The poetics of nationalism

Cultural resistance and poetry in East Pakistan/Bangladesh, 1952-71

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2178686
AutoresNazneen Ahmed (0000-0003-4274-801X)
Año2014
Volumen50
Número3
Páginas256-268
Fecha de publicación2014-05-04
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Postcolonial Writing (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1744-9855 • E-ISSN: 1744-9863
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17449855.2012.695745
OpenAlexW1965635799
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas15
Referencias citadas13

This article aims to unsettle the now accepted correlation of novel/nation within postcolonial studies by demonstrating that poetry can be a "national" form in societies with limited literacy such as East Pakistan/Bangladesh, due to its capacity for oral dissemination. Drawing my examples from the poetry and songs of the East Pakistani resistance to state oppression that eventually led to secession and the creation of Bangladesh, I argue that poetry is a powerful national form due to its capacity as a vehicle for the performance of collective expression ("nation-language") and the ritualized remembrance of collective trauma. I then offer three examples of how this is undertaken, through the creation of a national sublime, the mobilization of patriarchal gender roles, and through self-reflexive poetic calls to action. In doing so, I suggest that examinations of genres other than fiction and languages/literatures beyond English can destabilize claims within postcolonial studies that are derived from anglophone cosmopolitan fiction.Keywords: BangladeshPakistannationalismoralitypoetrysong Notes1. See Brennan on the limited relevance of the anglophone cosmopolitan novel form in postcolonial societies (56).2. See Francesca Orsini for an illuminating reading of Hindi-language fiction that critiques postcolonial assumptions regarding Indian modernity derived from anglophone fiction3. Bangladesh's status as a "postcolonial" nation state is debatable. As Gyanendra Pandey observes, "the invasion and massacres perpetrated by the Pakistani army in 1971 created a new history of cataclysmic birth, displacing 1947 to a large extent", with British colonialism rendered an even longer shadow (43, 66). For a more expansive exploration of Bangladesh's complex history, see Samaddar.4. For further information regarding the role of Islam in Pakistani politics, see Cohen 161–98.5. See Rahman for an overview of the Pakistan-wide resistance to Jinnah's state linguistic policy.6. Census statistics for 1961 state that literacy, defined as the ability to read clear print in any language, was recorded as 17.6 percent in East Pakistan (Banglapedia vol. 6 277).7. Bangladeshi literary critic and translator Kabir Chowdhury notes only one novel of influence during this period, Shaukat Osman's satirical allegory of Pakistani state oppression, The Laughter of a Slave (Kritadaser Hasi).8. See Kaul for a study of the role of poetry in the collective imagination of the British Empire.9. Other examples of places where poetry and song have played major political roles in expressions of collective grief and trauma include: Palestine (see Massad); Soweto (see Cronin); and, recently, Cairo (see Allen).10. The centrality of this poem to the nationalist movement is further underlined by its use in Zahir Rehain's influential 1970 nationalist film, Jibon Theke Neya (Taken From Life) as the soundtrack to a staging of an Ekushey procession.11. The English quotations from Poems on 21st used in this article are taken from the translations provided in this bilingual Bengali and English edition.12. See Innes, Pucherova and Ramaswamy on gender and nationalist poetry in Ireland, South Africa and Sri Lanka.13. Kamal's prescriptive tone recalls a body of literature produced in Bengal (by both men and women) during the nineteenth century, specifically focused on the modes of dress appropriate for Bengali women, in which fashionable, "westernized" clothes and cosmetics were opposed to traditional styles of wearing the sari, associated with the "well-being of the home" (Chatterjee 122).14. See Patke, Bery and Ramazani

Aesthetics · Art · Cosmopolitanism · Cultural nationalism · Diaspora · Literacy · Literature · Nationalism · Oppression · Oral poetry · Poetics · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Reflexivity · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · State (computer science · Sublime · Anthropology · Bangladesh Politics, Society, and Development · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East · South Asian Studies and Diaspora · Gender Studies · History · Law