https://doi.org/10.67147/literariness.v1i4.049
Voices of War: A Modernist Anatomy of Trauma, Absurdity and Humanism in Basheer’s Voices (Shabdangal)
DR. MANJU P.B
Associate Professor
Department of English
University College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Abstract: War narratives in Malayalam literature has evolved over the years from the mythic retellings and historical romances to modernist explorations of psychological aftermath of conflict. The war served as a fertile ground for writers to display their talents, challenging them to confront the darkest aspect of humanity from different perspectives. The novelette Shabdangal (1947) written by Basheer and translated by V. Abdulla into English as Voices (1976) stands as a seminal work even today with its stark depiction of reality. My paper is an attempt to explore the ways in which Basheer’s Voices offers a different take on war by moving away from the conventional representations of heroism and nationalism. He presents a fragmented, subjective, nonlinear narrative that brings forth psychological trauma, existential angst and the absurdity of war through the polyphony of voices that mirrors the structured consciousness of an orphaned war veteran from a humanist angle. Voices remains the first Malayalam novelette to deal with the taboo subject of homosexuality explicitly and thus invited a lot of criticism upon its release.
Keywords: Trauma, Absurdity, Homosexuality, Existentialism, Polyphony, Humanism
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