Feature

An afternoon with Prof. Manzoorul Islam at IUB
Lecture on Postmodernism

Sonia Sharmin

I shifted my class in Stamford University to attend Professor Syed Manzoorul Islam's lecture on postmodernism at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB). I came to know about that event just a day before but I did not want to miss it for anything. It was the fifth lecture of the lecture series at IUB and these lectures were held on the last Wednesdays of every month.

Dr. Islam delivered a lecture on Kurt Vonnegut at IUB on Wednesday, 25 July 2007. Professor Niaz Zaman, Professor Shawkat Hussain, Professor Nazrul Islam, other respected teachers, ex-students of Dhaka University, faculty members of different private universities were present there.

I am fond of Vonnegut because he is a postmodern writer and I like Manzoorul Islam because he introduced this writer to us or to the readers. In his lecture he covered Slaughter House V, Hocus Pocus, Breakfast of Champions and other novels by Vonnegut. Quoting Vonnegut, Dr. Islam said that Americans celebrate 1492 because Columbus discovered America that year. But actually it was the year when the original Americans were slaughtered by the marauders. This was the idea he discussed from Breakfast of Champions. What is called 'Heteroglossia' according to Mikhail Bakhtin, can be found in Vonnegut's novels and this criteria makes his novels postmodern. In his novels readers will find endless process of self-reflection and Vonnegut does it with a touch of irony, parody and playfulness. Although Vonnegut takes different roles, he is talking to his readers not as a politician, not as a doctor, not as a lawyer, not as an anthropologist but as an artist.

Furthermore, the method Melville used in Mobydick, that the reader can start a novel from the middle and then he or she can go to the beginning or to the end, is also used by Vonnegut. That is what makes his Breakfast of Champions playful and in this way he breaks the traditional form and starts deconstruction by breaking grand-narratives.

In response to the questions of some questions Dr. Islam gave some quick-witted replies.

Dr. Islam said postmodernism is an extension of modernism, an attitude and criticism towards modernism. He also made the distinction between post-colonialism and post-modernism. Whereas post-colonialism is a political term, post-modernism is not, rather it is a social term.

Another thing I liked most was when Dr. Islam talked about Euro-centric postmodernism and postmodernism as a general trend. Then he added that the situation of Bangladesh is more inclined towards postmodernism. He showed two things in the posh suburbs of Dhaka, people are living in air-conditioned rooms and in the same country away from those beautiful post-modern buildings, people are living on the streets. This bitter truth is the truth of post-modern Bangladesh. Moreover he made a parallelism between Bangladesh and America in 1492. As the pirates slaughtered the original inhabitants of America in 1492, the politicians of Bangladesh are also doing the same thing every five years whenever the time of vote comes.

In conclusion, I want to thank IUB for taking such a step to arrange a program every month conducted by the famous scholars of our country.

(Writer is lecturer, Department of English, Stamford University, Bangladesh)