Shakespeare in Nineteenth-Century Bengal: An Imperative of ‘New Learning’

Summary

Wherever English language, literature and culture have travelled in this world, it has been Shakespeare who received the greatest adulation. Bengali literature too was not divorced from such an activity. It was quite natural that Bengali literature adopted the subject, content and style of Shakespeare as evidenced in the schema of world literature. However, in the context of Bengal, the assimilation was not restricted to aspects of dramatic forms only, and mediated beyond literary imagination to engage into a deeper level of political and cultural discourse. While nineteenth-century Bengal evidenced widespread changes in intellectual temperament leading to a heightened intellectual ferment and creativity, it also resulted in a restructuring and reshaping of imported ideas, thereby evolving a new indigenous culture, which gave Bengal a distinctive identity. The inclination for an education in the English language among the middle classes eager to take advantage of knowing the language and acquiring the culture of the colonial rulers, along with a rapidly growing print culture, led to a growing demand for Shakespeare’s works, which at least initially, captured the imagination of Bengalis as a repository of Western culture.