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Young Tagore is a first-of-its-kind psychobiography that deepens our understanding of Rabrinath Tagore, perhaps the greatest multifaceted genius India has produced in the last two hundred years. In this reconstruction of Tagore's childhood and youth, pre-eminent psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakar draws a nuanced portrait of the young prodigy and the decisive expderiences that shaped him: the death of his mother when he was fourteen, the intimate bond he shared with his sister-in-law Kadambari and his sojourn in England. Through these Kakar uncovers the vital themes in young Rabi's inner world that shaped his creative genius: his yearning for solitude that was tempered by his fear of loneliness; his preoccupation with with spiritual concerns that enabled him to give voice to the sensualist within; and his abiding quest to find a balance between traditional Indian values and Western cosmopolitanism.
Kakar's scrutiny is intense as he pieces together this incredible puzzle, but the rigorous scholarship is finely balanced with deep empathy. In laying bare the inner workings of Tagore's brilliance, Kakar reveals the real man behind the towering genius.
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Delhi: Viking-Penguin, 2013. Bengali translation(Kolkata: Thema, in Press) German translation, Draupadi Verlag: Heidelberg, 2017. Tamil translation, 2016.
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From
Reviews |
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... not only illuminates many nooks and crannies of Tagore's creativity but is in itself an imaginative and luminous meditation on art and life, the body and soul,
and the East and the West. |
Indian Express |
.... a set of meditations by a thoughtful reader on what Tagore means to him ...the psychobiographical site where the deepest sources of imagination, joy and suffering can be located. For any psychoanalyst, this is a gift.
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Outlook |
... paints a fascinating portrait of Tagore seen through the prism of psychological analysis of his own "memory pictures". |
The Sunday Indian |
... unravels the puzzle that was Tagore....a pleasure to read. |
India Today |
..adds a new and crucial dimension to Tagore studies, especially to understanding his life .... a book without which no Tagore scholar will be able to form an opinion of the poet. |
The Statesman |
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