Two Days Webinar-Cosmopolitan Turn: Identıty and Literature

Moderator: 

Professor miriam cooke 

Duke University, USA

Dr. cooke is Braxton Craven Professor of Arab Cultures at Duke University. Her research concerns Middle Eastern and Arab world studies. She focuses on modern Arabic literature and critical reassessment of women’s roles in the public sphere. She was educated in the United Kingdom and is co-editor of the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies.

Speakers:

Fathima M

Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

Dr. Fathima M has recently received her Ph.D. from the Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She was a Fulbright scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, the USA, in 2017-18. She was also a visiting Ph.D. scholar at the University of Tubingen, Germany, in 2017.
Topic: Identıty, Religion And Cosmopolitan Spirit: Reading The Fiction Of Kamila Shamsie By Fathima M, 02-04-2022
Abstract:
Shamsie’s fiction weaves in the intersection of ‘old’ and ‘new’ world order that marks a shift from the previously held perceptions about home, nation and borders. The birth of India and Pakistan in 1947, as fictionalized by Shamsie in her 2009 novel Burnt Shadows, challenges the existing mainstream notions of home and identity. The cosmopolitan element in the novel negates the two-nation theory that equates the idea of nation with homogenization. By using the idea of cosmopolitan space that defies restricted and constricted notions of a unified identity (national, cultural, and religious), this paper examines how Shamsie’s work paves way for many definitions of home, cosmopolitanism, and the arbitrariness of nation and nationhood.

Sharonee Dasgupta

University of Massachusetts, Amherst USA

Sharonee Dasgupta is a second year PhD student in the department of Anthropology at University of Massachusetts Amherst. She completed her MPhil in Comparative Indian Literature from the University of Delhi. Prior to joining UMass, she was with the Centre for Policy Research in Delhi. She has also worked with several NGOS in Delhi/ Bangalore. Her interests include community- based research, cities, spaces, ethnographic research, mapping, anthropology of development, and migration.
Topic: Identıty & Cosmopolıtan Turn: Dalit Resistance in Malapalli By Sharonee Dasgupta, 03-04-2022
Abstract:

The study primarily investigates Malapalli- The Triumph of Sanga and studies the significance of caste in a village of Andhra Pradesh. The novel is a social documentation and a discourse on Indian reality. The work has tried to bring forth the idea that novel as a statement is a narrative on a nation. The novel was written by Unnava Lakshminarayan in 1922 in Telugu titled as, “Sangavijayam against the nationalist backdrop. The study is an attempt to understand and explain the Indian reality based on untouchability and caste discrimination. Many Indian novels have silenced the issues of caste, but this novel opens the gate of discussion and critically evaluate the Indian reality. The literary work written in regional languages emerged as a voice of the common people and critiques the notion of identity. K.S Singh’s Anthropological Survey also helps in understanding the social structure and classification of Indian society with reference to People of Andhra Pradesh. The objective of the proposed research will be to understand the power/hierarchical structure in Indian society. The study is also aimed to understand various portrayal and depiction of conflicts, contradictions, and negotiation within a community and with other communities.

Date & Time:
Apr 2 and 3, 2022 05:30 PM Istanbul, 03:30 PM London, Uk 10:30 AM New York Time, or 8:00 PM India Time
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83695639039?pwd=OFZuTkxyaUVPOXp0T2RveHJiOEFndz09 Meeting ID: 836 9563 9039 Passcode: 606798