Authors From Calcutta

Travel To India > Kolkata > Authors From Calcutta

Calcutta, being the capital of the imperialist British Raj was the source of revolutionary, artistic and scholastic literary works. The city has been the witness to the emergence of a long band of authors who have contributed to the evolution of Bengal's literature.

Starting from the time of pre-independence era, authors of Calcutta have been producing literary gems that have covered all aspects of life, economic, political as well as social. Calcutta turned in to a 'city of furious creative energy' with the gradual spread of the English education initiated by the British in order to fill up the seats of the petty clerical posts of the Governmental offices. Though the British were economically benefited by including some English speaking native clerks but the spread of education also lead to the enlightenment of the inner soul of the youths of Bengal and the very fervor to explore the creative faculties of mind gave way to the birth of some world renowned authors from Calcutta.

The mid of the 19th century is known as the epitome of the renaissance of Bengal's literature. The culture of writing literature in prose was started by the famous educationist Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Rabindranath Tagore owns much of the glory of Bengal's literature with the help of his works like Gitanjali, sociopolitical novels and a bunch of his world renowned short stories. The names of two other authors whose prominence comes very next to Tagore are Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Kazi Nazrul Islam. Theses three authors can be said to be largely responsible in shaping the cultural bent of mind of the entire nation.

To name few of the very creative authors who excelled in producing literature of specific genres of writing are Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, who interestingly unraveled the intricacies of human psychology especially of women. Among renowned author of early Bengal Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was an established literary figure with the fame of being the composer of India's national song Vande Mataram, mentioned in the revolutionary novel 'Ananda Math'. Tarashankar Bandopadhyay's writings explore the multi facets of rural life in Bengal.

The years in between 1940' to 1950's Bengal produced a new breed of writers whose writings were somewhat a divert from the mysticism and traditional surrealism set up by Tagore and included typical features of modern or postmodern literary styles and concept of cubism. Jibanananda Das, Sukanta Bhattacharya, Bishnu Dey, Premendra Mitra and Buddhadeb Guha are some of the names of the authors belonging to this new flair of writing.

The prominent literary figures of the present generation includes Sunil Gangopadhyay, Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Manik Bandopadhyay, Samaresh Majumdar, Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay, Amitav Ghosh, Nirad Chaudhuri, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Mahasweta Devi, Joy Goswami, Mani Shankar Mukherjee and others. Satyajit Ray, the notable Oscar winning film director is also a famous writer of children's books.

Another very interesting literary movement known as the Hungryalist Movement has molded the literature into its present day counter discoursive form pioneered by two brothers, Samir Roychoudhury and Malay Roychoudhury.