Thakurmar Jhuli: Recasting the Grandmother’s Bag of Tales

Abstract

The oldest children’s literature worldwide was oral in origin. It has been a source of enjoyment to children for long. We were also no exception as kids. These stories started to take written shape in different languages of the world from the seventeenth century. It was from then to the eighteenth century that childhood came to be recognized as different from adulthood and the idea of the child as a separate entity slowly started to take shape. It is argued that child and childhood as distinct identities emerged sometime in the same period. It was obvious therefore that the concept of childhood surfaced only with the rise of the print culture, thereby substantiating the claim that the idea of child existed before children’s literature. It is the adult who imposes on the child what it considers to be appropriate for it. One such means is ‘children’s literature’. Whatever way we may look at it, we have accepted that children’s literature is a product of the culture and society like all other kinds of literature. Its producers and consumers are part of the same society, are culturally constructed occupying different positions of power. This paper will explore the immense possibilities of a world created by the adult through an acclaimed children’s literary work by Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar’s Thakurmar Jhuli. The paper will delve into the textual construction, a representation of the world in the book to see how the literature in question prepares the child for the future.