Mulk
Raj Anand
Creative Use of Language
Anand speaks about the creative use of
language in literature. He justifies his frequent use of the Punjabi vernacular
in his fiction. He asserts that his use of Indian phraseology needs no defense
because it is natural. In fact, the novelist’s style should be in complete
harmony with his characters. It should express adequately the feelings and
thoughts of a character in a particular situation. Anand illustrates it from
his use of prose to portray Lakha’s feelings and thoughts. He writes:
The
motive force for his words is the creation of an emotional complex, which is a peculiarity
of the pariah world. I wished to reproduce in his speech the very breath of his
voice, the confused, almost inchoate, smoke of his feelings of despair, and the
suppressed fire of his half dead person.
The
creative writer breaks the rules of grammar and coins new words so as to enrich
the language. In support of this argument, Anand cites the instances of the
three Irish writers: George Moore, Bernard Shaw and James Joyce. “The talent of
the true imaginative writer,” says he, “is like a flame. It burns away the dead
wood of accepted works and shines forth in original images. The style of
language, which belongs to him or her, is the expression of the total
personality, projected to a vision beyond the routine experience”. Thus, Anand
approved of the writer’s fondness of word coinage. He admires James Joyce’s
technique of world-coinage as employed in Ulysses and other books because he
does so for the sake of conveying his vision as effectively and artistically as
possible. Anand himself employs Joyce’s device of word-coinage in his novels,
especially in Untouchable.
Anand
is averse to the artificiality of prose style. The purpose of writing is to communicate,
and hence the writer should write in simple, natural, direct and honest prose.
He should follow Gandhiji’s advice to write simply and directly without using
tricks. Anand eulogizes the inartificial and felt prose style of the novels of
the first few Indian-English writers, of Sri Aurobindo’s letters, of
Vivekananda’s lectures and of Nehru’s Autobiography. However, in great works
the style has a soaring and poetic tendency. He describes it by the metaphor of
pigeon. In this kind of prose style, “the words soar in the imagination like
pigeons in flight, shrill when they are frightened, nervous and sensitive,
often soft and soothing, somewhat heavy-footed, but always compelled by the
love of flight”.
Comments