Imaginary Maps

Mahasweta Devi

Aug 2019 · Routledge

About this ebook

Imaginary Maps presents three stories from noted Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi in conjunction with readings of these tales by famed cultural and literary critic, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Weaving history, myth and current political realities, these stories explore troubling motifs in contemporary Indian life through the figures and narratives of indigenous tribes in India. At once delicate and violent, Devi's stories map the experiences of the "tribals" and tribal life under decolonization. In "The Hunt," "Douloti the Bountiful" and the deftly wrought allegory of tribal agony "Pterodactyl, Pirtha, and Puran Sahay," Ms. Devi links the specific fate of tribals in India to that of marginalized peoples everywhere.

Gayatri Spivak's readings of these stories connect the necessary "power lines" within them, not only between local and international structures of power (patriarchy, nationalisms, late capitalism), but also to the university.

About the author

Mahasweta Devi was born in what is now in Bangladesh on January 14, 1926. She received a B.A. in English from Vishvabharati University and an M.A. in English from Calcutta University. Before becoming a full-time author, she worked as a journalist and an English professor. During her lifetime, she wrote almost 100 novels and over 20 short story collections, primarily written in Bengali. Her first book, Jhansi'r Rani (The Queen of Jhansi), was published in 1956. Her other novels included Mother of 1084 and The Occupation of the Forest. She was the author behind the Hindi films Rudaali and Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa. She was also an activist who immersed herself in the lives of India's poor and marginalized as she chronicled their lives in fiction. In 1997, she received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for her writing and activism on behalf of tribal communities. She died from a heart attack and multiple organ failure on July 28, 2016 at the age of 90.