Syed Manzoorul Islam’s Postmodern Tales: A Study

Abstract

The paper brings into focus how Syed Manzoorul Islam, in his three-decade-long literary career, has mastered a narrative style that sets him apart from many of his Bengali contemporaries. It demonstrates all the traits unique to his storytelling: blurring of boundaries between dream and reality, self-reflexivity, irony, and humor. The research also encapsulates how Syed Islam is different from his contemporary short story writers in terms of constructing plot and character. It foregrounds the author’s capability of developing a diction which is completely his own. The paper discusses the postmodern features prevailing in his stories. It shows us how the author invites the readers to be a part of his discourses. It summarizes the author’s surrealist imagination which creates a world that is strangely familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Overall, the research analyzes how the postmodern elements relate to the major themes of Syed Manzoorul Islam’s short stories.

Keywords: Post-modernism, magic-realism, realism, psychoanalysis, political degeneration