Subodh Chandra Sengupta

{{Infobox person

| name = Subodh Chandra Sengupta

| image =

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| birth_date = 27 June 1903

| birth_place = Banari, Dhaka, Bengal Province, British India

| death_date = 3 December 1998

| death_place = Kolkata West Bengal, India

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| occupation = Academic
Scholar
Writer

| yearsactive = 1929–1998

| known for = Shakesperean literature

| spouse =

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| children =

| father = Hemchandra Sengupta

| mother = Mrinalini Debi

| website =

| signature =

| awards = Padma Bhushan

}}

Subodh Chandra Sengupta (27 June 1903 – 3 December 1998) was an Indian scholar, academic and critic of English literature,{{cite journal | url=http://www.bannedthought.net/India/PeoplesMarch/PM1999-2006/archives/2000/nov2k/shyam.htm | title=Shyam Prasad – A Hindutva British Stooge | author=Somesh | journal=People's March | date=November 2000 | volume=1 | issue=9}} known for his scholarship on Shakespearean works.{{cite web | url=http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Criticism/shakespearein/india3.html | title=Pedagogy: the academic Shakespeare | publisher=Internet Shakespeare Editions | date=2016 | access-date=22 July 2016}} His books on William Shakespeare, which included Aspects of Shakespearian Tragedy,{{cite book | title=Aspects of Shakespearian Tragedy | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=S. C. Sengupta | year=1972 | pages=176 | isbn=9780195602920|oclc = 832557}} Shakespearian Comedy{{cite book | title=Shakespearian Comedy | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=S. C. Sengupta | year=1950 | pages=287 | oclc=6476690}} and Shakespeare's Historical Plays{{cite book|author=Subodh Chandra SenGupta|title=Shakespeare's Historical Plays|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOSqnQEACAAJ|year=1966|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198116219}} are critically acclaimed for scholarship and academic rigor.{{cite book|author=Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta|title=Portraits and memories|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hECdAAAAMAAJ|date=1 January 2003|publisher=Thema|isbn=978-81-86017-40-1}} He was a professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Presidency College (now Presidency University), Calcutta, and after retirement from Presidency College, became Professor of English Language and Literature at Jadavpur University, Calcutta,{{cite web | url=http://www.caluniv.ac.in/academic/arts_bengali.html | title=Department of English Language & Literature | publisher=Jadavpur University, Calcutta | date=2016 | access-date=22 July 2016}} as well as a professor of English literature at Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur, an autonomous college in Greater Calcutta under the University of Calcutta.{{cite web | url=http://www.rkmcnarendrapur.org/60-Under%20Graduate%20English | title=English | publisher=Ramakrishna Mission Residential College | date=2016 | access-date=22 July 2016}} The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1983, for his contributions to literature and education.{{cite web | url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf | title=Padma Awards | publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India | date=2016 | access-date=3 January 2016 | archive-date=19 October 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019215108/http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf | url-status=dead }}

Biography

Subodh Chandra Sengupta was born in 1903 in Dhaka, in the Bengal Province of British India (present-day Bangladesh){{cite book|author=Mohan Lal|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Sasay to Zorgot|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KnPoYxrRfc0C&pg=PA3921|year=1992|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-1221-3|pages=3921–}} and did his college studies at Presidency College, Calcutta during 1924-26 where he had the opportunity to learn under such academics as Harendra Coomar Mookerjee, Prafulla Chandra Ghosh and Srikumar Banerjee.{{cite web | url=http://www.uvm.edu/~sgutman/Calcutta_University.html | title=The Coming on its Own | publisher=University of Vermont | date=2016 | access-date=22 July 2016}} After securing his MA in 1927, he continued his doctoral studies with Premchand Roychand scholarship during which time he started his career as a faculty member at the Presidency College, Calcutta. He served the institution from 1929 till 1960, barring two interludes from 1933 to 1935 and from 1942 to 1946.{{cite book|author=Hema Dahiya|title=Shakespeare Studies in Colonial Bengal: The Early Phase|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hiBJDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA181|date=3 July 2014|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-6353-7|pages=181–}} In between, he secured his PhD in 1934 and also taught at Ramakrishna Mission Residential College for a while.

Sengupta published five books on Shakespeare, The whirlgig of Time: The problem of Duration in Shakespeare's Plays (1961),{{cite book | title=The whirlgig of Time: The problem of Duration in Shakespeare's Plays | publisher=Orient Longmans | author=S. C. Sengupta | year=1961 | pages=201 | oclc=1940902}} A Shakespeare Manual (1977),{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/shakespearemanua0000seng/page/157 | title=A Shakespeare Manual | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=S. C. Sengupta | year=1977 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/shakespearemanua0000seng/page/157 157] | isbn=9780195609530 }} Aspects of Shakespearian Tragedy (1972), Shakespearean Comedy (1950), and Shakespeare's Historical Plays (1964), which are known to be reference texts on the English playwright. He also wrote on other literary figures such as George Bernard Shaw (The Art of Bernard Shaw{{cite book|author=Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta|title=The art of Bernard Shaw|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oTofAQAAIAAJ|year=1936|publisher=Folcroft Library Editions|isbn=9780841444393}}), Rabindranath Tagore (The Great Sentinel: A Study of Rabindranath Tagore{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-l0FngEACAAJ | title=The Great Sentinel: A Study of Rabindranath Tagore | publisher=Mukherjee | date=1948 | author=S. C. Sengupta}}), Saratchandra Chatterjee (Saratchandra: Man and Artist{{cite book|author=Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta|title=Saratchandra: Man and Artist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qr0JAQAAIAAJ|year=1975|publisher=Sahitya Akademi}}) and Bankimchandra Chatterjee (Bankimchandra Chatterjee{{cite book|author=Subodhchandra Sengupta|title=Bankimchandra Chatterjee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=284t0sm6CNQC|date=1 January 1996|publisher=Sahitya Akademi Publications|isbn=978-81-260-0001-2}}). His other major works included two original books, Towards a Theory of Imagination, a philosophical treatise,{{cite book | url=https://www.amazon.com/Towards-theory-imagination-Sen-Gupta/dp/B0007J1C6U | title=Towards a Theory of Imagination | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=S. C. Sengupta | year=1959 | pages=315 | asin=B0007J1C6U}} India Wrests Freedom, a historical interpretation of Indian freedom movement,{{cite book|author=Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta|title=India wrests freedom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8q1AAAAIAAJ|year=1982|publisher=Sahitya Samsad}}

and two translations, Dhvanyaloka, a commentary on aesthetics by Anandavardhana translated into Bengali by Sengupta,{{cite book|author=Raghunath Ghosh|title=Humanity, Truth, and Freedom: Essays in Modern Indian Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YMlyid2aksEC&pg=PA159|date=1 January 2008|publisher=Northern Book Centre|isbn=978-81-7211-233-2|pages=159–}}

and Mahatma Gandhi, As I Saw Him, a critical account of the life of Mohandas KaramChand Gandhi written by Prafulla Chandra Ghosh and translated by Sengupta.{{cite book|author=Prafulla Chandra Ghosh|title=Mahatma Gandhi: As I Saw Him|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iOigzrTDLTQC|year=1968|publisher=S. Chand & Company}} He also assisted in the publication of a dictionary, Samsad Bengali-English Dictionary{{cite book | title=Samsad Bengali-English dictionary | publisher=Calcutta Sahitya Samsad |author1=Sailendra Biswas |author2=Birendramohan Dasgupta |author3=S C Sen Gupta | year=1982 | pages=932 | oclc=9418239}} and edited the annual publications of Presidency College Alumni Association.{{cite web | url=http://presidencyalumni.com/home/publication2 | title=List of Annual Publications | publisher=Presidency College Alumni Association | date=2016 | access-date=23 July 2016}}

Sengupta, who was honored by the Government of India with the civilian award of the Padma Bhushan in 1983, died in 1998, at the age of 95.{{cite web | url=http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n50-9780/ | title=Sen Gupta, S. C. (Subodh Chandra) 1903-1998 | publisher=WorldCat | date=2016 | access-date=23 July 2016}} Several writers have recorded their indebtedness to Sengupta in their works.{{cite book|author=Mohit K. Ray|title=Studies in Literary Criticism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QRZ9cKUyyy0C&pg=PR3|date=1 January 2001|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|isbn=978-81-269-0002-2|pages=3–}}{{cite book|author=Kanailal Basu|title=Netaji: Rediscovered|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b9bQyfKq_EMC&pg=PR9|date=19 January 2010|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=978-1-4490-5569-1|pages=9–}} The story of his life has been documented in a work, Professor Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta: Scholar Extraordinary,{{cite book|author1=Sen Gupta Sen Gupta|author2=Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta|title=Professor Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta: Scholar Extraordinary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tsVjAAAAMAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Subodh Chandra Sengupta Foundation}} published by the foundation bearing his name.{{cite web | url=https://openlibrary.org/publishers/Subodh_Chandra_Sengupta_Foundation | title=Subodh Chandra Sengupta Foundation | publisher=Open Library | date=2016 | access-date=23 July 2016}}

Selected bibliography

{{cite book|author=Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta|title=The art of Bernard Shaw|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oTofAQAAIAAJ|year=1936|publisher=Folcroft Library Editions|isbn=9780841444393}}
{{cite book|author=Subodhchandra Sengupta|title=Bankimchandra Chatterjee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=284t0sm6CNQC|date=1 January 1996|publisher=Sahitya Akademi Publications|isbn=978-81-260-0001-2}}
{{cite book|author=Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta|title=Saratchandra: Man and Artist|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qr0JAQAAIAAJ|year=1975|publisher=Sahitya Akademi}}
{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-l0FngEACAAJ | title=The Great Sentinel: A Study of Rabindranath Tagore | publisher=Mukherjee | date=1948 | author=S. C. Sengupta}}
{{cite book | title=Shakespearian Comedy | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=S. C. Sengupta | year=1950 | pages=287 | oclc=6476690}}
{{cite book | url=https://www.amazon.com/Towards-theory-imagination-Sen-Gupta/dp/B0007J1C6U | title=Towards a Theory of Imagination | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=S. C. Sengupta | year=1959 | pages=315 | asin=B0007J1C6U}}
{{cite book | title=The whirlgig of Time: The problem of Duration in Shakespeare's Plays | publisher=Orient Longmans | author=S. C. Sengupta | year=1961 | pages=201 | oclc=1940902}}
{{cite book|author=Subodh Chandra SenGupta|title=Shakespeare's Historical Plays|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOSqnQEACAAJ|year=1966|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198116219}}
{{cite book|author=Prafulla Chandra Ghosh|translator=S. C. Sengupta |title=Mahatma Gandhi: As I Saw Him|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iOigzrTDLTQC|year=1968|publisher=S. Chand & Company}}
{{cite book | title=Aspects of Shakespearian Tragedy | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=S. C. Sengupta | year=1972 | pages=176 | isbn=9780195602920|oclc = 832557}}
{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/shakespearemanua0000seng/page/157 | title=A Shakespeare Manual | publisher=Oxford University Press | author=S. C. Sengupta | year=1977 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/shakespearemanua0000seng/page/157 157] | isbn=9780195609530 }}
{{cite book|author=Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta|title=India wrests freedom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y8q1AAAAIAAJ|year=1982|publisher=Sahitya Samsad}}
{{cite book | title=Samsad Bengali-English dictionary | publisher=Calcutta Sahitya Samsad |author1=Sailendra Biswas |author2=Birendramohan Dasgupta |author3=S C Sen Gupta | year=1982 | pages=932 | oclc=9418239}}

References

External links

{{cite web | url=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50009780 | title=Sen Gupta, S. C. (Subodh Chandra), 1903-1998 | publisher=Library of Congress | work=Library of Congress Name Authority File | date=2016 | access-date=23 July 2016}}

Subodh Chandra Sengupta

Biography

Selected bibliography

See also

References

External links

Further reading