Dr.Swapan Kumar Banerjee was born
and educated at Calcutta (now Kolkata), a centre of learning and culture in India. After completing his B.A.. Honours in English,
he did his M.A.(English) from Calcutta University. He also studied French at Alliance Francaise de Calcutta and secured the
first place in 1977.
Since 1986 he has been teaching English
language and literature at Narasinha Dutt college, Howrah, under Calcutta University, India.
During his teaching career
he carried on research work under Dr.Sajni Mukherjee, an Oxford scholar and former Head of English Department, Jadavpur
University. He submitted his thesis on The Role of New Woman in the plays of Shaw, Granville Barker and
Galsworthy which was awarded Ph.D by Jadavpur University on 5th May, 1999.
He has the distinction
of becoming the first Reader in English at Narasinha Dutt College.He was also Head
of English department and retired in January, 2011 as Associate Professor in English. He acted
examiner of Calcutta University and other competitive examinations.
His hobbies include chess, music,
creative writing and above all communicating with his former students, friends and colleagues through the Internet and e-mail.
The doctoral thesis has been published by
Atlantic Publishers of New Delhi as The Evolution of the Feminist Heroine in Modern Drama (1892-1914) for readers
interested in Feminism/ Gender Studies or literary criticism.
After retirement he is engaged in
content writing, translating, editing, blogging and writing scripts and plays based on the stories of Rabindranath Tagore
and other eminent Bengali writers. His translation of Tagore's story has been published on www.parabaas.com as The Story of a Muslim Woman.
At present he is translating a book on Anthropology: Anti-witch
Movement in Purulia by Lakshmindra K Sarkar
Some of his stories were published on www.ndtv.com and his play To the Highest Bidder is yet
to be published and performed.
He lives in Calcutta with his wife Kakali
and their only son Pratanu who is studied Anthropolgy Honours and completed P.G.Diploma in Hospital Administration from
Apollo Hospital/Medvarsity. Pratanu also did certificate courses in Science Journalism and French language.
He worked for BPOs for six years and now is Public Relations Co-ordinator of an NGO.
Visit his other website is :
Synopsis
of the his Doctoral Thesis:
The Evolution of the Feminist Heroine
in Modern Drama explores the emergence of the New Woman in the plays of Bernard Shaw, Galsworthy and Granville
Barker and how their dominating role revolutionized the modern drama. The emphasis shifted from the male hero to the unwomanly
woman who is shown more as a product of social, economic and political interactions than individual creation.
The focus is on the early and middle
plays of Bernard Shaw and the influence of Ibsen's plays has been given their rightful place. Most of Shaw's major plays --
from Widowers Houses to Pygmalion come under the purview of the research work, while the plays of contemporaries
like Pinero, Jones and Oscar Wilde have been discussed to highlight the contrast.
More interesting are the unknown
assertive heroines of Galsworthy's middle and late plays from The Eldest Son and The Fugitive to
The Skin Game. His women characters remain in oblivion because hardly any scholar has bothered to study
them. Though Granville Barker is well-known as a critic and director of Shakespeare's plays, his own plays with the New Woman
as heroine still remain little known in the academic circle.
In the conclusion the bearing of this early
feminism is shown on the Feminist playwrights like Caryl Churchill, Pam Gems et al of the 1980s.
This doctoral thesis has
been published as book in 2006 as:
Feminism in Modern English
Drama
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