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Literary Review
A Shakespeare veteran
WHEN M.Phil. and Ph.D. scholars propose Shakespeare or a traditional writer as subject for thesis/ dissertation, they are advised by their supervisors to choose contemporary or recent writers. Generally, topics based on traditional authors are not preferred for research purposes. At a time when the place of Shakespeare is marginal or minimal on the syllabus in many Indian universities, it is of interest (it may even sound odd) to know that there are scholars here who are absorbed in Shakespeare studies. One such scholar "ploughing the lonely furrow" is S. Viswanathan, Retired Professor of English, University of Hyderabad.
Viswanathan took his M.A. Degree in English from Presidency College, Chennai in 1958 (one of the authors of this article has known him since 1957). Till the two-year M.A. course was introduced in the late 1950s, students having done their B.A. could join the second year of the three-year Honours course and complete the P.G. course in two years. Viswanathan availed himself of this provision to obtain the Master's in English. After a brief spell of teaching in Madurai, he joined the Department of English, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. It was there that he qualified for his Ph.D. for his thesis, "The Shakespeare Play as Poem: A Critical Tradition in Perspective." The thesis was accepted by the Cambridge University Press for publication (1980). He left S.V. University to teach at the University of Hyderabad (where he held several positions) in 1977 till his retirement.
Viswanathan found a place for himself on the international map of Shakespeare studies with the publication of his paper "`Illeism with a Difference' in certain Middle Plays of Shakespeare" in Shakespeare Quarterly (1969). Even as early as 1959, as a student at Presidency College, he demonstrated his research bent of mind in his article "A Note on Matthew Arnold's Modernity" which appeared in The Presidencian. Since 1960s, he has been devoting himself rigorously and relentlessly to Shakespeare studies. Even in retirement, his ink has not turned dry. He does not have a computer nor does he depend on the Internet. With the printed page spread out before him, with pen and paper, he writers out his articles and gets them typed by one of his devoted colleagues. A look at the titles of his articles reveals not only the range and volume of his output, but also his gift for identifying areas in Shakespeare's plays which treatment in research papers. Viswanathan is a disciplined scholar who sets high standards for himself. His articles, exceeding a hundred and covering a wide ground — Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, Browning, Shelley, Eliot, Anglo-Saxon Literature and Sanskrit dramaturgy — testify to the amplitude of his mind. It is a tribute to his scholarship that he has been invited to be the General Editor of the New Orient Longman Series of Shakespeare's plays.
"Its range is enormous, for the author seems to have read nearly everything in the way of criticism and to have remembered it all" (Review of The Shakespeare Play as Poem in Shakespeare Studies). "A thoroughly competent scholar and very industrious — Mr. Viswanathan's footnotes which are numerous are worth attending to" (Encounter). "In a recent study he was paired with G. Wilson Knight justly as one of the leading proponents of the study of the Shakespeare play as a poem" (The Sewanee Review). These are but a few samples of the accolade won by Viswanathan from professional and learned journals of international standing. He was honoured with a festschrift by his colleagues at the University of Hyderabad. The UGC appointed him National Lecturer for a two-year period. He won the prestigious Commonwealth Fellowship to the University of Kent where he had the inestimable benefit of interacting with redoubtable Shakespeare scholars like Professor J. A. Foakes. He has earned entries in many International Year Books, Who's Who volumes and Directories.
Critical investigation has brought to light a voluminous mass of material on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. Shakespeare studies call for a thorough knowledge of a wide spectrum of pre-Shakespearean, Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, the Elizabethan stage and dramaturgy. Viswanathan seems to know all this as clearly as he knows his own palm. What he does not know about the Shakespeare canon and Shakespeare criticism is perhaps not worth knowing. And all this he carries lightly. "True learning begets humility," goes a Sanskrit saying. Viswanathan is unassuming to a fault and shies away from limelight, from seminars, workshops and orientation courses. Though familiar with the new-fangled critical theories and approaches, he keeps "jargon" at a comfortable distance. He believes there is enough in Shakespeare's plays to yield meaning and generate insightful interpretation. To him, "the play is the thing."
S. JAGADISAN and M. S. NAGARAJAN
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