ABSTRACT

This Paper is an attempt to explore how the dynamics of history impacted the Nineteenth Century literary world of Assamese and British Literature specifically focussing on Padmanath Gohain Boruah’s novel LAHORI and Thomas Hardy’s FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD. Nineteenth century was the budding phase of Assamese Novel and it was a flourishing moment for British Novel. In the evolution of Assamese novel Padmanath Gohain Boruah’s contribution is immense. So, here the Assamese novelist Padmanath Gohain Boruah’s novel LAHORI is taken into account. On the other hand, Thomas Hardy was a foremost regional novelist of the nineteenth century England. On an apparent level both the novelists do not chime in with an absolutely different literary, topographical and cultural background behind them. Moreover, at the time of Gohain Boruah’s appearance on the literary scene of Assam, novel was in its infancy. But for English novel it was a flourishing moment. Thomas Hardy wrote fourteen novels and Padmanath Gohain Boruah’s were two---Bhanumoti and Lahori. Both the novels of Gohain Boruah are based on the background of Ahom days, portraying some vivid historical moments imbibing in contemporary social ambience though not a historical novel as such in the real sense of the term. On the contrary Hardy’s novels are set in the Wessex and depict the moment of a fast changing world in an age of technological development. Affinity between the two novelists is that both of them belong to the same age i.e. the nineteenth century and their creations express the universal appeal of love. Here in this paper, an effort would be made to conduct a comparative analysis of Gohain Boruah’s novel Lahori and Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. So, this paper is inspired by the intention of shedding light how history plays an important role in shaping literary creation thereby creating a literary history. Thus with a view to creating a history with an objective eye, the less trodden world of Assamese novel at the very initial stage of its genealogy through the comparison of Gohain Boruah’s novel with Hardy’s work highlighting the basic thrust of comparative literature are to be considered here.

Key words: Dynamics, History, Comparative, Novel.