Academics
Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) was a prolific writer during the colonial period and is acclaimed for his lyricism, colloquialism and naturalism. His stories explored socio-political hypocrisies, ethnical prejudices, class-based discrimination, stereotypical characters in a domestic set-up, and more in a largely conventional society. Through his work, he resisted the rigid linguistic moulds and modernised Bengali art. Be it the yearning to belong in ‘Kabuliwala,’ the supernatural mystery in ‘The Living and the Dead,’ the ways in which class affects humanity in‘The Postmaster’ or the impact of materialism in ‘The Lost Jewels’ — Tagore’s stories reflect a kaleidoscope of human emotions, firmly etched on a sensitive landscape. Withstanding societal evolution, his stories created a profound association between his characters and the readers. While almost eighty years have passed since his last contribution to literature, few names manage to evoke emotions as acute as Tagore’s. The Lost Jewels and Other Stories is a celebration of one of India’s greatest writers, with some of his most emblematic stories, in his inimitable style, language and humour including ‘The Home-Coming,’ ‘The Skeleton,’ ‘Giribala,’ and ‘The River Stairs.’
Somdatta Mandal is Professor and Head of English at the Department of English and Other Modern European Languages, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. Having a teaching career that spans 32 years, she has held several administrative posts in the university. Paper-setter, examiner and adjudicator for doctoral dissertations across several universities in India and the SAARC nations, she has lectured widely in national and international fora. A recipient of several prestigious international fellowships and awards from the Fulbright Foundation, Charles Wallace Trust, Rockefeller Foundation, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and Sahitya Akademi, her areas of interest are American literature, contemporary fiction, film and culture studies, diaspora studies and translation. She has published three books, five volumes of translation, edited and co-edited 22 books, published above 90 research articles in national and international journals and anthologies. Somdatta Mandal has published translations of several travel narratives, among which are Krishnabhabini Das?s A Bengali Lady in England (2015); Wanderlust: Travels of the Tagore Family (2014); Durgabati Ghose?s The Westward Traveller (2010) and Hariprabha Takeda?s The Journey of a Bengali Lady to Japan and Other Essays (2017).
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