Book Review
A Rich Revelation
World Literature TodayPublished by University of Oaklahoma, Norman
Pages:80 Even if you're not necessarily in the privileged group labelled litterateurs but have a weakness for literature anyway, the World Literature Today is something you should get your hands on. The latest issue of this elegant literary journal, published bimonthly at the University of Oaklahoma, Norman, is particularly exciting as it has for the first time, devoted its cover story to seven Bangladeshi writers. The cover itself tells it all, featuring Tahmima Anam who has earned much international attention from her two award winning novels The Golden Age and The Good Muslim. This is no small feat as this remarkable journal has literally travelled all over the globe, digging out literary gems from the most remotest corners showcasing minority languages and literatures like Ainu, Kurdish and Zapotec; this May-June issue has translations of two Chakma poems. According to Daniel Simon's editor's note, in 2012 more than fifty countries were represented in the journal and 40 percent of the content consisted of translations. This one has more than 40 authors featured. The aim of the journal is simple – to challenge the conventional path of staying within one's tiny domain, in this case the western world and instead, exploring the huge treasure of literature in other places, waiting to be discovered. Coming back to the cover feature, it includes a detailed conversation with four contemporary English-language Bangladeshi writers who have been making ripples not only in their motherland but getting people around the globe to sit up and take notice. David Shook, an American poet and editor met them while attending the Dhaka 2012 Hay Festival. They talk, among other things, about the reasons behind Bangladeshi writers' sluggish entrance into the English-language world literature scene compared to their counterparts in India and Pakistan and the enormous challenge of translating Bengali literature which has been flourishing for decades but has remained quite insular in terms of international exposure. Interestingly, all four of these writers, have drawn quite a lot of attention relatively early in their careers. Tahmima Anam's first novel The Golden Age, won the 2008 Commonwealth Writer's Prize while the second book The Good Muslim was a New Yorker Book of the year and nominated for the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize. Farah Ghuznavi won the 2010 Commonwealth Short Story Competition and has also been published in many foreign journals and anthologies. She has also edited Lifelines, an anthology of short stories by Bangladeshi women. Mahmud Rahman, based in California now, has to his credit a collection of stories Killing Water and his translation of Mahmudul Haque's Black Ice (2012). K. Anis Ahmed's collection of short stories Good Night Mr Kissinger was published last year by UPL. An excerpt from a novel in progress by Ahmed, non fiction (The Three Stages of Separation) by Maria Chaudhuri are also included as well as translated poetry of Sudipta Chakma Mikado which project the constant insecurity and fear of being an ethnic minority. And there is more, much more in this journal. A feature on International Crime and Mystery by J. Madison Davis delves into the 'enigma of the underappreciated author' something that will resonate with many a disgruntled writer: “Most writers are bound to feel underappreciated. Writing well is hard work, much harder than non-writers imagine, and when the result reaches a level that feels like art, there can only be disappointment, if not devastation.” The article talks about two authors who deserve more attention than has been given to them. Uwe Klauser, is a German who writes historical mysteries, often set in the Middle Ages and Sabina Naber, an Austrian writer, actor, journalist, playwright, lyricist, theatre director and documentary screenwriter, is also one of the leading German crime writers. The interviews of writers in this journal are perhaps the most engaging as they prod the writers to reveal their emotional and sometimes political takes on their surrounding reality, while carving their craft. 'A Conversation with Leonardo Padura' probes into the Cuban writer's motives behind his writings – how much of it is to document certain home truths about a country politically and economically isolated from the rest of the world. Padura laments the lack of professional marketing, literary criticism, low author royalties, limited Internet access and self-censorship in his country. Winner of Cuba's National Prize for Literature, Padura is known for his Havana Quartet detective series. An interview with Ananda Devi, a Mauritius-born francophone poet, writer, ethnologist, translator and scriptwriter goes into her preoccupation with pain and anguish in her novels. It reveals Devi's constant need to break the 'paradise' myth her country represents itself as, an image that deliberately hides the starkness of poverty and the misery of women “locked in traditions and conventions that stifle them.” Bringing unusual debates is perhaps the most important task of a literary journal and WLT does not disappoint. In 'Anne Frank Abroad', Katherine Wilson studies the growing emergence of 'world atrocity literature' – writing provoked by gruesome crimes against humanity during war and conflict. More importantly, she talks about how such literature is interpreted when it is translated into other languages. In particular, Wilson, takes Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and sees how this has been re-interpreted, even distorted as it reached cultures torn by oppressive rules. In North Korea, for instance, the Diary has been used as an allegory to depict then-president George Bush as Hitler and the North Koreans as Jews. In Cambodia the book has been used to make ordinary Cambodians understand that mass atrocity is not unique to Cambodia and they are not the only ones who have suffered such horrible crimes. Writers from other countries have used the book as a part of their fiction or shaped their characters with Anne Frank in mind. Wilson points out that “when a narrative leaves the confines of a community with shared collective memories, the results are often unexpected.” Poetry of course will adorn any literary journal and there are sprinklings of that in this issue. 'A Soul's Cartography' is a translation of Mexican poet Roberto Castillo Udiarte which compares the human soul to the life-cycle of a lizard. The 'Special Section' of WLT has essays by two writers arguing against a view of literatures-languages and cultures as hierarchies of power based on Western paradigms. The last treat of the journal is an impressive collection of reviews and abstracts of books by writers and poets from all over the world. The richness of the content and fluidity of the writing makes WLT a precious find for any literature lover. Which brings us back to getting one's hands on a copy. There is a high possibility that the journal may soon be found in prominent bookstores so the best possible options would be to wait for that to happen or subscribe at worldliteraturetoday.org.
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