Gitanjali eBook

Nobel Prize in Literature 1913

Rabindranath Tagore, an Indian composer, painter, and writer of Bengali and English expression, born in 1861 and deceased in 1941, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. As a writer, he introduced new forms of prose and verse into Bengali literature. Simultaneously, he was a spiritual teacher, a social reformer, and an important polemicist, attempting to promote an ideal of culture and tolerance based on Hindu tradition. Advocating that education was the foundation of all society, in 1901 he founded an experimental school in Shantiniketan that would later become a university combining Hindu and Western traditions.
Throughout his life he fought for a project of international cooperation, holding numerous conferences in various countries. His body of work is quite varied: lyrical compositions Manasi (1890), Sonar Tari (1894), Chitra (1892), Gitanjli (1910), novels Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916) Yoga (1929), short stories, essays, dramatic works Raja (1910), Dakghar (1912) and autobiographies. Tagore was above all a poet whose compositions expressed mysticism and patriotism, as in GitanjaliThe symbolic imagery and a refined, lyrical poetic tone stand out.
In addition to the Nobel Prize in Literature, he was awarded the title of Knight of the British Empire (1915), which he renounced as a form of protest against British repression in India.

Rabindranath Tagore. In Infopédia [Online]. Porto: Porto Editora, 2003-2011.