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Nemesis (Momen play)

play written by Nurul Momen

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 11, 2026
Entity authorityQ6991118 ↗
Source-derived summary

Nemesis (Bengali: নেমেসিস) is a play written by Natyaguru Nurul Momen, considered one of the most successful experimental plays in Bengali theatre. It is a play with only one character, written in 1944 and published in the acclaimed literary journal Shonibarer Chithi in 1945 and as a book in 1948. Nemesis, a tragedy, set a milestone in the history of Bengali literature because of its unique feature and modern plot. National professor of Bangladesh Kabir Chowdhury explains, "Nemesis is his (Nurul Momen's) most famous work. It is an experimental drama where through dialogues the main and only character remembers his past. It shows how a promising personality falls prey to greed and loses his morality. Though it is a play based on one actor, the scope of the plot is wide and a number of other characters come in through the main character's reminiscences."

It was also the first experimental Bengali play, as Nemesis contains only one character. This experiment was done earlier than Nurul Momen only by Eugene O'Neill and Jean Cocteau in the entire history of world theater.

The Fourth Unity

In 1944, the Bengal playwright Natyaguru Nurul Momen, introduced the fourth unity in Nemesis. In this one-character play (monodrama), Nurul Momen immaculately maintained all the three Aristotelian unities of classical Greek theatre, and added a fourth unity.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Nemesis (Momen play)” as play written by Nurul Momen. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1944, 1945, 1948—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1948. The account is most persuasive where Nemesis, Momen and play can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as play written by Nurul Momen. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6991118. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1944, 1945 and 1948.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

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  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Nemesis (Momen play)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Nemesis (Momen play) primary sources, Nemesis (Momen play) archive and Nemesis research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Nemesis (Momen play)”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Nemesis (Momen play)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.