Includes index

Disjunctions, Conjunctions - Reading Iswarchandra Gupta (1812-1859) - Poet of the Present: The Material Object in the World of Iswar Gupta - 'Another Wonder of the Nineteenth Century': Rangalal Bandyopadhyay (1827-1887) - Event, Anecdote, Iconicity: The Legend of Michael Madhusudan Datta - Michael Madhusudan Datta and the Marxist Understanding of the 'Real Renaissance' in Bengal - Hemchandra's 'Bharat sangit' (1870) and the Politics of Poetry: A Pre-History of Hindu Nationalism in Bengal - Cutlets or Fish Curry?: Debating Indian Authenticity - History in Poetry: Nabinchandra Sen's Palasir yuddha (1875) and the Question of Truth - The Curious Case of Nabinchandra Sen and the Textbook Committee: An Investigation into Hindu/Muslim Representations - Rabindranath's Early Style and Reconstruction of the Past.

Mapping a fifty-year period that is fundamental to any understanding of nineteenth-century Bengal - 1831 to 1881, this book focuses on literary debates generated around the works of Iswarchandra Gupta, Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, Madhusudan Datta, Hemchandra Bandyopadhyay, Nabinchandra Sen, and Rabindranath Tagore.