Signifying the Nation: Identity, Authenticity and the Ageing Body in the                 Post-Independence Hindi Short Story

Raja, Ira

doi:10.1177/0021989404047044

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…While sociological discourses on ageing have centred on aspects such as identity, stratification, life cycle rituals and caregiving (Cohen 1998;Kitwood and Bredin 1992;Lamb 2000), occasionally adopting an auto-ethnographic approach (Bateson 1974), studies in literature have concentrated on the thematic elements of narratives and their creation (Raja 2004(Raja , 2010. What Ira Raja called a 'narrative turn' could potentially uncover sociological dimensions of biological ageing, to the extent that the maturation of a character within fiction or poetry might symbolise a nation coming of age (Phelan 2005;Randall and Kenyon 2004;Brennan 1989).…”

Section: Ageing Revolution Ageing Poetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Narratives of Ageing, Narratives of Nation-building: Manjul and the Poetics of Dissidence in Nepal

Shakya

2023

Society and Culture in South Asia

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This article reads the work of a publicly engaged poet from Nepal, Manjul, to explore how revolutions age along with humans and nations. His recent work is juxtaposed against his earlier political activism leading a radical movement ‘Ralpha’ which had spearheaded literary activism against the Panchayati dictatorship. Earlier known for his subversive lifestyle and rebellious literary repertoire, Manjul later turned self-reflective, not only pondering on the ironies of everyday living and the poetics of dissidence but also inching towards a more humanised outlook on the ideals of the nation and the state. Clearly, there are paradoxes in the way the intimate and the public, the accordant and the disruptive, and the conformist and the subversive are played off against one another by those in power. In a poetic tribute dedicated to his forebearer poet Siddhicharan, Manjul contemplates how political slogans may inspire and even serve as cornerstones for certain strands of poetry. However, he emphasises how these slogans are only one of the many dimensions of society and nation. The flame of revolutionary spirit still burns within Manjul even in his advanced years. Yet, it seamlessly blends into the broader tapestry of life embracing the sanctity of thought, expression and action. The article situates this corpus within the anthropological debates on the epistemologies of writing culture.

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Section: Ageing Revolution Ageing Poetrymentioning

confidence: 99%

Narratives of Ageing, Narratives of Nation-building: Manjul and the Poetics of Dissidence in Nepal

Shakya

2023

Society and Culture in South Asia

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“…Indeed, a recurring mobilization of the ageing figure to represent the authentic "body" of national tradition embodying, to borrow a phrase from Ann McClintock, "nationalism's conservative principle of continuity", 17 is evident in the post-Independence Indian short story. However, as I have argued elsewhere, 18 even as this fiction calls upon age to preserve the boundaries of the nation, in effect the ageing body often ends up challenging and redefining those boundaries. 19 The two stories discussed in the present article similarly refuse to yield ground to set expectations.…”

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confidence: 99%

Ageing Subjects, Agentic Bodies: Appetite, Modernity and the Middle Class in Two Indian Short Stories in English

Raja¹

2005

The Journal of Commonwealth Literature

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Two Pieces Of Bread A Day": The Absence of the Desiring BodyHindu literature and ideals, especially the model of life stages or ashramadharma, recommend renunciation of worldly pursuits in old age. According to Manu Smriti, 1 when the householder, or the mature, economically active adult male on whom all others in society depend for sustenance, "sees his skin wrinkled and his hair white and the sons of his sons", he should turn over the management of household affairs to his heir and retreat to a forest where, in order to disentangle himself from physical and emotional bonds of interdependence developed during the previous life stages, he will devote himself to contemplation, the performance of sacred rites and bodily self-mortification. If he succeeds in this, he is ready to enter the last stage, which involves the complete renunciation of the material world and its pleasures and ties. This is the manner in which ideally he should end his days, fully absorbed in the quest for spiritual perfection. 2 Although Hindus in contemporary India may not subscribe to the idealized, four-stage life cycle in literal detail, they are nonetheless guided by the belief that life is made up of distinct developmental stages, each with its own normative code of conduct. Irrespective of the degree of direct familiarity with the classical texts, the idea that it is appropriate for old people to withdraw from active economic, productive or managerial involvement with household affairs and to renounce sensual in favour of Ageing Subjects, Agentic Bodies

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Literary portrayals of ageing

Wallace

2011

An Introduction to Gerontology

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Signifying the Nation: Identity, Authenticity and the Ageing Body in the Post-Independence Hindi Short Story

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Narratives of Ageing, Narratives of Nation-building: Manjul and the Poetics of Dissidence in Nepal

Narratives of Ageing, Narratives of Nation-building: Manjul and the Poetics of Dissidence in Nepal

Ageing Subjects, Agentic Bodies: Appetite, Modernity and the Middle Class in Two Indian Short Stories in English

Literary portrayals of ageing

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