Sujata Bhatt hs 123u912e423njfrndfsr.pptx

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1. 4/24/2023 1 Argha Basu HSS IITP HS212: Diasporic Literature “A Different History” by Sujata Bhatt

2. 4/24/2023 2 Argha Basu HSS IITP Sujata Bhatt (1956 - present) Born in Ahmadabad, Gujarat 1956. Brought up in Pune until 1968. Moved to USA and pursued MFA. Went on to work as a writer in residence in Canada. Received the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia) and Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize for her first collection of poems, Brunizem in 1987.

3. 4/24/2023 3 Argha Basu HSS IITP Part 1 Part 2 The poem follows the free verse format. (Enjambment) Therefore, we can’t see any discernible rhyme scheme (Shows the complexity of the issues addressed). It is divided into two parts. Observe the structure of the poem.

4. 4/24/2023 4 Argha Basu HSS IITP Great Pan is not dead; he simply emigrated                        to India. Here, the gods roam freely , disguised as snakes or monkeys ; every tree is sacred and it is a sin to be rude to a book . Pan is a deity of the wild, shepherds and flocks, rustic music and impromptus, and companion of nymphs in the religion and mythology of ancient Greece. The Vedic variant is Pushan . The acceptance of other religions and cultures. How the notion of God is embedded within the symbolic representations of nature and natural objects/beings. The word “sin” stands for a negative commentary of religion but simultaneously suggests the importance of preserving tradition.

5. 4/24/2023 5 Argha Basu HSS IITP It is a sin to shove a book aside                      with your foot, a sin to slam books down                      hard on a table, a sin to toss one carelessly                        across a room. You must learn how to turn the pages gently without disturbing Sarasvati , without offending the tree from whose wood the paper was made. The aspects of pantheism is reflected on in this section. The appreciation of culture simultaneously emphasizes on the idea of freedom and comprehending it beyond selfishness. The book functions as an example or a symbol that represents the Indian culture.

6. 4/24/2023 6 Argha Basu HSS IITP Which language  has not been the oppressor’s tongue?  Which language  truly meant to murder someone? And how does it happen that after the torture, after the soul has been cropped   with a long scythe  swooping out   of the conqueror’s face –   the unborn grandchildren   grow to love that strange language. What Bhatt means when she asks “Which language” is that she is attempting to reconcile how India feels about English and how she uses English, which is the language of India's oppressors. The fact that colonialism took place is not the language's fault, and the British's historical behaviour does not make all English speakers deserving of hatred today. A persistent historical reminder of colonial cruelty and the eradication of culture (the nation's essence). Disconnected to one’s roots and emerging global citizens with a different historical sensibility.

7. 4/24/2023 7 Argha Basu HSS IITP “ Search for My Tongue ” by Sujata Bhatt You ask me what I mean by saying I have lost my tongue. I ask you, what would you do if you had two tongues in your mouth, and lost the first one, the mother tongue, and could not really know the other, the foreign tongue. You could not use them both together even if you thought that way. And if you lived in a place you had to speak a foreign tongue, your mother tongue would rot, rot and die in your mouth until you had to spit it out. I thought I spit it out but overnight while I dream, munay hutoo kay aakhee jeebh aakhee bhasha may thoonky nakhi chay parantoo rattray svupnama mari bhasha pachi aavay chay foolnee jaim mari bhasha nmari jeebh modhama kheelay chay fullnee jaim mari bhasha mari jeebh modhama pakay chay (I felt that the language that belonged to my tongue I had spat it out But at night, I see dreams in my mother tongue My mother tongue is like a flower It blooms on my tongue My mother tongue is like a flower It ripens my mouth) it grows back, a stump of a shoot grows longer, grows moist, grows strong veins, it ties the other tongue in knots, the bud opens, the bud opens in my mouth, it pushes the other tongue aside. Everytime I think I've forgotten, I think I've lost the mother tongue, it blossoms out of my mouth.

8. 4/24/2023 8 Argha Basu HSS IITP “ An Introduction ” by Kamala Das I don't know politics but I know the names Of those in power, and can repeat them like Days of week, or names of months, beginning with Nehru. I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar, I speak three languages, write in Two, dream in one. Don't write in English, they said, English is Not your mother-tongue. Why not leave Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins, Every one of you? Why not let me speak in Any language I like? The language I speak, Becomes mine, its distortions, its queernesses All mine, mine alone. It is half English, half-Indian, funny perhaps, but it is honest, It is as human as I am human, don't You see? It voices my joys, my longings, my Hopes, and it is useful to me as cawing Is to crows or roaring to the lions, it Is human speech, the speech of the mind that is Here and not there, a mind that sees and hears and Is aware. Not the deaf, blind speech Of trees in storm or of monsoon clouds or of rain or the Incoherent mutterings of the blazing Funeral pyre. […]

9. 4/24/2023 9 Argha Basu HSS IITP Why do you choose to work in English?

10. 4/24/2023 10 Argha Basu HSS IITP How do different cultures influence your work?

11. 4/24/2023 11 Argha Basu HSS IITP The Identity Question: One of the central ideas in the poem is the question of identity. Who we are and where do we belong? The anxiety around being uprooted from one’s past is evident. The love and appreciation for English create a convoluted sense of guilt and pleasure. Diasporic concern around identity becomes prevalent as the diasporic experience has long been marked by a sense of loss of roots. Diaspora is a journey towards self-realization, self-recognition, self-knowledge and self-definition. Sujata Bhatt converts dislocation into a positive state of multiple-belongingness. For her English might pose a threat to the vernacular tongue, but not necessarily dismantle its foundation. She has talked about her identity struggle with Gujarati (an Indian language) representing the ‘deepest layer of her identity’, but English representing her daily life and work. She embraces both the languages with similar passion. Her engagement with translation (from Gujarati to English) manifests the practicability of her vision.

12. 4/24/2023 12 Argha Basu HSS IITP Thank you…