Hello Readers,
I am Hinaba Sarvaiya student of English Literature at Department of English MKBU. And this blog also present my acedemic activity and this task given by our ma'am. This task based on the Sultana's Reality as an interactive multimedia story.
I have to discussed 'Digital Narrative' in class and referred to an interactive multimedia story Sultana's Reality by Afrah Shafia. It is a based on the 1905 science fiction Sultana's Dream by Rokeya Sakhawat.
Women writers were not so celebrated in Literature. Reading female writers gives us insight to their life, we can read their situations and way of living in a specific period. ‘Sultana's Dream’ is a short story by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880 - 1932) which was originally published in The Indian Ladies' Magazine, Madras, 1905, in English.
Rokeya Hossain was a prominent Bengali feminist thinker, writer, educator and political activist from British India (present day Bangladesh). She is widely regarded as a pioneer of women's liberation in South Asia.
She advocated for men and women to be treated equally as rational beings, noting that the lack of education for women was responsible for their inferior economic position. Her major works include:
1. Matichur (A String of Sweet Pearls, 1904 and 1922), a collection of essays in two volumes expressing her feminist thoughts;
2. Sultana’s Dream (1908), a feminist science fiction novella set in Ladyland ruled by women; 3. Padmarag ("Essence of the Lotus", 1924) depicting the difficulties faced by Bengali wives;
4. Oborodh Basini (The Confined Women, 1931), a spirited attack on the extreme forms of purdah that endangered women's lives and self-image.
Concept of Andar mahal – the universe of Women.
Beginning with the meaning of what is Andar mahal; Andar mahal or inner chambers is also known as Zenana, it is a part of a house for the seclusion of Women.The very first chapter of ‘Sultana’s Reality' talks about Andar mahal ‘an inner world of their own’.
The concept of Andar mahel was in the Earlier part of the 19th century. This is shown to the outside of the world. This place is a very safe place for women. And only women are allowed to stay and whatever she is doing that can be here like, dance, sing, enjoy, write poetry or any piece of literature ect. Do not interfere with men here. This Andar Mahal is only for the women whatever she likes to do freely.
Observation of females and their connection with books.(Colonial education movement)
If we think about the literacy of women then it's a terrible thing in the world? Yet it is not a problem to literate women. But we can see before the time that this is a problem very well. But now I am discussing Sultana' s Reality, we can see the women's education in Post independence India. On 14th August 1856, Kotla Schumer Bose gave a speech on the education of Hindu women calcutta. "Women must be re-organized, refined, recast, and regenerated".
In the second chapter of Sultana reality, I got my eye on you. If we understand what is needed to educate women and how to begin to educate women. Women are educated here and read books and get the idea of religious sense, being stable for domestic work. And she thinks freely. If we think about the real situation of women that do not take education as a man. But here Andar Mahal is a very safe or free place for whatever she can do.
The third chapter 'Straighten Things out' clearly states that men wanted to bring women on line through education. In this chapter we can see the woman is reading a book and then she says whatever she understands and talks about her experience and writes about the story in own way of thinking. Talked about her their growth.
Compare both narratives of Sultana's Dream and Reality.
Sultana Dream is the story of the Utopian World, while Sultana's Reality is the prequel of Sultana's Dream. If we see the word Dream, it means something is imaginative. In this story we can see the women are very free to do whatever she likes or she can do everything. In this place no men are allowed and not stop them. Women are shown as more rational and scientific than men.
Sultana's Dream Sara is a protagonist who is a scientific researcher. Who considers women as superior to men. She sees that the Sultana World is very much different. In this place women are more important than the men. Sultana's Reality gives a view of Sultana's World and their suffering. Here we can see the concept of Murdana and Zenana, women ruling and growing faster in Dream and Reality. Sultana's Dream also gave the hope that women are powerful and handling the things whateveen are doing.
This digital narrative of the story is very interesting and I learn most of the concept of women's dreams and her reality. We have to not see about her problems and whatever she likes or her expectations. But here we can see the women are free to think whatever she can do, everything or educational things change the situation of the women. Way of telling the story is very unique or very enjoyable to us.
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