Contemporary Marathi Literature (An Old And Rare Book)

Contemporary Marathi Literature is a collection of articles that Professor Vishwas Kanadey wrote from time to time for various literary bodies like Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, Bharatiya Jnanpith, Kerala Sahitya Akademi, among others.

In their wide-ranging sweep they deal not only with the important trends in modern Marathi literature, but also attempt a critical evaluation of the major contributions to it in the fields of fiction, drama, poetry, criticism, biography and other serious prose writings.

An important feature of these articles is that they bring alive the present Marathi literary situation in all its diversity and yet do not ignore the historical and social perspective.

Dr. Vishwas Kanadey (b. 1929-) is a noted short-story writer, poet and critic of Marathi Literature. His short-story Sasa Ani Samudrapakshi was awarded the Kirloskar Prize. Some of his short-stories have been included in the anthologies of Best Marathi Short-Stories, such as Hans Katha, Kirloskar-Katha and Sarvotkrishta Marathi Katha. His poems and critical articles have appeared in leading Marathi journals like Satyakatha, Navbharat, Pratishthan, etc. He has also published a monograph on Dante in Navabharat.

Dr. Kanadey, who retired recently as Professor and Head, Post-Graduate Department of English, Nagpur University, published several research papers, some of which were included in his first book Critical Essays (1981). This was followed by another book - Nature in Modern English Poetry (1985). Dr. Kanadey studied Linguistics and Language Teaching at Manchester University as a British Council Scholar during 1964-65. Earlier, he taught English as a foreign language at Kabul University, Afghanistan.

Dr. Vishwas Kanadey's English poems appeared in Thought, Journal of Indian Writing in English and other magazines. He also translated poems and plays from Marathi into English for All India Radio (AIR) and Sahitya Akademi.

Dr. V.R. Kanadey's book The Contemporary Marathi Literature is coming out not a day too soon. In fact the book was overdue for more than one reason. The first reason obviously is personal. A person of Dr. Kanadey's experience, authority and understanding ought to be heard oftener and preferably on time. Dr. Kanadey has had the advantage of training both at home and abroad. He has studied English both for its varied literary beauties and for its wide linguistic utility. This fact deserves a special mention since many in the field tend to develop one track mind. Even as a teacher he has been both a language and literature man. In fact Dr. Kanadey's personality does not suffer from any dichotomy. His is a highly integrated personality. His understanding and love of English has immensely enriched his appreciation of language as a whole; Marathi, his mother tongue has, therefore, been a gainer. I mention this because these facts are necessary to understand his balanced approach to the problem of language in India, a proper awareness of which alone ensures a correct perspective. It is, therefore, right that we should begin our reading of this collection of essays with the one called, English and Marathi-The Unequal Encounter. Two short passages from this deserve to be quoted. In one Dr. Kanadey says:

The present collection makes no claims to be a comprehensive account of modern Marathi literature. It is neither a history nor even an exhaustive survey. Nevertheless, taken together, these articles can provide the reader with a fairly accurate view of the state of contemporary Marathi literature. For, in writing these articles my approach has been to meticulously record the social pressures and tensions that shaped the literature of the time and to evaluate its literary significance in a historical perspective. No doubt some of the works referred to in these articles deserve more elaborate discussion. But the constraints of space and time at the time of writing them were too severe to permit a more detailed evaluation.

If I have not thought it necessary to do so now, while collecting and presenting them here, it is because this is being done separately for another project, which, hopefully, will appear in the form of a book in not too distant a future. It might be mentioned, in passing, that my views on these works have not undergone any substantial change since they were expressed in these articles. One more thing. In evaluating works of literature, I feel, it is not enough to place them in their social and historical context. It is also necessary that they be seen as cultural and aesthetic entities dimensions which go far beyond the social phenomena on the surface and the tentative parameters of history. Therefore, the ultimate standards of judgment must reckon with cultural and literary values, and works of art evaluated accordingly. Whether I have succeeded in doing this or not I cannot say. That has been my effort, though.

Finally, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude to Professor K.J. Purohit for promptly agreeing to write a Foreword to this collection.

I am also grateful to my friends Dr. P.S.G. Kumar, Head, Department of Library Science, Nagpur University and Dr. S. J. Deshmukh for their timely help.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages