Tagore beyond Borders: Essays on His Influence and Cultural Legacy

This book presents a collection of essays on Rabindranath Tagore's creative art, social commitment, literary and artistic representation, and his unique position in the cultural history of modern India as a blend of the quintessentially Indian and the liberal Universalist.

Tagore's genius is celebrated everywhere across the globe. He was the first Nobel laureate from Asia - in 1913 he won the prestigious prize for Gitanjali (Song Offerings), his volume of poetry. Apart from his stature as a writer, artist and educationist, he was also a very observant critic of nationalism. A 160 years after his birth, the times demand that Tagore should be given full attention. This collection brings together professors and researchers from India, Bangladesh, Italy, Poland, United Kingdom and Romania, all of them having a strong bond with the Indian soil. The essays take his life and work as their point of departure while celebrating his intellectual engagement and his incredible legacy over the years. The leitmotif is a Tagore who, while imaginable as made possible only within the Indian tradition, eludes attempts aimed at identification with a national culture, and remains a cosmopolitan in the best sense of the term. The essays look, from the perspectives of modernity, liberation, post-colonialism, and translatability, at a diversity of subjects including the travelogues, fiction, philosophy and cinematic representation of Tagore. The essays examine as well the educational ideas of Tagore, and his interaction with Gandhi and WEB Du Bois respectively studying aspects of difference and convergence.

This volume will be of interest to readers and researchers in the fields of literature, philosophy, political science, cultural studies, Asian studies, South Asian studies, and Tagore studies.