Call for Papers
"India, the self and the other: Conflict, Dialogue and Synthesis"
9th Annual Debrupa Bal Memorial National Students’ Seminar.
Date: 3-4 February, 2017
Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University
Concept Note:
India, like any other cartographical domain, is not just a geographical space but a historical and ideological construction in itself. A myriad cultural(social, religious, political and economic) presences exert cardinal influences in the congregation of India or the ‘Indian self’. These diversified presences also make it difficult to claim a pure, unadulterated, homogenous 'Indian' identity. The colonial onslaught also had a profound impact on the said identity.
This seminar will address both the exclusionary as well as the inclusionary dialectics with respect to the construction of Indian identity/identities. It will be an enquiry into the processes, material and ideological, that construct the notion of the self, and how they create the ‘other’ addressing the dialogic of exclusion as well as assimilation. In addition to the enquiry into what is the ‘other’ as opposed to or emanated from the 'self' – the imagination of 'India' by the ‘other’ and the ‘other’ by that of 'India' is significant, since the imagining apparatus is often moulded by perspectives emerging from living imbrications in different locations. The multi-ethnic fabric of India has the self-other dynamics playing within its geographic boundary as well populated by differentially discerned nexuses of ‘otherization’. Keeping in mind a wide gamut of literary/artistic/cultural productions that articulate the conflict, dialogue, and synthesis of the self-other dynamics in pertinence to India, this conference invites papers addressing, but not necessarily restricting, themselves to the following sub-themes:
• India as envisaged by the West and vice versa
• Orientalism and response
• Diasporic texts
• Travel writing in, about, and beyond, India
• The multi-ethnic Indian fabric
• Urban-rural interface
• Classic , canon and transgression
• Gender, class and race
• Popular media
• Indigenous productions
Abstracts clearly mentioning the the title of the paper, name, designation and contact details of the author(s) and not exceeding 300 words are to be submitted by 21st December, 2016 to dbms.ju17@gmail.com
Acceptance of abstracts will be notified by 10th January, 2017.
Full papers need to be submitted by 26th January, 2017.
For further enquiry, contact:
Parthasarathi Bhaumik (bhaumikps@gmail.com)
Krishnendu Pal (krishnendupopopal@gmail.com)
