The Rays before Satyajit
Creativity and Modernity in Colonial India
Price: 1100.00
ISBN:
9780199464753
Publication date:
29/04/2016
Hardback
432 pages
Price: 1100.00
ISBN:
9780199464753
Publication date:
29/04/2016
Hardback
432 pages
Chandak Sengoopta
Although the filmmaker Satyajit Ray is well-known across the world, few outside Bengal know much about the diverse contributions of his forebears to printing technology, nationalism, children’s literature, feminism, advertising, entrepreneurial culture and religious reform. Even within Bengal, the earlier Rays are often regarded exclusively as children’s writers. The first study in English of the multifarious interests and accomplishments of the Ray family and its collateral branches, The Rays Before Satyajit interweaves the Ray saga with the larger history of Indian modernity and its contradictions.
Rights: World Rights
Chandak Sengoopta
Description
In the history of Indian cinema, the name of Satyajit Ray needs no introduction. However, what remains unvoiced is the contribution of his forebears and their tryst with Indian modernity. Be it in art, advertising, and printing technology or in nationalism, feminism, and cultural reform, the earlier Rays attempted to create forms of the modern that were uniquely Indian and cosmopolitan at the same time. Some of the Rays, especially Upendrakishore and his son, Sukumar, are iconic figures in Bengal. But even Bengali historiography is almost exclusively concerned with the family’s contributions to children’s literature. However, as this study highlights, the family also played an important role in engaging with new forms of cultural modernity. Apart from producing literary works of enduring significance, they engaged in diverse reformist endeavours. The first comprehensive work in English on the pre-Satyajit generations, The Rays before Satyajit is more than a collective biography of an extraordinary family. It interweaves the Ray saga with the larger history of Indian modernity.
Chandak Sengoopta
Table of contents
Acknowledgements Introduction: The Rays and the History of Modernity in India 1. From the Old World to the New: A Family in Transition 2. New Faith, New Woman, New Society 3. Empire, Nation, Women 4. The Polymathic Artisan 5. Home and the World: Swadeshi and Its Ambiguities 6. Triumph and Tragedy Epilogue: New Challenges, Old Values Index About the Author
Chandak Sengoopta
Description
In the history of Indian cinema, the name of Satyajit Ray needs no introduction. However, what remains unvoiced is the contribution of his forebears and their tryst with Indian modernity. Be it in art, advertising, and printing technology or in nationalism, feminism, and cultural reform, the earlier Rays attempted to create forms of the modern that were uniquely Indian and cosmopolitan at the same time. Some of the Rays, especially Upendrakishore and his son, Sukumar, are iconic figures in Bengal. But even Bengali historiography is almost exclusively concerned with the family’s contributions to children’s literature. However, as this study highlights, the family also played an important role in engaging with new forms of cultural modernity. Apart from producing literary works of enduring significance, they engaged in diverse reformist endeavours. The first comprehensive work in English on the pre-Satyajit generations, The Rays before Satyajit is more than a collective biography of an extraordinary family. It interweaves the Ray saga with the larger history of Indian modernity.
Table of contents
Acknowledgements Introduction: The Rays and the History of Modernity in India 1. From the Old World to the New: A Family in Transition 2. New Faith, New Woman, New Society 3. Empire, Nation, Women 4. The Polymathic Artisan 5. Home and the World: Swadeshi and Its Ambiguities 6. Triumph and Tragedy Epilogue: New Challenges, Old Values Index About the Author
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