Suresh Joshi

Suresh Joshi
Native name સુરેશ હરિપ્રસાદ જોશી
Born Suresh Hariprasad Joshi
(1921-05-30)30 May 1921
Valod, Bardoli, Gujarat
Died 6 September 1986(1986-09-06) (aged 65)
Nadiad, Gujarat
Occupation novelist, short-story writer, critic, poet, translator, essayist
Language Gujarati
Nationality Indian
Education Master of Arts
Alma mater Elphinstone College
Period Modern Gujarati literature
Notable works
  • Janantike (1965)
  • Chinnapatra (1965)
Notable awards

Suresh Hariprasad Joshi (Gujarati: સુરેશ હરિપ્રસાદ જોશી) was an Indian novelist, short-story writer, critic, poet, translator, writer and academic in the Gujarati language. Along with his teaching career, he led the modernist movement in Gujarati literature. He was prolific writer and he transformed the field of literary criticism.

Life

He was born in Valod, a small near Bardoli in South Gujarat on 30 May 1921. He did his schooling from Songadh and Gangadhara. He matriculated from Navsari in 1938. He completed his BA in 1943 and MA from Elphinstone College in 1945. In the same year, he started teaching at D. J. Singh College in Karachi and later joined Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar in 1947. From 1951, he served as a lecturer, professor and later as Head of the Gujarati Department at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara till his retirement in 1981.[1][2][3]

His early life was spent at Songadh which influenced his life. At the age of eight, he secretly published his poem in Baljeevan magazine. He edited Falguni magazine in his college life. Upjati (1956) was his first published work. He had also edited Manisha, Kshitij, Etad and Uhapoh magazines.[1][2][3][4]

He died on 6 September 1986 due to kidney failure at Nadiad.[1][3][2]

Style

A strong opponent of romantic tendencies in literature, Joshi influenced many up-and-coming writers in the 1960s and 1970s. His personal essays "are said to have introduced a new prose style in Gujarati literature," according to Gujarati scholar Sarala Jag Mohan.[4][3] He was influenced by efforts of experimentation in western literature.[5]

He was one of the chief exponents of experimentalist poetry in Gujarati, primarily through his literary criticism, rather than his poems. Under his influence, form, technique and structure became far more important considerations within Gujarati poetry. The torments of the individual and literary craftsmanship became more highly esteemed, but intelligibility, lyricism and musicality were valued less, as were social concerns of the writer and even the contents of the work, according to Deepak B. Mehta.[6]

Existentialism and phenomenology were prime interests of his.[3][4]

Works

Suresh Joshi was a modernist author who led the modernist movement in Gujarati literature which emerged after 1955, the post-Gandhian era.[3] He is considered as the father of modern Gujarati literature.[5]

Upjati (1956), Pratyancha (1961), Itara (1973) and Tathapi (1980) are his poetry collection. He withdrawn his first publication Upjati on his second publication.[1][3][4]

His four novels are collectively published as Kathachatushtay. Two of them, Chinnapatra (1965) and Maranottar (1973) were already published before. Vidula and Kathachakra were published before with other short stories but Joshi considered them as novels and published again with other two.[1][3]

He was very experimental in novellas. He transformed the genre in Gujarati literature by his continued experimentation and esthetics. Grihapravesh (1957), Biji Thodik Vartao (1958), Apich (1965), Na Tatra Suryo Bhati (1967), Ekda Naimisharanye (1980) are his collection of stories which include 62 novellas. His 21 stories were collected in Maniti Anmaniti (1982), edited by Shirish Panchal.[1][3][4] He promoted a theory of fiction known as Ghatanavilop which focuses on suggestive potential of language instead of plot element in fiction.[7]

Janantike (1965) is his first collection of essays. His other essay collections are Idam Sarvam (1971), Ahobat Kim Ashcharyam (1975), Iti Me Iti (1987). Bhavyami (1984) includes selected essays edited by Shirish Panchal from his more than thousand essays.[1][3][4][8]

He was a reformer in field of literary criticism. His first work of citicism Kinchit (1960) rebelled against established norms. Gujarati Kavitano Aswad (1962), Kavyacharcha (1971), Kathopkathan, Shrunavantu (1972), Arunyarudan (1976), Chintayami Manasa (1983), Ashtamoahyay (1984) are his other collections of criticism.[1][3][4]

Madhyakalin Gyanmargi Kavyadharani Bhumika (1978) is his research work. Jananti Ye Kimapi (1984) is collection of six essays edited by him which focuses on new movement in literary criticism. He edited some anthologies; Navonmesh (1971), Narharini Gyangeeta (1978), Gujarati Sarjanatmak Gadya: Ek Sankalan (1981), Vastana Pado (1983). Parakiya (1975) his collection of translation of fine world poetry. Dhire Vahe Chhe Don Volume I (1960) and Bhonytaliyano Adami (1967) are tanslations of Russian novels. Shikari Bandook ane Hajar Saraso (1975) is translation of Japanese stories. Ameriki Tunki Varta (1967) is translation of The Short Story in America by Raymond B. West. Amerikana Sahityano Itihas (1965) is translation of book by Marks Cliff. He translated essays of Rabindranath Tagore in Panchamrut (1949) and Sanchay (1963).[1][3]

Awards

He was awarded Ranjitram Suvarna Chandrak in 1971. He refused to accept Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983 which was awarded him for Chintayami Manasa.[1][3][7]

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Brahmabhatt, Prasad (2010). અર્વાચીન ગુજરાતી સાહિત્યનો ઈતિહાસ - આધુનિક અને અનુઆધુનિક યુગ (History of Modern Gujarati Literature – Modern and Postmodern Era) (in Gujarati). Ahmedabad: Parshwa Publication. p. 22-33. ISBN 978-93-5108-247-7.
  2. 1 2 3 "સુરેશ જોષી (Suresh Joshi)". Gujarati Sahitya Parishad. Retrieved 2016-01-01.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Panchal (2004). Makers of Indian Literature: Suresh Joshi. Sahitya Akademi. pp. 2–66. ISBN 978-81-260-1922-9.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Mohan, Sarala Jag, Chapter 4: "Twentieth-Century Gujarati Literature" (Google books link), in Natarajan, Nalini, and Emanuel Sampath Nelson, editors, Handbook of Twentieth-century Literatures of India, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 978-0-313-28778-7, retrieved 10 December 2008
  5. 1 2 Sivasankari (1998). Knit India through literature. Eastwest Books. p. 279.
  6. ↑ George, K. M., editor, Modern Indian Literature: An Anthology, published by Sahitya Akademi, 1992, ISBN 978-81-7201-324-0, Chapter: "Modern Gujarati Literature" by Deepak B. Mehta
  7. 1 2 G. N. Devy (1 January 2002). Indian Literary Criticism: Theory and Interpretation. Orient Blackswan. p. 184. ISBN 978-81-250-2022-6.
  8. ↑ National Book Trust (1997). Masterpieces of Indian literature. National Book Trust. p. 304. ISBN 978-81-237-1978-8.
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