Some Random Thoughts On American Literature And Tagore

Talking about the paucity of American poets in English literature in earlier times, there was a corresponding abundance of novelists and storytellers — Ernest Hemingway, Pearl S Buck, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, and the like. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Gone With The Wind, and To Kill a Mockingbird provided very different looks at the plight of blacks and slavery. If you look at the various pockets of Americana that generated this swath of literature in the couple of hundred years contemporaneous with the poems that appeared in Poems Old and New, it is no wonder that American poets took a backseat to other American writers in the public mind-space.

If a similar anthology of novels were to be made from that time period, I think American representation would be much higher. And the Jewish American writers too —Faulkner, Saul Bellow, Malamud, Isaac Bhasevis Singer (Nobel Prize 1978, whose many stories I have translated)— then another set of Jewish novelists — Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, Henry Miller. There are so many others. The new vibrancy was a changeover from the formal British writers.

Of course, I would also have mentioned Bob Dylan and the complete world of country music.

At that time Whitman evolved with Leaves of Grass, I can't remember other major American poets, may be Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and William Carlos Williams. Many songs were written. As Dylan did in a later period and won the prize. Blacks came up with soul and rhythm and blues. Gospel music. American literary output was highly tied to music in many important pockets. The bards of England had a similar contribution.

Earlier, it was Pete Seeger and the ghetto music of the Blacks in Chicago. There must be “conflict” and drama to drive poetry and song and to give it substance. America provided that and continues to in big doses. 

That books can change society has a fine example in American literature — Uncle Tom's Cabin. You would find it interesting that Uncle Tom’s Cabin is looked down upon. A black that seems to ingratiate himself to whites is called an Uncle Tom derisively. Of course, the British liked that model of a person of colour, maybe even promoted it in India. But you will never find it in a reading list in the USA. Turns out that this was actually a good book and did a lot to change attitudes about blacks in the USA, but it was the depiction in numerous plays where parts were lopped off that distorted the story —crime of omission rather than of commission— that caused resentment from blacks and sympathisers, leading to the rejection of the entire book.

Songs gave poems huge popularity. Poetry remains intellectually elitist. Songs are always more popular than written stuff. People who can't read can understand songs’ words and music. The script came much later. Rabindranath’s songs are well-known among the masses. His “pure” poetry less so. The lyrics, as poetry, are superb, much of it about the wonder that is the universe and the peopled world.

Tagore had said if not for anything else, his songs will be everlasting. His ideas are universally-accepted. They never dwell on conflict but on harmony and the unending, sheer drama of creation. 

Back to American prose: Are there characters like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in English literature? What would be the closest? I think possibly Harry Potter.

Back to Tagore: I heard from Amita Sen, Dr Amartya Sen's mother, that Tagore himself taught them how to dance, very precise and disciplined teaching. He was trying to evolve a new dance form for his dance dramas, and Manipuri came closest to his liking. Interesting.

To enact "patar mormor", Tagore taught them how to use their feet and steps as they crush the dry leaves below. The body language should synchronise with the theme, lyrics, mood, and music. America or Europe had nobody comparable with Tagore in the holistic completeness of multivarious art forms.

(Boudhayan Mukherjee is a reputed English poet, essayist, and translator, who taught creative writing in English at Indira Gandhi National Open University. Having been published extensively in journals and newspapers here and abroad, he has authored five books of poetry and translations. He is founder member of Srijan, one of the leading literary and cultural platforms in Kolkata.)