ABSTRACT
In Chokher Bali, modernity takes the shape of a new interiority, an attempt to psychologize the modern Bengali subject. 'The literature of the new age seeks not to narrate a sequence of events, but to reveal the secrets of the heart', Tagore declares in his preface to the second edition. 'Such is the narrative of Chokher Bali'. Serialized in the periodical Bangadarshan from 1902 to 1903, Chokher Bali appeared as a book in 1903. Tagore had been working on the novel for a long time; he had been writing the draft version in 1898 or 1899. In 1901, he completed the draft in his notebooks. Despite the reservations expressed by various critics at the time of publication, Chokher Bali left a lasting impression on the history of the modern Bengali novel. Yet, this psychological element is not identical with Western literary paradigms. Tagore's representation of Binodini's sexuality, for instance, does not replicate the Freudian paradigm.
