Introduction
Born 1 January 1931, in Dukki, a dry mountainous terrain of Baluchistan, Gopi Chand Narang's mother tongue was Saraiki, a blend of western Punjabi and Sindhi. Pushto, the language of the Pathans, was taught in his school in Musa Khail, near Quetta (Pakistan). His father had opted for Baluchistan, Revenue Service in colonial times, his mother with nine children migrated during the Partition days. In Gopi Chand Narang's words (1931-2022), it was a painful experience'. In his early days, Gopi Chand was a shy student scared of his teachers and exams, not exactly a promising start for a boy who would one day become a highly decorated and erudite celebrated scholar-a linguist-theorist, a critic non pareil. The boy who ran away from the school test and hid in the house because he was scared of failing writes: "It was only during my secondary days I realized that I can write and I can speak better than others." At this crucial stage, a teacher encouraged and guided him to read serious books. In his high school examination, he stood first in the district. He took to writing articles and short stories. Gopi Chand did his matriculation from his home province and graduation from Delhi college in 1954, qualified for honours in Persian. He got Doctorate from Delhi University in 1958, took up a teaching job at St. Stephen's college. After serving for a while in Delhi University, Professor Narang went to Wisconsin and Minnesota University as visiting professor of Urdu. He acquired special training in Linguistics at the Indiana University. Professor: Narang's forté is literary criticism and theory linguistics, philosophy and comparative religion. His contribution and Poststructuralism-Mir, Ghalib, Iqbal and Firaq have earned to the criticism of modern fiction apart, his works on Structurallies high praise from scholars, critics and discerning readers. The renowned scholar embodies social and literary democracy plurality of views. To quote professor Narang: The malaise with Urdu short story was that it suffered from a self stultifying development in the void, cut off with the tradition of dastan katha or kahani. The modern movement has not been able to grow up for the simple reason that it was the product of reaction. The reaction has converted most of the short story writers into a band of self-conscious practitioners having no will to break loose from the alien moulds Professor Narang advocates the primacy of literary values in the works of literature. To quote - "No message, howsoever lofty. is going to be effective without being imbued with aesthetic virtues." He would often say that great works have always made their imprint on successive generations of readers simply because they touch the chords of human experience with an unmistakable touch of artistic earnestness. There is always a social context, but one need not be excessively obsessed with it. Literary text has "several functions." He always welcomed plurality of views and rejected the rigmarole of conformism devouring the voices of dissent. Professor Gopi Chand Narang devoted his entire life to the development of Urdu culture. In his words, "Urdu is one of the finest products of composite Indian culture which developed as a linguistic and cultural link between the indigenous people and the incoming Afghans, Iranians and Arabs. Right from Amir Khusrau in the 13th century to Firaq Gorakhpuri and Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the 20th century, Urdu has acted as a bridge between Hindus and Muslims and between different communities.
About The Book
Gopi Chand Narang (1931-2022) was born and raised at Dukki, a mountainous terrain of Balochistan. His mother-language was Sariki, a blend of western Punjabi, Sindhi and Pushto. Partition (1947) dislocated his family, and he came over to Delhi as a cultural refugee where he tirelessly worked as a teacher, researcher, linguist and theorist. He always raised his voice against parochialism, profoundly reflected in his wide-ranging works. For him, Urdu is a dynamic symbol of India's syncretic ethos. A highly decorated scholar, an author of over 60 books, Gopi Chand Narang made seminal contributions especially in the field of Linguistics, Stylistics and Urdu literary studies. In an unambiguous language, the master scholar explains every point with clarity and conviction. He wrote on topics we rarely come across in Urdu Stylistics, semiotics, post-modernism, structuralism and Eastern poetics. His distinction lies in exploring the uncharted territories in the realms of literary studies. The present volume is an introductory survey of Gopi Chand Narang's major works. The illustrious scholar's critical practice and insights are highlighted. Within the confines of a monograph, the focus is on his investigative explorations of masnavis, Urdu fiction, Mir's stylistics, Ghalib's internalisation of the philosophy of Maya and Shoonyata (Dialectical Nothingness), Structuralism and poststructuralism, Prose poetry, post-modernist tendencies in Urdu. And how Saussure, Derrida and Eastern poetics are relevant in Urdu literary studies, and how deep and surface structures of a literary text produce signs making meaning a perpetual happening
About The Author
Bhupinder Aziz Parihar (b. 1954) is an eminent Urdu poet, translator and editor. He has edited 13 volumes of Urdu Alive, a biannual literary journal of Urdu in English. Recipient of the highest State Literary awards, Shiromani Urdu Litterateur (2003) and State Award for Literature in 2005, he was Writer-in-Residence in U.K. and Germany (German Literature House) 2006 and Mauritius, World Urdu Conference, 2015. He is retired professor and head in Modern Linguistics and Literary Theory, Government College, Ludhiana
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