The Anxieties of Orientalism: India and the Diaspora – One credit course open for students and public by Professor Vrinda Nabar, Kavivarya Bakibaab Borkar Chair in Comparative Literature from 24th September to 03rd October, 2019
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The Anxieties of Orientalism: India and the Diaspora – One credit course open for students and public by Professor Vrinda Nabar, Kavivarya Bakibaab Borkar Chair in Comparative Literature from 24th September to 03rd October, 2019
Goa University
VRPP
Kavivarya Bakibaab Borkar Chair in Comparative Literature
&
Department of English
Offers
One credit course for PG Students
The Anxieties of Orientalism: India and the Diaspora
From 24th September to 03rd October, 2019
by
Professor Vrinda Nabar,
Kavivarya Bakibaab Borkar Visiting Research Professor
and Chair in Comparative Literature,
Goa University
Venue- Conference Hall, Goa University.
CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE REGISTRATION
Class schedule & screening schedule:
Schedule:
Tuesday, 24 September, 2:30-4:00 p.m.: Introduction: Examining Concepts;
Wednesday, 25 September, 2:30-5:00 p.m.: Screening, followed by discussion;
Thursday 26 September, 2:30-5:00 p.m.: Screening, followed by discussion;
Monday, 30 September, 2:30-4:00 p.m.: Palace of Illusions, “Draupadi”;
Tuesday, 1 October, 2:30-4:00 p.m.: Desirable Daughters, “Rites of Passage”,
wrapping up;
Thursday, 3 October, 2:30-3:30 p.m.: Examination/Class written test (20 Marks)
3:45-5:00 p.m.: Oral responses (5 Marks)
Saturday, 5 October: Handing over of graded papers.
CLICK HERE FOR ONLINE REGISTRATION
Enrollment Limit- Only 25 students will be selected to offer this as a credit course. However, other students and general public will be permitted to attend the course and certificate will be awarded for attending all the sessions.
Dr. Anjali Chaubey, Dr.Nandakumar Mekoth
Course Coordinator Director, VRPP
Syllabus:
This course would connect with some of the earlier ones (“The Gender of Literatures and the Literatures of Gender”; “Imagining Women: Representations in Literature and Cinema”). It would carry forward some of the ground covered in these, but move beyond their focus on gender and women to offer a more holistic perspective.
We would look at concepts like Orientalism, neo-Orientalism/re-Orientalism, Colonial, and Postcolonial. Students would be introduced to the more recent debates on these themes and some of their key concerns. They would be encouraged to understand the problematics of how “Orientalism” (or neo-Orientalism/re-Orientalism) function in the present world by studying select Diaspora writing alongside writing from India (in English and in English translation).
Our study would also include representations in Indian and Diaspora cinema. We would look at ways in which positionality within the unequal First/Third World dialectic could colour representations and promote “othering” to which even those so “othered” may be insensitive.
In a globalized world where the playing field is unfortunately far from level, the course would provide a comparative framework and offer students insights into ways of re-examining their own understanding of the politics of literary and cinema discourse.
A tentative list of the syllabus content would include: Edward Said: Orientalism; Ania Loomba: Colonialism-Postcolonialism; Om Dwivedi and Lisa Lau, eds, Indian Writing in English and the Global Literary Market; Chris Tiffin and Alan Lawson, eds.: De-Scribing Empire: Post-colonialism and textuality; selections from among the work of Bharati Mukherjee, Chitra Banerji Divakaruni, Jhumpa Lahiri, Mahasweta Devi, and Bulbul Sharma.
Enrollment Prerequisites: All those who register are expected to be interested in the overall theme, and to offer cogent responses during class discussions. Students who enroll for credit should note that 5 Marks would be deducted for unauthorised absences and for failure to adhere to the prescribed syllabus. While they would be encouraged to offer original critical responses, their references should be drawn from the prescribed readings and screenings.
Grading: 20 Marks would be reserved for the final written assignment and 5 for the final oral responses.
Vrinda Nabar
Recommended Readings:
Edward Said: Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient (Introduction);
Ania Loomba: Colonialism-Postcolonialism;
Vrinda Nabar: Writing India Right: Indian Writing in English and the Global Literary Market (in Om Dwivedi and Lisa Lau, eds, Indian Writing in English and the Global Literary Market, Palgrave Macmillan)
Chris Tiffin and Alan Lawson, eds.: De-Scribing Empire: Post-colonialism and textuality; Bharati Mukherjee, Desirable Daughters Book 1, Chapter 1;
Chitra Banerji Divakaruni, Palace of Illusions;
Mahasweta Devi, “Draupadi” (Breast Stories);
Bulbul Sharma, “Rites of Passage” (In Other Words: New Writing by Indian Women).
Bio of Professor Vrinda Nabar
Vrinda Nabar studied at the universities of Mumbai and Oxford. A former Chair of English at the University of Mumbai, she has been a Visiting Professor at Northwestern University (Illinois, USA) and at the Open University (Milton Keynes, UK), and is currently Kavivarya Bakibaab Borkar Visiting Research Professor and Chair in Comparative Literature, Visiting Research Professors Programme, Goa University.
Her teaching and research interests in Mumbai, Northwestern, the OU and Goa have focused on postcolonial issues, Indian literature in English and in English translation, India and the Diaspora, and transnational feminisms. She has also made public presentations of her work at Northwestern University, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Loyola University (Chicago), West Chester University (PA, USA), the Open University (UK), the Sahitya Akademi, Xavier Instititute of Communication, Mumbai, the Asiatic Society Mumbai, SNDT University, and various other universities and colleges in India.
In addition to academic papers and review articles, Vrinda Nabar’s published work includes: the academic bestseller Caste as Woman; the feminist memoir Family Fables & Hidden Heresies: A Memoir of Mothers and More; The Bhagavadgita (Introduction and Translation); The Endless Female Hungers: A Study of Kamala Das; and Snake-Skin and Other Poems of Indira Sant (co-translated from the Marathi). She has co-edited Postcolonial Perspectives on the Raj and Its Literature, and Mapping Cultural Spaces: Postcolonial Indian Literature in English. She has also published translations from the poetry of Bakibaab Borkar, Sadanand Rege, Narayan Surve, Mangesh Padgaonkar and Jibanananda Das.
Vrinda Nabar has freelanced extensively for Indian newspapers, radio and television since the 1970s and currently reviews regularly for The Hindustan Times. Besides customary reviews and articles, she wrote the monthly columns “Book Beat” (The Times of India), “First Person” (The Free Press Journal) and “View from My Window” (Harmony); a fortnightly column of arts and ideas for The Indian Post; and was Literary Editor (Fiction) for The Independent (Bombay). She conceptualised and compèred the monthly show “A Time For Books” for Bombay Doordarshan. She presented Marathi poets in translation, as well as a series of literary magazines, titled “Writers of Tomorrow”, for All India Radio, Bombay. For a short while she also worked as a senior Consultant in Corporate Communications with the Tata Group. She lives in Mumbai, India.
