Folkways in Literature: An Aesthetic Imperative

Navakanta Barua believes that folk-reality is an infinitely self-sustaining area. It is this belief that informs Folkways in Literature: An Aesthetic Imperative. As a poet he had initiated that exploration of folkways which helped evolve the idiom of modern Assamese poetry. His novels and analytical writings reveal a profound sense of history and tradition, a thoroughgoing modern sensibility and a comprehensive range of concerns.

Born in 1926, Prof. Barua has studied at the Visvabharati and the Aligarh Muslim Universities. He has visited Yugoslavia, Poland, Italy, USSR and Greece under cultural exchange programmes. A member of the General Council of the Akademi in the fifties for consecutive terms, Prof-Barua has received the Sahitya Akademi Award and the Padmabhushan. He is now engaged in the translation of western classics.

Foreword to the Series

The Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi passed a resolution on 24 February 1985 accepting the recommendations of the Committee set up for the establishment of a series of lectures in literary criticism called the Samvatsar lectures. A procedure was described by the Board for the selection of the annual Samvatsar lectures. The Samvatsar lecturer is expected to deliver two or three lectures on a theme chosen by him. It has also been laid down that these Samvatsar lectures would be published after they are delivered. The crucial clauses in the resolution relation to the Samvatsar lectures would be published after they are delivered. The crucial clauses in the resolution relating to the Samvatsar lectures read as follows:

These lectures should reflect a deep concern for values. They should open up a new vistas of thinking regarding a literary movement, a current literary trend, some original thinking about a great classic or a new path in literary criticism or literary creation, etc. The presentation should be from a larger perspective while the subject matter could be drawn from the regional or comparative sources within the speaker's experience.
I have great pleasure in writing this brief foreword.