Abstract:

How do writers express the inexpressible? Catastrophic events like famines test the limits of creative expression, a challenge that gets complicated further in the case of translations. Using the example of Anandamath, we shall see how Bankimchandra Chatterjee "translates" (echoing the root meaning of translation as carrying over) the 1770 famine into literature. By focusing on translational methods as well as specific examples, we will identify the challenges and possibilities of literary crossover for readerships in multiple languages.