creation of a book, either collaborating with someone else or doing all of the writing him- or herself. Some famous people ask for the help of a ghostwriter to create their own autobiographies if they are not particularly gifted at writing but want the story to sound like it’s coming from their own mouths. In the case of a ghostwritten autobiography, the writer is 84 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

not actually writing about his or her own life, but has enough input from the subject to create a work that is very close to the person’s experience. Common Examples of Biography The genre of biography is so popular that there is even a cable network originally devoted to telling the stories of famous people’s lives (fittingly called The Biography Channel). The stories proved to be such good television that other networks caught on, such as VH1 producing biographies under the series name “Behind the Music.” Some examples of written biographies have become famous in their own right, such as the following books: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (made even more famous by the musical “Hamilton,” created by Lin-Manuel Miranda) Significance of Biography in Literature The genre of biography developed out of other forms of historical nonfiction, choosing to focus on one specific person’s experience rather than all important players. There are examples of biography all the way back to 44 B.C. when Roman biographer Cornelius Nepos wrote Excellentium Imperatorum Vitae (“Lives of those capable of commanding”). The Greek historian Plutarch was also famous for his biographies, creating a series of biographies of famous Greeks and Romans in his book Parallel Lives. After the printing press was created, one of the first “bestsellers” was the 1550 famous biography Lives of the Artists by Giorgio Vasari. Biography then got very popular in the 18th century with James Boswell’s 1791 publication of The Life of Samuel Johnson. Biography continues to be one of the best selling genres in literature, and has led to a number of literary prizes specifically for this form. Examples of Biography in Literature Example #1 And I can imagine Farmer saying he doesn’t care if no one else is willing to follow their example. He’s still going to make these hikes, he’d insist, because if you say that seven hours is too long to walk for two families of patients, you’re saying that their lives matter less than some others’, and the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world. (Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder) Tracy Kidder’s wonderful example of biography, Mountains Beyond Mountains, brought the work of Dr. Paul Farmer to a wider audience. Dr. Farmer cofounded the organization Partners in Health (PIH) in 1987 to provide free treatment to patients in Haiti; the organization later created similar projects in countries such as Russia, Peru, and Rwanda. Dr. Farmer was not 85 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

necessarily a famous man before Tracy Kidder’s biography was published, though he was well-regarded in his own field. The biography describes Farmer’s work as well as some of his personal life. Example #2 On July 2, McCandless finished reading Tolstoy’s “Family Happiness”, having marked several passages that moved him: “He was right in saying that the only certain happiness in life is to live for others…” Then, on July 3, he shouldered his backpack and began the twenty-mile hike to the improved road. Two days later, halfway there, he arrived in heavy rain at the beaver ponds that blocked access to the west bank of the Teklanika River. In April they’d been frozen over and hadn’t presented an obstacle. Now he must have been alarmed to find a three-acre lake covering the trail. (Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer) Jon Krakauer is a writer and outdoorsman famous for many nonfiction books, including his own experience in a mountaineering disaster on Mount Everest in 1996. His book Into the Wild is a nonfiction biography of a young boy, Christopher McCandless who chose to donate all of his money and go into the wilderness in the American West. McCandless starved to death in Denali National Park in 1992. The biography delved into the facts surrounding McCandless’s death, as well as incorporating some of Krakauer’s own experience. Example #3 A commanding woman versed in politics, diplomacy, and governance; fluent in nine languages; silver-tongued and charismatic, Cleopatra nonetheless seems the joint creation of Roman propagandists and Hollywood directors. (Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff) Stacy Schiff wrote a new biography of Cleopatra in 2010 in order to divide fact from fiction, and go back to the amazing and intriguing personality of the woman herself. The biography was very well received for being both scrupulously referenced as well as highly literary and imaginative. Example #4 86 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Confident that he was clever, resourceful, and bold enough to escape any predicament, [Louie] was almost incapable of discouragement. When history carried him into war, this resilient optimism would define him. (Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand) Laura Hillenbrand’s bestselling biography Unbroken covers the life of Louis “Louie” Zamperini, who lived through almost unbelievable circumstances, including running in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, being shot down as a bomber in WWII, surviving in a raft in the ocean for 47 days, and then surviving Japanese prisoner of war camps. Zamperini’s life story is one of those narratives that is “stranger than fiction” and Hillenbrand brings the drama brilliantly to the reader. Example #5 I remember sitting in his backyard in his garden, one day, and he started talking about God. He [Jobs] said, “ Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don’t. I think it’s 50/50, maybe. But ever since I’ve had cancer, I’ve been thinking about it more, and I find myself believing a bit more, maybe it’s because I want to believe in an afterlife, that when you die, it doesn’t just all disappear. The wisdom you’ve accumulated, somehow it lives on.” (Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson) Steve Jobs is one of the most famous cultural icons of modern-day America and, indeed, around the world, and thus his biography was eagerly awaited. The author, Walter Isaacson, was able to interview Jobs extensively during the writing process. Thus, the above excerpt is possible where the writer is a character in the story himself, asking Jobs about his views on life and philosophy of the world. Autobiography, the biography of oneself narrated by oneself. Autobiographical works can take many forms, from the intimate writings made during life that were not necessarily intended for publication (including letters, diaries, journals, memoirs, and reminiscences) to a formal book-length autobiography. Informal autobiography Autobiography, like biography, manifests a wide variety of forms, beginning with the intimate writings made during a life... Formal autobiographies offer a special kind of biographical truth: a life, reshaped by recollection, with all of recollection’s conscious and unconscious omissions and distortions. The novelist Graham Greene said that, for this reason, an autobiography is only “a sort of life” and used the phrase as the title for his own autobiography (1971). 87 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

5.3 AUTOBIOGRAPHY –HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION There are but few and scattered examples of autobiographical literature in antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the 2nd century BCE the Chinese classical historian Sima Qian included a brief account of himself in the Shiji (“Historical Records”). It may be stretching a point to include, from the 1st century BCE, the letters of Cicero (or, in the early Christian era, the letters of Saint Paul), and Julius Caesar’s Commentaries tell little about Caesar, though they present a masterly picture of the conquest of Gaul and the operations of the Roman military machine at its most efficient. But Saint Augustine’s Confessions, written about 400 CE, stands out as unique: though Augustine put Christianity at the centre of his narrative and considered his description of his own life to be merely incidental, he produced a powerful personal account, stretching from youth to adulthood, of his religious conversion. Confessions has much in common with what came to be known as autobiography in its modern, Western sense, which can be considered to have emerged in Europe during the Renaissance, in the 15th century. One of the first examples was produced in England by Margery Kempe, a religious mystic of Norfolk. In her old age Kempe dictated an account of her bustling, far-faring life, which, however concerned with religious experience, reveals her personality. One of the first full-scale formal autobiographies was written a generation later by a celebrated humanist publicist of the age, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, after he was elevated to the papacy, in 1458, as Pius II. In the first book of his autobiography— misleadingly named Commentarii, in evident imitation of Caesar—Pius II traces his career up to becoming pope; the succeeding 11 books (and a fragment of a 12th, which breaks off a few months before his death in 1464) present a panorama of the age. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content.Subscribe Now The autobiography of the Italian physician and astrologer Gironimo Cardano and the adventures of the goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini in Italy of the 16th century; the uninhibited autobiography of the English historian and diplomat Lord Herbert of Cherbury, in the early 17th; and Colley Cibber’s Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, Comedian in the early 18th—these are representative examples of biographical literature from the Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment. The latter period itself produced three works that are especially notable for their very different reflections of the spirit of the times as well as of the personalities of their authors: the urbane autobiography of Edward Gibbon, the great historian; the plainspoken, vigorous success story of an American who possessed all talents, Benjamin Franklin; and the introspection of a revolutionary Swiss-born political and social theorist, the Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau—the latter leading to two autobiographical explorations in poetry during the Romantic period in England, William Wordsworth’s Prelude and Lord Byron’s Childe Harold, cantos III and IV. Types of autobiography 88 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

An autobiography may be placed into one of four very broad types: thematic, religious, intellectual, and fictionalized. The first grouping includes books with such diverse purposes as The Americanization of Edward Bok (1920) and Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (1925, 1927). Religious autobiography claims a number of great works, ranging from Augustine and Kempe to the autobiographical chapters of Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus and John Henry Cardinal Newman’s Apologia in the 19th century. That century and the early 20th saw the creation of several intellectual autobiographies, including the severely analytical Autobiography of the philosopher John Stuart Mill and The Education of Henry Adams. Finally, somewhat analogous to the novel as biography is the autobiography thinly disguised as, or transformed into, the novel. This group includes such works as Samuel Butler’s The Way of All Flesh (1903), James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), George Santayana’s The Last Puritan (1935), and the novels of Thomas Wolfe. Yet in all of these works can be detected elements of all four types; the most outstanding autobiographies often ride roughshod over these distinctions. 5.4 AUTOBIOGRAPHY VS. BIOGRAPHY Whereas biographies are written about someone other than the writer, autobiographies take a more introspective approach. Famous biographers include Doris Kearns Goodwin, who has written about Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt, and Robert Caro, who has written about Lyndon Johnson and Robert Moses. Biographers are known for developing great expertise about their subject. By contrast, an autobiographer only needs total expertise on one subject: themselves. Autobiography vs. Memoir An autobiography is closely related to the nonfiction format known as a memoir, but the two forms are not identical. Most notably, an autobiography is a first person account of its author’s entire life. A memoir does not document the memoirist’s entire life story but rather a selected era or a specific multi-era journey within that author’s life. Alternatively, a memoir may concern its author’s entire life, but present it through a particular lens— perhaps highlighting the events leading up to and surrounding their professional career. As such, a memoir is comparatively focused when considered side-by-side with an autobiography. For instance, a professional athlete may document her entire life in her autobiography, while giving special emphasis to an era she believes will grab the reader’s interest, such as the summer she competed in the Olympic Games. If that same athlete had opted for memoir writing instead, she may have focused the entire memoir around those Olympic games. Rather than function as the story of the author’s life from birth to the present, her memoir would focus on retelling the period in her life for which she is most known. 89 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

An autobiography should include all the most important details of your life story. This does not mean it should contain every tiny sliver of minutiae; a self-aware autobiographer will take stock of certain moments in their own life that may be interesting to themselves but not to an audience of strangers. Here are some key elements to consider including in your autobiography: 1. A description of your personal origin story: This can include your hometown, your family history, some key family members and loved ones, and touchstone moments in your education. 2. Significant experiences: Add accounts of each personal experience that shaped your worldview and your approach to life in the present day. 3. Detailed recollections of episodes from your professional life: Often these are the turning points that your autobiography will be known for—the moments that would inspire someone to pick up your book in the first place. Be sure to give them extra care and attention. 4. A personal story of failure: Follow it up with a good story of how you responded to that failure. 5. A unique and compelling title: Steer clear of generic phrases like “my autobiography” or “the story of me, my family, and famous people I know.” 6. A first person narrative voice: Third person writing is appropriate for traditional biographies, but in the autobiography format, third person voice can read as presumptuous. 5.5 HOW TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY IN 8 STEPS 1. Start by Brainstorming. The writing process begins by compiling any and all life experiences that you suspect might be compelling to a reader. As you sort through your own memories, be sure to cover all eras of your life—from childhood to high school to your first job to the episodes in your life you are most known for. Many of these episodes won’t make it into the final draft of your book, but for now, keep the process broad and open. 2. Craft an Outline. Begin to organize a narrative around the most compelling episodes from your brainstorm. If you pace your life’s important events throughout your book, you’ll be able to grip your readers’ attention from beginning to end. 3. Do Your Research. 90 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Once you have a first draft of your outline, engage in some research to help you recall contextual information from the period you are writing about. Interview friends and family members to help you remember all the details from the moments you choose to recall in your autobiography. No one can remember the full history of their entire life—particularly their childhood—so prepare to do some cultural research as well. 4. Write Your First Draft. If you’ve come up with the key biographical moments around which you can anchor your life story, then you are ready to attempt a first draft. This draft may be overly long and scattershot, but professional writers know that even the tightest final drafts may be borne of a long winded first draft. 5. Take a Break. When your first draft is complete, take a few days off. You’ll want to read your work with the freshest possible perspective; removing yourself from the process for a few days can aid this endeavor. 6. Proofread. After a brief layoff, begin proofreading. Yes, you should look for grammar mistakes, but more importantly, you should identify weak moments in the narrative and come up with constructive improvements. Think about what you’d look for if reading about another person’s life, and apply it to your own autobiography. 7. Write Your Next Draft. Write a second draft based on the notes you’ve given yourself. Then, when this second draft is complete, show it to trusted friends and, if you have one, a professional editor. Their outside eyes will give you a valuable perspective that you cannot possibly have on your own work. 8. Refine Your Writing. Repeat step 7 as needed. New drafts should be followed by new reads from new people. Throughout the process, you will refine your writing skills and your autobiographical know how. Hopefully you will end up producing a final draft that is leaps and bounds beyond what you produced in a first draft—but that still holds true to the most important elements of your life and your personal truth. 5.6 BIOGRAPHY Without storytellers, history would be lost. Most historical “truth” belongs to the pop historian. The average person knows about the past from the best told stories, not necessarily the most factual stories. Many different elements ranging from current cultural touch points to promotion by a popular celebrity can propel a story into the mass consciousness. 91 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

A biography is a specialized form of history. It is an account of events based upon the example of one person’s life. There are four basic types of biographies: historical fiction, academic, fictional academic, and the prophetic biography. Historical Fiction Biography A fictionalized biography is a creative account inspired by the events of a person’s life. The fictional style is most often used in contemporary biographies such as the accounts of celebrities, athletes and politicians who are still alive. These “true stories” often inspire tales for film or television. Usually, the stories are loosely based on a few well-known facts about the individual and then developed for greatest entertainment value. There is little concern for literal accuracy or factual integrity regarding the individual’s life lessons. Fictional biographies today often strive to make a social or political statement. Political biographies and autobiographies have become popular ways to capitalize on one’s personal fame while also promoting an ideology. In the United States, this is the most common form of biography. These stories include a few facts thrown into an entertaining tale with a goal to create a specific impression regardless of authenticity. The strength of this format is enjoyment with simple conclusions. Examples of fictional biographies in books, include: The “Hot Celebrity Biography” series, with books on people like Johnny Depp, Shaun White, Hilary Duff, Michael Phelps, etc. “Yes We Can: A Biography of President Barack Obama” by Garen Eileen Thomas “The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln” by C.A. Tripp I also include one-sided, political memoirs in this “for entertainment only” category because the author (often working with an uncredited writer) desires to influence the reader more than to give an accurate account of their life’s events. These “fake” autobiographies include accounts like: “Decision Points” by George W. Bush “Hard Choices” by Hillary Rodham Clinton “A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America” by Ted Cruz Examples of fictional biographies in film and television, include almost anything that starts with “based on a true story,” including: “Goodfellas” (1990) directed by Martin Scorsese “Into the Wild” (2007) directed by Sean Penn “Super Size Me” (2004) directed by Morgan Spurlock “Justin Bieber Never Say Never” (2011) directed by Jon M. Chu 92 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

“The Revenant” (2015) directed by Alejandro G. Inarritu “Making a Murderer” the 2015 Netflix series inspired by the life and crimes of Steven Avery. Academic Biography The second type of historical story based on an individual life is the academic biography. Academic biographies rely heavily upon the documented facts and noted accomplishments of a person’s life. Any lessons learned by these individuals often get lost in a consideration of the minute details of the person’s life. Academic historians will group related facts around a person’s accomplishments. For example, the life of a visual artist could be told according to their perceived impact on a specific form of art like sculpture, portraiture, or landscape painting. The lives of leaders in business, politics, and social change are usually grouped chronologically in an academic biography. For example, the stories begin with childhood and family influences, followed by education and first love, pursuit of their life goal, reaching the goal, raising a family, fall from grace or retirement and finally death. The academic biography is seldom an easy read. It’s packed full of notations indicating extensive references. These biographies have a limited audience and are rarely used outside of a classroom. Examples of academic biographies in books, include: “Stalking the Academic Communist: Intellectual Freedom and the Firing of Alex Novikoff” by David R. Holmes “John Wyclif: Myth and Reality” by G.R. Evans Examples of academic biographies in film and television are usually considered documentaries. A couple examples include: “Mother Teresa” (1986) documentary by Ann & Jeanette Petrie “Bobby Fisher Against the World” (2011) HBO documentary by Liz Garbus Fictionalized Academic Biographies The third category of biographies is the fictionalized academic biography. The fictionalized academic biography tries to combine the best elements of the fictional biography (entertainment with a strong theme and story line) and the academic biography (factual accuracy). The documented events of a person’s life are used in an entertaining manner while striving to relate an honest impression of the individual. By combining the author’s or directors unique insights into life along with the facts and lessons of the individual, the result is a balanced view of how someone may have lived. When successful, the fictionalized academic biography can change the public’s impression of the individual’s life. Examples of fictionalized academic biographies in books, include: “American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880–1964” by William Manchester 93 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

“East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart” by Susan Butler Two of my favorites in this category are out-of-print autobiographies. “I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow… ’Cause I Get Better Looking Every Day” by Joe Willie Namath and Richard Schaap (1970) “My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr.” by Coretta Scott King (1969, first edition) Examples of fictionalized academic biographies in film and television, include: “Patton” (1970) directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, written by Francis Ford Coppola “Milk” (2008) directed by Gus Van Sant Prophetic Biography Finally, the fourth type of retelling the story of a person’s life is the prophetic biography. The prophetic biography begins with the academic approach of considering all the known facts. Once the details have been catalogued, a spiritual goal or ideal theme — often “liberation of the masses” — is developed. Facts that support the ideal thesis are then chosen and developed to achieve the greatest entertainment value. When successful, these accounts are revered as valuable resources for personal development. If the prophetic biography contains guidance for the material, mental and spiritual well-being of humankind, it may even become elevated to a religious scripture. A prophetic biography differs from fictional “entertainment” biographies because it seeks to inspire an idealistic change in the reader rather than just providing base entertainment. The prophetic biography differs from the fictionalized academic biography because from the outset of its conception there is a goal to communicate practical life lessons for the overall improvement of the reader. The fan of a prophetic biography will return to it, again and again, throughout their lifetime in order to find consolation, meaning and guidance. Examples of prophetic biographies in books, include: “The Story of My Experiments with Truth” Autobiography by Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi “Autobiography of a Yogi” by Paramahansa Yogananda “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John” the Christian Gospels of the New Testament Examples of prophetic biographies in film and television, include: “Ram Dass, Fierce Grace” (2001) a film by Mickey Lemle “Gandhi” (1982) directed by Richard Attenborough Good biographers, like good historians, tell entertaining fact-based stories to help individuals and to affirm cohesive themes in society. If a story helps a community to find common ideals 94 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

and positive goals, then it exceeds expectations. Illustrating how neighbors are similar and suggesting ways that humanity may progress through telling the story of an individual life is a noble pursuit for any biographer. Type of Biographical Accounts Whenever reading a biography or an autobiography, consider which type of story has been conveyed. Is it historical fiction? Is it academic? Perhaps it is a fictional academic account? Does it rise to the allegory expressed in the prophetic biography? In an era of “fake news” and when experts in every field lie or misrepresent the facts on regular basis, knowing about the quality of the information you enjoyed in a book account of a person’s life is essential. A well-notated, academic biography will likely provide the reader with the most documented facts from the subject’s life. However, a prophetic biography has the potential to improve one’s life and inspire a new direction for society. I prefer fictionalized academic biographies and prophetic biographies because I like to learn lessons from another life while also being inspired to improve my own. Historical fiction accounts of a life may be entertaining but they rarely improve the quality of one’s own thoughts or knowledge of the past. I also read, but rarely enjoy, academic biographies. Depending upon the number of documented facts available for the academic account, the telling of the story can feel more like points on a timeline than a challenging and fulfilling life. I like to be aware of the limitations of the information provided in each form. I have learned that just because a book is categorized as a biography that doesn’t ensure that I will be given an accurate portrayal of the individual’s life. 5.6.1 Tips on writing a biography 1. Evaluate your potential subject, her appeal, and what types of readers might be interested. Before you embark on a biography, consider these questions: • Is enough information available to write this biography? You may need to do some preliminary research to answer this question. • Are there other biographies of this person on the market? If so, how would yours be different? • If you’re writing for a middle reader or young adult, is your subject appropriate for that age group? A biography of an infamous courtesan obviously would not be age-appropriate for a YA title. There may be other considerations that are less obvious. • Does this life merit a full book? The potential market is an essential component of your decision to write the biography or not. Although working out a preliminary marketing plan may seem premature, it will help not only with your decision about writing the biography, but with how you shape the book. Start with the question: What interests you about this person? 95 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Then consider what specifically you think would interest readers. Keep in mind that the most interesting questions may not be about what your subject did, but why. What obstacles did he face, and how did he work through the challenge? Such considerations lead you to the essential question—who are your readers?—which in turn will be a crucial part of your query or proposal to publishers and agents. Let me share some of the process I used in planning my biography Adela Breton: A Victorian Artist Amid Mexico’s Ruins, published in 2005 by the University of New Mexico Press. Breton was a British artist who copied the ancient Mayan murals in Yucatán in the early 1900s. The work was incredibly detailed, but Breton was a skilled copyist, and her work gained her international recognition. Today, her artwork is the only detailed color record of that aspect of Mexico’s pre-Columbian past. Breton was an intrepid and persevering woman. Forthright but with that wonderful Victorian tact, she didn’t suffer fools gladly —a good character to write about. In scoping her out as a subject, I concluded that she would especially appeal to readers interested in: archaeology; Mexico; the ancient Maya, builders of the famous Chichén Itzá pyramids and other archaeological sites; artists, especially women artists; travel—actual and armchair; biography; adventurous women. If you’re writing a book for middle-grade readers, consider how it might be used in class. If Breton were a middle-grade book, I would have used a statement that teachers could use my book in units on: social studies, history, art, Mexico, and ancient peoples. Statements like these define your readers. They also tell you a lot about writing your book. 2. Distill and shape your material. Preplanning is vital, and can save a lot of backtracking and rewriting. A serious mistake some biographers make is to lose sight of the fact they’re writing the story of a person’s life, not a detailed chronological account. If a person’s life is interesting enough for a biography, there’s a good story involved. How often have you picked up a biography of someone who’s always interested you, noticed it’s 700 pages long with small print, and put it down? These are what I call “what James had for breakfast every day” biographies. Clearly, this type of biographer is not of the “less is more” school of thought. I am, and I think many readers are, too. As with any writing, dull detail will kill the story you want to tell. The amount of detail and length are crucial if you’re writing for middle readers. Check the length and word count. Notice how other biographers have structured their story to fit comfortably within an appropriate length. 96 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

You can literally shape nonfiction. For a biography I make a rough chronology of the person’s life, noting the high spots, low points, and other periods that are particularly interesting. Then I graph this and see where the peaks and troughs fall. Few lives have the sort of structure you’d give a novel, with the right spacing of climaxes and low points. And obviously, you have a fixed pattern to work with. But you can control the amount of space you give each element in your book. Low spots and dull intervals are part of the shaping of a person’s life. Keep in mind that your book isn’t going to be divided evenly by years. One eventful year may merit three chapters, while you might summarize five other years in one chapter. You might want to highlight a particular low spot that was formative. 3. Formulate a research plan. Where will you find your information? I follow the “Leave no stone unturned” school of research. For the Breton book, I had to use original sources —primarily letters Breton wrote and a few she received, since there was almost no published biographical information. I contacted every potential source I could think of, particularly museums, asking if they had any Breton material. Several museums had original letters and knew of other museums or institutions that had a few letters; I knew where some of her art was, and through my “no stone unturned” approach managed to located other pieces of her art. It was all original research. People were helpful and often suggested other people or places to contact. My research began in pre-Internet days. There’s no question technology has made research easier, but you can’t rely solely on the Internet. Biographers often still do a lot of hands-on research. Keep good notes and, as a memory aid, a log of your research activities. Well into a project you don’t want to wonder, “Have I contacted that person?” Research isn’t always sequential. Information will come in bits and pieces, not in chronological order. Research can involve a significant amount of time, energy and money, so plan it carefully. It’s also important to know when to stop. There’s always the tantalizing prospect of the trunk in someone’s attic containing the letters you’ve been looking for, and there are, indeed, wonderful accounts of this happening. While I’ve had some good fortune in finding sources and information, however, I’ve yet to stumble on the proverbial trunk. Your knowledge of where and how your subject lived, her times, her friends, her competitors, will enrich your biography. You may actually use little of this research, but it will enable you to speak accurately and authoritatively about events in the biography. The temptation, of course, is to put too much of that good research into your book—the “what she had for breakfast” syndrome. 97 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

4. Take the plunge. Find beginnings difficult, and often try a lot of false starts before I nail it. With biography, it may seem like the logical starting place is getting the person born—but that can be a weak, boring beginning. Some writers begin further back, with family history. I looked at a number of biographies to see what I thought was effective and might work, and tried out many opening paragraphs before settling on a flashback [see sidebar online]. Writing a biography is much more than recording facts. Good biographies make people live, highlight their accomplishments, and present the puzzles of their life. Researching and writing it can be exhilarating and intriguing, and open up other subjects and interests for future projects. Just be sure to keep your readers’ interests in mind—and your own. WORKOUT 1. To help find your biographical focus, write an elevator speech. If you were on the elevator with a potential publisher, what would you say if she asked? • What is the most compelling aspect of your subject? • Why will a reader want to read your biography? • How is your book different than other biographies about this person? 2. For help in understanding your subject matter and in shaping the book, pretend you’re having tea with your subject. • Write down three or four questions you’d like to ask him, and why. Chances are readers will have the same ones. •What would you discuss? For my subject Adela Breton, the essential question I wanted an answer to was: “Why did she do what she did?” The copying she did, in the heat and humidity of the Yucatán Peninsula, was tedious and difficult. I got some answers and insights but would have liked more. • If your character was involved in a controversy that strongly affected his life or work, hold a short debate in which you take the opposite point of view from your subject. Clearly understanding the issues involved will help you present the matter clearly in the biography. Biographical novels are endlessly fascinating. They are fictional – often highly researched but still fictional – accounts of a real person’s life. The Paris Wife, about Ernest Hemingway and Hadley Richardson. The Other Boleyn Girl, about Mary Boleyn and her sister Anne. In Cold Blood, Truman Capote’s reconstruction and retelling of the murder of the Clutter family. They’re popular, educational, and often become terrific movies. If you’re thinking of tackling one, here are some secrets to making yours work. 98 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

1. Pick a human subject you find genuinely fascinating Unless they’re crazy-fast, most writers spend at least a year completing a manuscript, and once it’s sold, another year or two may pass until publication. After that, promotion continues for a good, long while. You’ll be channeling your hero and/or heroine for what will feel like forever, so you’d best pick people who are sufficiently complex. 2. Your character doesn’t have to be wholly likable They do need to be believable and intriguing. 3. Jump-start your research with biographies If a biography exists of your subject, lucky you. Begin there. If you’re truly fortunate, there will be more than one biography to inhale. Next, move on to diaries, memoirs, letters, interviews, and related documents. Your goal is to feel you know your subject at least as well as your best friend. If you’d like your subject as a friend, even better. See Rule #2. 4. Beware of verbal anachronisms I just read an otherwise terrific biographical novel set mostly in the 1950s and 1960s, where the author used the word “alas” at least ten times. I kept wondering if in the next scene I might discover that this mid-century woman wore a whalebone corset and dosed herself with laudanum. Related point: even if “alas” had been an apt word to use, it’s still oddly memorable, and strange to use so often in one book. 5. Avoid dialogue tics We’ve all learned that conversation shouldn’t be too on the nose and speakers can overlap. In an effort to be period-friendly, however, dialogue shouldn’t mimic every sloppy annoyance of everyday speech. Really. Very. So. Well. Use words such as these sparingly. They are the cayenne pepper of your manuscript. 6. Capture your subject’s voice Read letters and diaries, if any exist. Check for YouTubes – you may actually be able to hear the voice of your subject. It’s essential for conversation and internal dialogue to feel real or your book won’t distinguish itself. 7. Feel free to reshape your story line Even the most interesting person does not lead his or her life in a plot. An author needs to determine not only what events to subtract and re-order in the life of her subject, but what do fictionalize and add. Perhaps your Civil War nurse visits an imaginary hospital in Atlanta, or even a real one in which you can’t that prove she ever set foot. Your story may be better for the invention. 9. Enrich your book with historical details 99 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)

Consider your book to be the literary equivalent of Colonial Williamsburg. Readers come to any historical novel, biographical or otherwise, partly to learn about a bygone era. Don’t stint on (accurate!) details about clothing, hairdos, food, home design, transportation, gardening, raising children…. 10. Beware of rabbit holes In preparation for writing any historical novel, it’s so much fun combing through clippings, tracking down out-of-print books, and watching vintage movies that it’s essential to assert discipline. Otherwise, you may find yourself going down rabbit holes that cause you to either procrastinate or to get so obsessed with a historical footnote that you digress in your writing. Stay on point, people. 11. Stick to your era In a biographical novel it’s essential to color within the lines or your time period’s details. Nothing takes a reader out of story faster than a mistake. You will find yourself researching picky but essential points. Did women wear nylon stockings in 1939? In 1962, could you buy avocados in a Minnesota supermarket? How many stars did the American flag have in 1901? 12. Read well-written novels within the genre You want to be able to identify fine writing and become infected by its virus, so read the best of the best and steer clear of biographical novels with pedestrian writing. Professional Biography Format Think of a professional biography as an advertisement for yourself. The same rules that apply to advertisements apply to professional biographies, too - keep it brief, relevant, and engaging. Get started with a basic outline for an effective professional bio. Start with your full name. Explain what you do and how you do it well. You can also include some information about your early life. It's important to get your reader's attention quickly here. Describe a core professional belief or value. Prospective employers, clients, and readers want to know that you truly care about your work. List relevant employment experiences and successes. You've got your reader's attention - now it's time to prove that you are unique and exemplary in your field. Be specific. Include certifications, credentials, training, awards, or other practical experiences. Add your relevant degrees and schools. It's good to leave your audience with a sense of your educational accomplishments. Depending on your audience, you can end with a bit of humor, but keep it short. Write your professional biography in third person, as if you are writing about someone else. 100 CU IDOL SELF LEARNING MATERIAL (SLM)