Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Meta-fiction in Hindi

I was musing about instances of meta-fiction in Hindi, and decided to jot down a few that might occur to me.
  • A major one that comes to mind is Dharamvir Bharati's novella Suraj ka Saatva Ghoda (The Seventh Steed of the Sun). One of the most unforgettable sentences in the novella was the rather tongue-in-cheek definition of a story as a progression from nothingness through a beginning, middle, and end, to the waste-paper basket. Moreover, this work is an interesting study in the relationship between narrative, narrator, and reader. I read it a long time ago (and saw the movie based on it even earlier), and so am currently not in a position to write a detailed exposition. Will do so when I have had a chance to re-read it.
  • Some of Agyeya's poems deal with themes related to the creation and interpretation of literature, e.g., Naya Kavi: Aatma-sweekar and Shabda aur Satya.
At the moment these are the instances that occur to me. Will update when I am able to think of more.

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