ABSTRACT
Although modestly presented as a review, Ashraf Ali Khan’s analysis of Fakir Mohan Senapati’s Mamu should be recognized as a major contribution to Fakir Mohan criticism. Ashraf Ali Khan’s astute reading of this classic Odia novel displays his sharp critical acumen, and embodies a rich contemporary response to the text. The essay is imbued with the exuberant irony and robust humour one inevitably associates with Fakir Mohan’s narrative voice. Ashraf Ali, with playful self-deprecation, presents himself as a Muslim trespasser in the sacred precincts of Odia literary criticism. He locates Mamu firmly in the category of realistic novels but is quick to point out that idealistic elements do find their way into the fabric of the narrative. He singles out for praise Fakir Mohan’s dexterous use of simple, rustic style which contributes to the unimpeded flow of the narrative. However, he celebrates the novelist’s ability to distance himself from the rustic narrator and employ an elevated diction when the occasion demands it. He draws the reader’s attention to the novelist’s remarkable success in fashioning a unique idiom which ingeniously blends colloquialized Sanskrit, Perso-Arabic expressions, English words and home-spoken language of rural Odisha. Here, Fakir Mohan’s modernity consists in using this composite diction as a medium for major art. In his analysis of the novel Ashraf Ali employs rasa theory, traditionally applied to kavyas and natakas, to a nascent literary form for which a critical method of appreciation was in its early stage of development. At the same time, his attempt to understand the novel as a means of presenting a history of contemporary society moves beyond questions relating to aesthetic appeal and character portrayal, to illuminate aspects of the novel as a picture of a society in motion. There is no doubt that this essay helps us glimpse the contours of an initiative to give novel criticism a new direction and rigour by deftly negotiating between traditional and modern approaches.
