Accolades for father-daughter duo in world literary stage

The Maharashtra government has awarded him for his anthology ‘Teekavastraharan,’ in which he advocates the study of Indian literature in the context of world literature.

“Today,there is a need for inter-textuality in literature. I feel we lack in such terminology,while other countries,including China,are far ahead of us. So I have come up with terms like ‘anglocolisation’ as the process of acquiring knowledge begins with dialogic comparative imagination,” said Anand Patil.

To illustrate his point further,he talks about objects like a bell and how its use changes with the cultural connotation in each nation.

Anand’s daughter,Manisha has presented her paper on the post-colonial adaptation,translation and other offshoots of Brecht’s plays in influence of Brecht in Marathi theatre. She also chaired a session on Brecht and Asia.

Manisha said,“Brecht has had a great influence on the evolution of Marathi theatre. Inspired by his emphasis on indigenous folk art,playwrights,like Vijay Tendulkar in his Ghashiram Kotwal,have adopted the style of going back to our roots. It changed the entire trajectory of our theatre.”

Manisha has used the examples of plays by P L Deshpande,especially Teen Paisacha Tamasha — directed by Jabbar Patel — which is an adaptation of Brecht’s 3 Penny Opera,drawing parallels between the use of the element of tamasha by Deshpande and Brecht’s use of Chinese mythology and folk songs.

Others at the symposium included Farzana Akhtar from Bangladesh,who spoke on the influence of Brecht in her country and D Venkat Mani from Wisconsin University who has translated German playwright Die Drei Groschenoper’s works into Hindi.