Nalini Bera’s authorship & the voice of the Marginal man/ নলিনী বেরার কথাসাহিত্যে প্রান্তিক মানুষের ভাষা

Abstract

Life with its vast expanse often becomes too overwhelming for human expression. Hence, we the petty beings resort to the ever popular trend to compartment-talise and category’s life into various classes of people based on social structure or living standards - higher class (elite/ aristocrat), middle class and the marginalized or lower class. The marginalized or the lower class of people are also referred to as the ‘masses’, the ‘common man’ or ‘working class’.

           The stories we read in our novels, novellas or short stories are stories of people. However, we tend to divide people as well, for the ease of discussion. The fictional prose of the ‘70s moves out of the urban landscape to the rustic pioneered by the likes of Mahasweta Devi & Prafulla Roy. Nalini Bera being a rustic man himself chooses his own life as an inspiration for all his writings. His literary universe is decorated by his life, it's various ebb and flow like the course of Subarnarekha. His language is the language of his people, simple and pure like the clear stream of Subarnarekha. This is the language we often refer to as ‘folk’.

           ‘Folk’ here refers to people. The people classified as rustic or ‘Vulgar’. All the people belonging to the working class the proletariat are referred to as ‘Folk’ and their culture as ‘Folk Culture’. The people associated with this culture are the working class Hence, we may say "folk Culture' is actually the culture of the "Subaltern" & their language is the one in which the 'Subaltern Speaks Therefor, the culture would be reduced to a void, dissociate the people from this culture.

            This culture is representative of the life and living of the subaltern. This culture is a flowing stream of knowledge that has undergrow a matter Slow change.

            Nalini Bera being a man of his culture has provided us well curated pictographic representation of his people residing our the banks of the Subaruarekha. He has captured of their culture in its totality - language, religion, culture, superstiticon to paint a wild, yet vivid image his people in his writtings. He represents this life with both, distouched objectivity and immersive subjectivity, captured beautifully in all his nuanced character While doing so he has used the language as a instrument of his craft, transcending it to become a seperate and individualized character of his narrative.