Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Padmarag

Barnita Bagchi (Universiteit Utrecht)

Ed. by Mohammad Quayum, International Islamic University Malaysia, Joel Kuortti, University of Turku
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.3.2: Pakistani and Bangladeshi Writing and Culture.
Vol. editors: Claire Gallien (Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3), Pavan Kumar Malreddy (J W Goethe University of Frankfurt), Delphine Munos (Université de Liège), Muneeza Shamsie (Independent Scholar - Asia), Niaz Zaman (Independent University Bangladesh)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1924

Places

Bangladesh (Country of Origin)
India (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s Bengali work Padmarag (“Ruby”, first translated by Barnita Bagchi, 2005)is her only work of prose fiction long enough to be termed a novel. It was published by the author from 86A Lower Circular Road, Calcutta, in 1924. The book is dedicated to her brother Ibrahim Saber and it delineates a female-led utopia with educational and philanthropic emphasis. It complements Rokeya’s better-known utopian short story Sultana’s Dream (1905), a dream-vision of a female-led country in which science, technology, and female education go hand in hand to create a peaceful, pollution-free land in which men, in a satirical inversion, are confined to men’s quarters, the mardana. Padmarag describes a…

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1857 words

Citation: Bagchi, Barnita. "Padmarag". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 August 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35790, accessed 31 October 2024.]

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