It is of immense pleasure on my part to write a short note on the book BANKIM CHANDRA: A STUDY OF HIS CRAFT written by Dr. Sunil Kumar Banerjee. It is an outstanding work of literary criticism with profound intellectual insight on Bankim Chandra and his works. This book was first published on 1968, by Firma K.L. Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta. But for a pretty long time this book was unavailable in the market. Last year, I was advised by Prof. Bratya Basu, Hon'ble Minister-in-Charge, Education Department, Govt. of West Bengal as well as the President of the General Council of Bankim-Bhavan Gaveshana Kendra, Kantalpara, Naihati- 743 165, North 24 Parganas to reprint the book from our Research Institute.
Professor Nihar Ranjan Roy rightly says in the Foreword of this book 'the author has adopted the latest western pattern of judgement which is normative and scientific: he has sought to study perhaps the most significant of the creative writers of nineteenth century Bengali literature, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, from the angle of his craft of fiction. No doubt this is a classic work in the field of criticism on the literature of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay.
There are very few numbers of literary criticism on Bankim Chandra, particularly on his novel and dissertation in English language. In fact, there does not appear to be any remarkable book on the crafts of the novel of Bankim Chandra in any language. In this book, crafts in the novels and other works of Bankim Chandra has been discussed chapterwise in detail. The author himself has also expressed his views in the introduction (Backward) of this book - The book proposes to be a study of Bankim Chandra's craft of fiction. Not much has been written on the craft of individual novelists in English: such treatment on Indian authors is even less. Since nothing has yet been appeared on the craft of Bankim, my approach has necessarily been exclusively my own. I had to evolve a critical procedure suited to my specific purpose.'
The academic or impressionistic study of poetry and drama' has done more harm than it ever intended. Attention was directed more upon the author than his work, and not much upon, to use the words of Eliot, "the artistic process, the pressure, so to speak," by which the work itself developed. Perhaps unconsciously, premium was given on sentiment, and rhapsodies were taken for appreciative evaluation. This sloppy method was applied to fictional criticism as well.
My emphasis on the study of form as a prerequisite to a fuller understanding of the novel, marks to a great extent a departure from this convention. The need for this emphasis may be appreciated when it is realised that the novel has, of all types of literature, the most complicated pattern. As a faithful reflection of modern civilization, it could not be otherwise. Its technique has a vital bearing on the content; there exists in fact a sort of organic relationship between the two. Labour is well lost when it is sought to be judged without reference to its form. This calls for a reorientation of the traditional method of critical approach.
The idea of the relationship between form and content which will govern my reflections in this work, is well expressed in a couple of verses in Spenser's Hymne in Honour of Beautie:
For the soule the bodie forme doth take;
For soul is forme, and doth the bodie make.
Form is neither the merely visible aspect or outward shape and structure of a work of art, nor its trivial container or frivolous wrapping. There is something deeper in the word than what is indicated in its usual dictionary meaning. In the context of a novel, form is the expression of the writer's total view of life. The concept of form cannot be dissociated from that of an idea, as the concept of style cannot be dissociated from that of a process. It comprehends mental notion" or the "image of a thing-to-be-produced." As Shipley elucidates the point from Aristotle's Metaphysics, form is the "character of an object as experienced, or the structure into which the elements of an experience or a thing are organised.... form is not simply shape but that which shapes, not structure or character simply but the principle of structure which gives character. So... form in a work of art is not the structure (in a narrow sense) alone, but all that determines special character, meaning or expressiveness, as well as structure, is a formal element." Apparently, form is "a complexity of formal elements or formalities (structures and meanings) the totality of which is the form of the work as a whole." The form of the novel has, therefore, a very wide connotation. It is a delicate tracery of many fine threads and is associated with the idea of beauty, symmetry, and comeliness.
Aristotle discusses form in his Metaphysics, as it is really a broad philosophical concept. A bare physical manifestation of form is structure, it is a framework of the material parts put together, the sum total of the elements that go into the making of the work. The novelist executes his "image" or view of life through the structure which, when charged with "meaning," becomes form.
Design seems to have a less abstract and more concrete significance than form. It might be defined as patterned structure. Form is a generic term, but design as having some typical characteristics, has a specific sense. In addition to the image of the novelist, it has relation to some special arrangement of details, the invention and disposition of incidents and episodes, etc. It is largely synonymous with form, but is unlike it in that it possesses some distinctive features. Design is form typically organised. In my classification of the novels of Bankim Chandra, I have used the word in this sense.
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