By Harish Trivedi, Dayton, Ohio.
© 2010
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Natwarbhai challenges Gujarati NRI writers
‘In the 19th century Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great Transcendentalist thinker challenged American writers to be on their own and throwaway the shackles of the home country dependency. He urged them to be independent and not look to England and Europe for approval. He also told them to draw their inspiration from “abounding life of their own country.” He continued: “Our day of independence, our long apprenticeship to the learning of other lands, draws to a close. The millions that around us are rushing into life cannot always be fed on the sere remains of foreign harvests. Events, actions arise, that must be sung, that will sing themselves…there are creative manners, there are creative actions and creative words…that is, indicative of no custom or authority, but springing spontaneous from the mind’s own sense of good and fair.” Emerson further challenged the countrymen of his young country: “Insist on yourself, never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation…”
Further on he adds, ‘…throwaway the shackles of the home country dependency’.
‘Gujarati writers of North America have to come of age and be on their own. They no longer should seek certificates from back home because most of those borrowed certificates are worthless anyway. They should throw away their literary shackles that make them look to India for the approval for their literary activities here. Their own immigrant lives are filled with fascinating stories that need to be written and tales that need to be told. Writers such as Bharati Mukerjee and Jumpa Lahiri made their literary mark doing just that. Why does the Gujarati NRI writer close his eyes to the world that surrounds him and look to a distant land where he is an object of condescension?’
Bharati Mukerjee as spelled in the above paragraph by Natwarbhai is incorrect. The correct spelling is Mukherjee - with KH and Jumpa Lahiri should have been spelled Jhumpa Lahiri - there is JH as in Jhumpa. I am sure this was a mere typographical error.
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American Literature in late 18th and early 19th century and Emerson’s Advice to young writers
It was in the late eighteenth and early 19th century that the nation’s first novels were published. These fictions were too lengthy to be printed as manuscript or public reading. Publishers took a chance on these works in hopes they would become steady sellers and need to be reprinted. This was a good bet as literacy rates soared in this period among both men and women. The first American novel is William Hill Brown’s ‘’The Power of Sympathy’’ published in 1789. (The Norton Anthology of American Literature)
In the next decadeimportant women writers also published novels. Susanna Rowson is best known for her novel, ‘’Charlotte: A Tale of Truth’’, published in London in 1791.[5] In 1794 the novel was reissued in Philadelphia under the title, ‘’Charlotte Temple.’’ ‘’Charlotte Temple’’ is a seduction tale, written in the third person, which warns against listening to the voice of love and counsels resistance. In addition to this best selling novel, she wrote nine novels, six theatrical works, two collections of poetry, six textbooks, and countless songs.
( Parker, Patricia L. “Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson.” ‘’The English Journal.’’ 65.1: (1976) 59-60. ‘’JSTOR.’’ Web. 1 March 2010)In this country – U.S.A - in the late eighteenth and early 19th century that the nation’s first novels were published.. The first American novel is William Hill Brown’s ‘’The Power of Sympathy’’ published in 1789.
Reaching more than a million and a half readers over a century and a half, ‘’Charlotte Temple’’ was the biggest seller of the nineteenth century before Stowe’s ‘’Uncle Tom’s Cabin.’’ Although Rowson was extremely popular in her time and is often acknowledged in accounts of the development of the early American novel, ‘’Charlotte Temple’’ is often criticized as a sentimental novel of seduction. Hannah Webster Foster’s ‘’The Coquette: Or, the History of Eliza Wharton’’ was published in 1797 and was also extremely popular. (Source: Schweitzer, Ivy. ‘’Early American Literature.’’ 23.2: 1988] 221-225. ‘’JSTOR.’’ Web. 1 March 2010).
With the War of 1812 and an increasing desire to produce uniquely American literature and culture, a number of key new literary figures emerged, perhaps most prominently Washington Irving, William Cullen Bryant, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe. Irving, often considered arguably the first writer to develop a unique American style. wrote during the early decades of 19th century. Bryant wrote romantic and nature-inspired poetry, which evolved away from their European origins.
In 1832, Poe began writing short stories – including "The Masque of the Red Death", "The Pit and the Pendulum", "The Fall of the House of Usher", and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" – that explore previously hidden levels of human psychology and push the boundaries of fiction toward mystery and fantasy. James Fenimore Cooper's three novels including The Last of the Mohicans) were popular both in the new country and abroad. Herman Mellville’s Moby Dick which was published in 1851, was not very successful in his life time, although it is considered one of the master pieces of Amrican literature. (Source: Norton Anthology of American Literature)
The noted America-born English essayist, critic and author Henry James (1843 – 1916) a pioneer of the realism movement in literature wrote mostly in the mode of British novels, became a British citizen in 1915 and died there in 1916. He did not seem to have paid any attention to Emerson’s advice. Henry James is one of the favorite writers of Natwarbhai whose name he likes to mention at any opportunity he gets to do so.
Barring few exception, early Amrican writing did not sell well (same as our Gujarari writing now. The only difference is, under a century after the American independence in 1776 good and distinctly Amrican literature had emerged.
The story of Gujarati writers in Gujarat and the diaspora writers is bit different. Gujarati NRI writers have not established emotional roots in the country they have adopted and many call their home. Many of them have not immersed themselves in Amrican literature and have not assimilated or acquired knowledge of Amrican history, literature, and society. In this sense, Panna Naik’s poems about home-sickness, while reflecting an immigrant’s emotions about the home country, cannot be called in a very narrow definition an American poem. And I don’t think Panna Naik wrote her poems to create some thing that could be called American and there is nothing wrong about it.
Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul’s almost all fiction is based on his life in Trinidad and his family history. His non fiction is based on his travels in different parts of the world and his perspective on the people, politics and places of those lands. Reflecting or distilling ones own life experiences in writing does not make that work less important or relevant. It is after all the style of writing, the writer’s own sensibilities and perceptions that are reflected in his writings makes that fiction, non-fiction or poetry – good, bad or aweful.
Salman Rushdie’s first novel is quite autobiographiical. Indian American writer Ved Mehta’s almost entire body of work is based on his personal life. No one admonished these writers for not writing about their British or American experiences.
It is after all what one writes and how one writes that makes good literature. It has nothing to do with what personal experiences the writer distills and filters in his writings.
So long as a writer is able to depict some universally recongizable experinece or an event that could resonante with a readers’ own sensibilities, the writer has nothing to worry about… To paraphrase Roy Peter Clark, people read for pleasure, and to be informed, and to be swept away by storytelling.
Having said that, unless the Gujarati NRI writer or an aspiring writer totally immerses in American society and life style, to expect him/her to write some thing with a distinct American ethos is going to be futile, not withstanding Natwarbhai’s gallant effort from behind the mask of Emerson advising Gujarati NRIs to write about something that reflected their American experience.
Advising Gujarati NRI writers how to write, no matter how high minded and nobel is likely to be construed as elitist. It may sound to some as a dicta, fiat or a fatwa from some foggy ivory tower. This is not a recipie for creating good literature. The decision of what to write and how to write should be left to NRI or native born writers or poets themselves. Writers of any shade or color, listen to the voice of their own inner muse or perhaps in an absence of a muse, they listen to their mistress…
‘Literary associations and academies should make a concerted effort to encourage Gujarati writing here and publish books and journals produced here. Instead of inviting Gujarati writers and poets from home at great expense they should arrange nationwide gatherings of local Gujarati writers and poets whose voices have not been heard. Above all, Gujarati writers and literary associations should focus on the literary writing that is being done here and celebrate it much the way Emerson celebrated American writing two centuries ago.’
It should be noted that some of the Gujarati writing in this country does reflect writers’ unique American experience. Take for example Gujarati NRI writings during the last three-decades or so - Adilbhai Mansuri’s poem about the young woman who was attacked and raped in the Central Park, New York, Panna Mody’s several poems that depicts her home-sickness or how she misses certain kind of Indian flowers that she is unable find in this country etc. Madhu Rye’s novel ‘Kimball Ravenswood’, An anthology of Gujarati poems that was edited by Chandrakant Shah titled ‘Amerikavyo’ and his collection of poems inspired by blue jeans. An earlier and probably the very first anthology of poems by expatriate Indians living in the U.S and Canada titled ‘Poetry-India’ (published by the India Foundation, Dayton and MedFest International 1987) included poems in some thirteen Indian languages, with original Indian script and with an English translation of the same. ‘Poetry-India’ included poems by six Gujarati NRIs; many a poems depicted the poets’ American experience. The critical articles in the pioneering Gujarati digest published and edited by Kishore Desai has published such writings and the list could go on and on…
On the topic of Gujarati writing inspired by American experience (as we are talking about Gujarati NRI writers), one could add the travelogues written by some visiting writers from India, some invited by the Academy and some who visited this country on their own. The problem with such travelogues is the ‘sameness’. Invariably all such travelogues contain un-ending descriptions of the writer’s hosts in various cities and places of interest he/she visited across this country and nothing more. These travelogues read like a personal diary, there is not even a word about the beauty of the location and or historic significance of the places they had visited.
Some visiting Gujarati writers have even tried to be a sociologist and have tried to analyze the life-styles of Gujarati NRIs – generally their hosts in this country. Such efforts have given the readers back home in India nothing but half-baked information and laughable generalizations about life in America. Such travelogues make dubious literature. The only value of such travelogues is only to the fans of the writers who have lovingly and with respect hosted those writers.
Natwarbhai says, ‘Literary associations and academies should make a concerted effort to encourage Gujarati writing here and publish books and journals produced here’. One might add that first one should find ways to finance such publishing efforts, as Natwarbhai is silent on the subject of financing the printing/publishing efforts of Gujarati NRIs in this country. I am sure he is not suggesting that the Gujarati NRI writers personally pay for their work published in this country rather than doing the same in India.
I would like to thank Natwarbhai for giving me this opportunity to enter in this discussion. His article is indeed thought provoking and dealt with a subject that has demanded attention for a long time. Natwarbhai is my very own Pundit of the Potomac!
(Translation, reprinting, electronic transmission or reproduction of this article in any form is prohibited without prior written permission from Harish Trivedi. Contact: indiafound@earthlink.net)
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