Tagore: The Dramatist (In 4 Volumes)

The Book Tagore: The Dramatist contains a critical study of Tagore's works as a Dramatist and is presented in 4 volumes. This work of dramatic criticism, employing widely accepted apparatus criticus, defines Tagore's distinctive dramatic idiom while analyzing the merit of a creative expression possessing individual excellence of international standards interpretive study places Tagore as a dramatic artist into a fresh perspective by following the process of continual development of this specific stream of creativity in him that flowed through variant channels of expression nineteenth and four of the twentieth centuries. The plays are examined to shed light on Tagore's themes of "ascendant values" developed through "the conflict of our lesser man with our greater man." Critically imperative has been the consideration of the medium, the determinant of the dramatic form, an action-character-dialogue complex, for in the manipulation of the dialogue Tagore exhibits amazing resourcefulness in the changing modes of expression such as musical speech, verse (rhymed and unrhymed), song, heightened as well as lively colloquial prose, each operating independently or in subtle combination. Studied alongside is the rich texture abounding in imagery, luminous symbols, diverse strands of allusion, levels of reference, and multifunctional inbuilt songs. The study is based on the original Bengali text of the plays, most of them untranslated and some of them untranslatable, particularly in genres like Musical Drama, Nature Drama and Dance Drama. His plays classified by consensus into eight genres are subjected to scrutiny by way of generic introductions, plot synopses and analyses in depth to reveal the empiric and incessantly maturing artist in Tagore.