Decoding Professor Shonku: Reflections on Ray’s use of Distance, East-West Binary in Narrating the Tales of Crime, Punishment and Justice

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Author (s): Rajarshi Mukherjee, Koyel Dasgupta

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Abstract: Satyajit Ray’s Professor Shonku tales have been most conveniently categorized under ‘Children’s Literature’. Irrespective of this, the tales have received extensive appreciation from readers of every age group. In this paper, we shall focus on how Ray uses ‘distance’ and ‘East-West’ binary contribute in formulating these tales which can be acknowledged as those of crime, punishment and justice. We shall consider four tales for analysis- “Professor Shonku o Ashchorjo Putul” (“Professor Shonku and Astonishing Dolls”), “Professor Shonku o Roktomatshya Rahashya” (“Professor Shonku and the Mystery of the Blood colored Fishes), “Shonku o Frankenstein” (“Shonku and Frankenstein”) and “Swarnaparnee” (“Golden Herb”).

Keywords: Crime, Punishment and Justice

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Article Info: Received: 19 Sep 2022, Received in revised form: 13 Oct 2022, Accepted: 22 Oct 2022, Available online: 30 Oct 2022

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