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Book Review:
Literary meditations
"Art has an enemy called Ignorance"
Reconsiderations:A Collection of Critical Essays by Eisha Manohari
Hewabowala
Reviewed by Aditha Dissanayake
Gustave Flaubert, seated in his garden, musing, "One mustn't ask
apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love and life for
happiness." Tolstoy writing about Anna's marriage, describing it as a "spiderweb
sticky with lies." Ben Jonson focusing his "satirical gaze" on the
manuscript of Everyman in His Humour where he has written "Art has an
enemy called Ignorance"...the images are bound to flit through your mind
as you turn the pages of Eisha Manohari Hewabowala's Reconsiderations:A
Collection of Critical Essays".
The radiant photo of the author, on the back cover beneath which is a
long list of her academic achievements makes you feel everything must
have come effortless to her, even though it could not have been. The ten
research papers she presents in this collection, informative and
stimulating, are evidence of her untiring efforts to deepen the
individual perceptions in university students and everybody else who
wishes to explore the world of literature, of several widely studied, as
well as lesser known, yet, important writers.
She explains in the Preface she has restricted her area of work "to a
single aspect of the respective writer's artistic production with the
objective of substantiating (her) individual standpoint more fully with
a view to consequently presenting a different critical perspective to
(her) students."
Explaining further, she states "through the texture of the discourse
of each author exemplified by the most comprehensive samples drawn from
the masterpieces that she or he has produced, and simultaneously giving
a detailed evaluation by way of reconsidering the substance available",
she "anticipates an acquisition of a certain depth in her student's
individual perceptions in relation to these chosen writers."
In such a context, in reviewing this collection of research articles,
it seems best to adopt the practice John Updike believed is best; to
quote extensively from the book in hand in order to give its author the
opportunity of being heard in her own voice.
Thus in Chapter one using private correspondence as the main source
of reference Hewabowala writes of her attempts to examine "the
progression of the reclusive urge in Gustave Flaubert", because she
believes compared to "his humane and romantic proclivities this is a
neglected, often overlooked aspect of his personality which has had a
glaringly positive impact on his fiction."
Defining the words Anchorite and Asceticism with clarity she writes
"The term anchorite describes a person living alone in a solitary place
who is withdrawn from the temptations and cares of society in order to
live apart in holy contemplation; the term asceticism denotes a course
of conduct in which a person disciplines himself to avoid any kind of
pleasure with a view to attaining a higher moral and religious state."
Using a "blend of these two terms" she shows how Flaubert "flung himself
into a cloistered existence" in order to "be more artistically viable".
The second chapter would be of interest not only to students of English
literature but to everyone who has an interest in the Master of the
stage who shares insightful moments in the everyday lives of 19th
Century Russians, revealing deep sympathy for all people, wherever they
may be, in Russia a hundred years ago or throughout the world today.
Anton Chekhov.
Expressing complex ideas with great clarity Hewabowala writes, "On
the Chechovian stage, there is always a small band of people affected,
each in his own way, by the ongoing mood. Since each one of them acts
all the time, one character cancels out another.
As a dramatist he does not attach value to the usual theatrical
emphasis on the central figure preferring to work on the relations
between characters rather than on the characters themselves." She uses a
quotation from a letter Chekhov wrote to his wife Olga Knipper "You ask
what is life? That is just the same as asking a carrot what is a carrot.
A carrot is a carrot and nothing more is known about it." (p.52)to
prove "his theory of implying which he proposed vehemently." She
establishes how well The Seagull exemplified Chekhov's naturalistic
ideology with this interesting quote made by K. Stanislavsky on the
opening night of the play:"Everything seemed so natural... the audience
felt almost embarrassed at being there as if they were peeping through a
window."
Seeing similarities between Chekhov and Tolstoy in their
"presentation of human nature", in the essay on Tolstoy she examines
"The Tolstoyian Perspective of the Ethical Scenario of 19th century
Russia reflected in Anna Karenina as a perceptive piece of
Socio-psychological Discourse".
She detects the "burning sensuality" in Tolstoy which tortured him
and which he seemingly disapproved of, reflected in the fictional Anna.
She believes he purifies himself through the male protagonist, Levin,
who is a partial image of himself. ("The two major considerations in the
female protagonist's world, namely the brilliant career and the social
appearances sparkling with the leisurely pursuits of the rich, seem
artificial to Levin who believes in family bonds and the stability of
marriage"). Focusing on Tolstoy's psychological prowess she writes "As a
psychologist Tolstoy is subtle; while reflecting his penetrative
observations, his writing is also able to crystalise the acuteness of
the mental agony of a woman destined to search for happiness in
adultery." A quote from the text describing Anna's last thoughts as she
makes her way to the railway station, given in the form of the Inner
Monologue, is used to prove this point. After musing over her
relationship with Count Vronsky realizing "his was the triumph of
gratified vanity" Anna is seen asking herself "Why all these churches
and bells and lies?."
Inevitably, some of the essays in the volume shine less brightly, if
only because they are about classics that have sadly remained within the
walls of university lecture halls and have not moved out into the
everyday world. These include the chapter on Synge's "The Play Boy of
the Western World, the study of Existentialist Theories as found in Jean
Paul Satre's melodrama titled In Camera, Jean Rhy's Wide Sargasso Sea,
the morality plays of the 15th century, to name a few.
And finally to Ben Jonson, that most didactic playwright of the 16th
century who wowed "I will strip the ragged follies of the time,Naked as
at their birth" (Asper, Every Man Out of His Humour)who has the last
chapter, and the last laugh.
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