Presentation on December 03, 2019

As a part of the regular programmes under the aegis of the research cell, on December 3, 2019, Dr Amrita Dasgupta of the Department of Bengali delivered a talk on Bangla Roopkatha. It is not an interchangeable term, or a synonym for the English fairy tale. Her presentation involved a separate subject of discourse. The research presentation was titled:"????? ??????? ????????? ?????? (????-????): ?????? ????????????" , that is, A Reader’s Response to the Chronological History of Bengali Roopkatha, from 1860 to 1960. Today we would get to know what is the significance of the history of Bangla Roopkatha and what are the impediments behind the construction of that history.This would be followed by an analytical reference to two seminal texts Thakurmar Jhuli and Thakurdadar Jhuli, and thereafter, Rabindranath Tagore would be touched upon, briefly.

Bangla Roopkatha has always been read and interpreted almost habitually, emphasising on the aspects of content, sign and motif. But it is to be noted that Bangla Roopkatha forms a separate, independent genre in the matrix of 20th century Bangla Literature and takes various affects and emotions under its aegis. It cannot be streamlined by the narrow labels of "folk tales" or "children’s literature" per se. Among genres like urban literature, modern literature, literature for the adults, Bangla Roopkatha silently keeps weaving a vast tapestry perpetually, with its ambient flavour and form, which is hard to let pass unnoticed.