Shemonti Hasan

University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, Department of English, Undergraduate

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Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University

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Dublin City University

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Papers by Shemonti Hasan

Magical Realism and Paranoia in Syed Manzoorul Islam's "The Ground Beneath Paritosh's Feet" and "The Merman's Prayer"

SPECTRUM (Special Centenary Issue), 2021

As far as literary genres are concerned, the relation between magical realism and paranoid fictio... more As far as literary genres are concerned, the relation between magical realism and paranoid fiction is diametrical. Magical realism demonstrates the supernatural elements in a mundane, secularistic fashion, without highlighting its apparent displacement. Conversely, paranoid fiction constantly forces the readers to question the reliability of the plot of a story, its characters and the storyteller as well. In short, magic realism renders the most intangible events earthly, while paranoid fiction makes a temporal situation elusive. Using two short stories-"The Ground Beneath Paritosh's Feet" and "The Merman's Prayer"-from Syed Manzoorul Islam's The Merman's Prayer and Other Stories (2013), this paper shows how employing paranoia as an agent arouses feelings of magical realism in the readers. In these stories, the writer aptly exhibits a perfect mélange of fairy tale elements as well as moments of abrupt shocks and inexplicable experiences. These stories constitute momentousness in a voluble language that produces a magical terrain where everything fantastical appears real. This paper proposes to present a detailed critique on how the elements of magical realism and paranoia are intertwined with each other in the mentioned stories. The authors draw references from dream interpretation, wish-fulfilment, psychosis and escapism to support their argument.

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SPECTRUM Volume 16 2021 18 September

, since its inception in 1921, has been closely associated with the historical journey of the nat... more , since its inception in 1921, has been closely associated with the historical journey of the nation and has been instrumental in shaping the educational, literary, cultural and political tradition of the country. To celebrate the completion of 100 years of the department and the university and 50 years of Independence, we decided to publish this volume of the English department journal as a special centenary issue. Spectrum, Journal of the Department of English began its journey quite late in 1998 for reasons unknown. The editor of the first issue, Professor Shawkat Hussain, in his editorial writes, "The idea of a departmental journal had been mooted several times: names were proposed, articles solicited, committees formed, but for one reason or another, the project never took off." It was expected to be an annual affair but due to monetary constraints, only 15 issues have been published so far. This editorial team after taking over in 2020 began working hard with a lot of promise but unfortunately with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic all academic activities had slowed down for quite some time and hence the delay in its publication. We have been quite fortunate with the centennial issue. Normally, the publication cost is managed by the department's own funds; however, this time we received a 'Centennial Research Grant.' With that, it has been possible to pay an honorarium to contributors as well as reviewers and also publish this issue. Another bright side of this issue is that we were successful, following a rigorous application process, in obtaining the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the articles. Now that we are into the system, I hope that the future issues will continue with DOI and think of reducing hard copy prints not just to save money but also to reduce paper consumption for a safer environment. From the 1998 issue editorial, we also come to know that the journal was initiated with the aim to accept submissions from both established and upcoming writers and to consider all kinds of literary writingcritical essays, research articles, reviews, translations, creative pieces, and hence the title Spectrum. This issue includes researchbased articles and short essays in three sections: the first section titled 'Centenary Articles' features six articles on history and contributions of the English department, roles played by the luminaries of the department, and how Dhaka University played a decisive role in different phases of the history of the nation; the second is comparatively a short creative section titled 'Memoirs: Remembering Dhaka University' comprising four prose pieces from our notable alumni reminiscing with passion and longing their times spent in the department with their friends and teachers; the last section, 'Research Articles on General Topics' contain ten research articles on various areas stretching from symbolism in Bengali Romantic poetry, feminist approaches to translation studies, magic realism, diaspora, trauma, gender/transgender issues, women representation to reading Shakespeare from the perspective of pandemic literature. iv As the editor, I am grateful to the authors for submitting articles on a wide array of topics and the reviewers from home and abroad for their scholarly feedback. I am also indebted to my editorial team members for their time and hard work they put in towards this publication. The first issue of Spectrum was dedicated to the memory of our teacher, Dr. Benazir Durdana who died in April 1998 after losing her battle with cancer. We dedicate this centenary issue to the memory of our teachers, Dr. Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta and Rashidul Hasan and the students of our department, Bidhan

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Unveiling the Patriarchal Biases of Amit Ray: A Feminist Approach to Rabindranath Tagore's Sesher Kobita

Bangladesh Cinema and Television Institute Journal: Bangabandhu Issue, Issue: 10, Year: 6, Volume: 1, June 2021, 2021

The purpose of this paper is to examine the patriarchal biases of Amit Ray, the protagonist of th... more The purpose of this paper is to examine the patriarchal biases of Amit Ray, the protagonist of the novel Sesher Kobita (1926), written by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Amit is considered to be one of the most celebrated male characters in Bengali literature. In him, we find a universal concept of love that embraces both western and eastern ideas. However, deep scrutiny of Amit's words reveals a masculine attitude that ultimately disregards women as the weaker sex. At the beginning of the novel, Amit terms female dominance is more dangerous than a male one; feminine care is compared to opium. Amit's indifference is responsible for the transformation of Ketaki. He both idealises and romanticises his relationship with Labanya but falls short of actualising the relationship. These contradictions in Amit's attitude towards women make us question his liberalism. However, the current research analyses the words spoken by him regarding the female characters in particular and women in general. Considering his chauvinistic remarks about women and contradictory behaviour towards the opposite sex, the paper will address two basic questions: Is Amit truly a progressive man or, is he a misogynist in disguise? If the latter, does his character influence the female characters and dominate throughout the novel? To find answers, this paper closely looks at Amit's utterances and examines his actions to the female characters. In the same way, this paper also delves into the cinematic adaptations of the novel The Last Poem (2013) as an interface of a canonical literary text and its reinterpretation of a film. Finally, the paper will unfold the masculine biases of Amit in the novel being informed by feminist literary criticism.

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Magical Realism and Paranoia in Syed Manzoorul Islam's "The Ground Beneath Paritosh's Feet" and "The Merman's Prayer"

SPECTRUM (Special Centenary Issue), 2021

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SPECTRUM Volume 16 2021 18 September

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Unveiling the Patriarchal Biases of Amit Ray: A Feminist Approach to Rabindranath Tagore's Sesher Kobita

Bangladesh Cinema and Television Institute Journal: Bangabandhu Issue, Issue: 10, Year: 6, Volume: 1, June 2021, 2021

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