Le grand incendie de londres by Jacques Roubaud

Abstract

WORLD LITERATURE IN REVIEW Pawar's The Weave of My Life: A Dalit Woman's Memoirs belongs to the genre of autobiography, which is rarely practiced by Indians as com pared to that of poetry and fiction. It problematizes the major issues of class, caste, and gender in the Indi an context. Apart from recording a woman's discovery of selfhood and assertion of identity, it also offers a background picture of the Indian (especially Maharashtrian) culture, including interpersonal and inter communal relations, clashes, and tolerances. "Weaving" happens to be the central metaphor of the pres ent memoir. Weaving of bamboo baskets, the main profession of the protagonist's mother, indicates their low caste as well as their dire eco nomic poverty. At a higher level it also suggests the bonding of human beings on a variety of counts. As the author declares, "My mother used to weave aaydans. I find that her act of weaving and my act of writing are originally linked. The weave is simi lar. It is the weave of pain, suffering and agony that links us." Over time, Urmila Pawar con verts to Buddhism to escape the humiliation of the dalit condition. She marries Harishchandra accord ing to Buddhist convention and has a son (Mandar) and two daughters (Malavika and Manini). She contin ues her education and completes her BA and MA from the University of Mumbai. After the completion of her education, she takes a job to earn a livelihood complementary to her husband's earning. During this phase of life she takes an active part in the Dalit Woman's Orga nization, as she has "a new vision of women" and of the Ambedkar Movement. Simultaneously, she expresses deep interest in Dalit lit erature and women's literature by taking to creative writing, which reinforces her subaltern activism. Her stories are translated into many Indian languages and earn many awards for her. One of her stories is adapted as a television play. Thus she comes to be recognized as an established Dalit woman writer. One may trace an evolution in the life of the protagonist from innocence to experience, from inferiority complex to self-confidence, and from passiv ity to activism. Written in a realistic fictional mode, it is characterized by an hon est, frank, and bold articulation of a Dalit woman's experiences and may easily be compared with Afro American women's narratives. The English translation by Maya Pan dit is quite successful in bringing out the ethnic flavor of the Marathi original. Colombia University Press has done a commendable job in pub lishing the memoirs of a subaltern Indian woman by editing it prop erly for an international readership, despite a couple of printer's devils. Still, the photographs of the protago nist and the members of her family have added to the significance of the work. Basavaraj S. Naikar Karnatak University Jacques Roubaud. "le grand incendie de londres." Paris. Seuil. 2009. 2063 pages. 39. isbn 978-2-02-099689-1 Jacques Roubaud's latest book is a very impressive piece of work. First by virtue of its length: It numbers 2oio densely-packed pages, exclud ing the (highly detailed) table of con tents. Next by virtue of its weight: At something just shy of four pounds, its very heft gives one pause. But the most impressive thing about it is perhaps the fact that it was pub lished at all, appearing as it does at a time when people are turning their backs upon books, and particularly upon big, weighty books?or so, at least, one hears. Roubaud's gesture, and that of his publisher, Seuil, has something bold and more than a bit quixotic about it. How mary people will be willing to take on a book such as this one? Clearly, this is not a book to be read between two stops on the M?tro; to the contrary, it is one that demands, on the face of it, a very considerable investment of readerly purpose. Anyone who does agree to make that investment, however, will be richly rewarded, because this volume represents one of the most deeply compelling liter ary projects of our time. I use...