North India

Postcolonial Print Cultures Conference: “How do we stop being somebody else’s image?”

By |2019-04-12T14:15:03+01:00February 20th, 2019|Categories: Literary Criticism, North India, Podcast|Tags: , , , , , , , |

Laetitia Zecchini discusses the politics of literary translation and publication, particularly surrounding the journal Quest funded by the International Council for Cultural Freedom, itself backed by the CIA. She examined the editor Nissim Ezekiel’s own positions and motivations, noting that for him Quest’s purpose was the create the conditions in which the magazine would provide the freedom to debate, argue, and hold different theoretical positions, creating a space of cultural independence which could in turn realise political independence.

Postcolonial Print Cultures Conference: Hindi literary activism in the 1950s

By |2019-04-12T14:15:40+01:00February 14th, 2019|Categories: Journals, Literary Criticism, North India, Podcast, Popular and Pulp Fiction|Tags: |

Professor Francesca Orsini (SOAS), examines the production and re-production of short stories in Hindi literary magazines in the 1950s, offering a case study of the Hindi magazine Kahani (Short Story, 1954). She argues that world literature can only be envisioned and produced through local views, rather than under one overarching banner of what constitutes “world literature.” Her talk highlights the medium of the magazine as a site of non-state literary activism that placed readers and young writers at the center, the preference for the story as opposed to the novel, and the multilingual knowledge that animated reading practices, even when publication occurred in a single language (Hindi).

What’s in a Name? On Afghanistan’s Fraught Persian Language Politics

By |2019-12-04T11:32:00+01:00January 7th, 2019|Categories: Digital Humanities and Archiving, North India, North India Readings, Reading, Translations|Tags: , , , , , , , , |

Ronah Baha discusses the politics of the BBC's decision to name their BBC Afghanistan page 'BBC Dari', focusing on the rich diversity of Persian literary and civilisational linguistic histories.

Sultana’s Dream: An alternative view of colonial Bengal.

By |2019-12-04T11:32:37+01:00September 25th, 2018|Categories: Gender and Queer Studies, Genre, North India, North India Readings, Reading|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Sinjini Chatterjee discusses the portrayal of a female utopia in Rokeya Hossain's Engish language short story, "Sultana's Dream".

Mysteries of the Indian Jungle – Emilio Salgari’s Orientalist adventures

By |2019-12-04T11:33:10+01:00September 12th, 2018|Categories: Education and Taste, North India, North India Readings, Reading|Tags: , , , , , |

No Italian writer has left a deeper and more lasting imprint over Italian readers of a certain exotic image of India than Emilio Salgari (1862-1922). His adventure books spanning four continents rank among the classics of adventure/children’s literature. Indeed, were popularity alone determined membership to world literature, Salgari would count as the foremost Italian writer in the world.

A Textbook Example: How English schools shape views of Hindi Literature

By |2019-04-12T14:22:09+01:00September 6th, 2018|Categories: Education and Taste, North India, Reading|Tags: , , , , , , |

Shonali Jindal investigates whether a fundamental difference exists in the treatment of Hindi and English Literature in English-medium textbooks in contemporary India.

Re-cognising Constructions of Violent ‘Truths’ in Seno Gumiro Ajidarma’s “The Incident”

By |2018-08-23T09:41:22+01:00August 23rd, 2018|Categories: North India, Reading|Tags: , , , , , , |

Christie Cheng explores the constructions and re-constructions of violent truths in Seno Gumiro Ajidarma's short stories.

Gender and Criminality in Bangla Crime Narratives: Late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries

By |2019-12-04T11:33:37+01:00July 31st, 2018|Categories: Gender and Queer Studies, Genre, North India, North India Readings, Reading|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Gender and Criminality in Bangla Crime Narratives: Late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries examines Bangla writings related to crime in the late 19th and early 20th century Bengal in terms of gender.

Re-imagining Histories through Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War (Raghu Karnad)

By |2019-12-04T11:34:26+01:00July 25th, 2018|Categories: Education and Taste, Literary Criticism, North India, North India Readings, Reading, Themes|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Are nations created by their histories? Raghu Karnad's book 'Farthest Field' problematizes British and Indian memorialisations of WWII.

Writing Rumi in Whitman’s Image: On Coleman Barks, and the Appropriation of Rumi’s Poetry

By |2019-12-04T12:05:05+01:00July 18th, 2018|Categories: North India, North India Readings, Poetry, Reading|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , |

Barks looks to create a rendition of Rumi that is intelligible to him. This endeavor manifests as a form of Orientalism, however subtle: it is Barks’ project to create Rumi and Rumi's poetry in his own image.

Go to Top