Abstracts of papers: 

The Chimalpahin Conference 2008:

Colonial and Post-Colonial Remembering and Forgetfulness

Mashrur Shahid Hossain 

Department of English

Jahangirnagar University

Bangladesh

Postcolonial theatre derives much of its energy and agency from its syncretizing European tradition and the indigenous, pre-colonial praxis of dramatic enactments of myths, folklores, rituals and events. This paper gives a postcolonial reading of Selim Al Deen’s play Kittonkhola to evaluate its use of three theatrical aspects: the indigenous narrative form, orature, and body. Selim Al Deen, arguably the most prominent Bangladeshi playwright in the post-Rabindranath era, attempted to redefine Bangla theatre by incorporating indigenous elements. This is not only a counter-discursive stance; it is an attempt at relocating and re-claiming the cultural nucleus which originated and reflects senses of nationalism, history and identity. First, discarding the forms and assumptions of European theatre, Kittonkhola borrows extensively from the ancient Sanskrit theatre, medieval theatre, and indigenous theatre – all developed and practiced in Bangladesh and India. 

Conceived as epical, the play is informed by the “forms of rituals-based, unwritten ancient and medieval plays” (Deen 227). Its very structure thus exemplifies the transformational journey of the hero Shonai (Deen points out that transformation is a “frequent” theme in both eastern and western writings (Deen 228)) as well as the fluid continuity of the past and present (this concept of time is different from the western one). Moreover, the abundant incorporation of kavya, folktales, proverbs and fairytales – mostly culled from indigenous theatre – enlivens and contextualizes the play. Close to nature and people, indigenous Bangla theatre is performative and spontaneous. Kittonkhola appropriates various forms of indigenous theatre: narrative forms, song, dance, and festival. Second, Kittonkhola accommodates orature. 

The present paper identifies five aspects of orature: immediate; dialogic; performative; pristine; and aggregative. The paper argues that the employment of orature elements in drama is postcolonial in nature and a discursive recuperation and re/enactment of what is lost or threatened. The most important thing of both orature and Kittonhola is the carnivalesque spirit; with its focus on “redundant aggregation, telluric performance and collective enthusiasm, it contests and subverts the restrained, (p)reserved, elitist scenario” (Hossain 10). Third, with its various demonstrations like sex, race, and complexion, body has been an object of continuous curiosity and concern for the colonizers. Now, if body assumes a central position in imperialism’s act of inscribing and establishing hegemony, this same site could effectively be used to subvert colonial codings and reinstate postcolonial subjectivity. As Elizabeth Grosz pointed out: “being the site of knowledge-power, the body is … a site of resistance, for it exerts a recalcitrance, and always entails the possibility of a counter-strategic reinscription, for it is capable of being self-marked, self-represented in alternative ways” (quoted in Gilbert and Tomkins 204). 

The political use of body in Kittonkhola has four dimensions: gesture, posture and movement (e.g. Shonai’s epilepsy); proximity (e.g. the ‘stage-thrsut’); gendered space (e.g. Bonoshree the doam (subaltern) girl’s suicide); and the subaltern (e.g. the Lauwa community who adds life to the fare the play centres around). This paper argues that Kittonkhola, along with a number of other plays by Deen, intends to relive, and let relive, collective and historical memories that have been fogged, distorted and forgotten. With its epical range of characters, spaces, and events, this play also foregrounds the struggle and the stubborn survival of the nomadic and subaltern people who cherish a hope – dream probably – to move towards the land of transformation: Dukhaipoor. Reference: Deen, Selim Al. Tinti Mancha Natak (Three Stage Plays).Dhaka: Bangla Academy, 1986. Gilbert, Helen and Joanne Tompkins. Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, practice, politics. London and New York: Routledge, 1996. Hossain, Mashrur Shahid. “tene na tene, tene wa tene: politics of orature in postclonial literature in english.” Unpublished manuscript.

References:

Deen, Selim Al. Tinti Mancha Natak (Three Stage Plays).Dhaka: Bangla Academy, 1986.

Gilbert, Helen and Joanne Tompkins. Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, practice, politics. London and New York: Routledge, 1996.

Hossain, Mashrur Shahid. “tene na tene, tene wa tene: politics of orature in postclonial literature in english.” Unpublished manuscript.

About Mashrur Shahid Hossain