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Fourteenth National Workshop
Globalization and the Place of Literature
5-7 March 2010
Venue
Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda
The fourteenth annual national workshop of the Forum will be held during 5-7 March 2010. The venue of the Workshop is the Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda. The theme of the Workshop is: “Globalization and the Place of Literature.” The Workshop is organized around readings from texts selected by faculty; public lectures by invited scholars; and presentations by the participants. The maximum number of participants that the Workshop could accommodate is 40 across a range of disciplines.
Workshop Outline
How do we conceive of literature in our globalized world? The aim of this workshop is to ponder the consequences, for literature and for the profession of literary studies, of our increasingly interconnected world. My premise is that literature is unavoidably involved in the world we inhabit, and that it is therefore incumbent on us—writers, readers, scholars, students of literature—to try to understand this involvement.
Globalization may be a predominantly economic phenomenon, but it is clearly also a cultural and political one. Regardless of how one parses the term, globalization, as Susie O’Brien and Imre Szeman aptly put it, “can only be grasped through its realization in a variety of narrative forms.” In this sense, the narratives of globalization compete with, and inflect, other narratives. The scope and shape of these narrative forms range from the national investment in globalization to the invocation of individual and minoritarian voices.
One oft-cited observation about globalization (which is, incidentally, a neutral term) is that although it is not a new development, it has in recent years become a noticeably prominent part of daily conversation. Economies are so intricately synchronized as to produce weird “disjunctions,” to use Arjun Appadurai’s term, as is evident in the current U.S.-China waltz. On one hand, this has resulted in an increasing duplication of logos and services, or what has been called the “McDonaldization” of capital (or, even less admiringly, “coca-colanization”). On the other hand, many countries, particularly democracies like India, have benefitted from globalization in specific ways. Although globalization has plenty of critics, it seems to me there is no denying the salutary corrective to a formerly unipolar world, or, before that, to the reductive outcomes of the Cold War.
Conversely, the Internet, a vital mode of globalized publication, has seemingly enhanced, not diminished, the diversity of voices. It is telling that the first targets of repressive regimes, such as Iran’s or China’s, are often artists and intellectuals, whose cultural and populist capital increase in direct proportion to governmental efforts to silence them (as witness, for example, the fate of Nigerian playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa in the 1990s).
A key question that hovers behind all such considerations, then, is whether the apparent costs of globalization—the power of corporations, the ubiquity of “sameness”—are balanced by apparent benefits—more democratized modes of communication, a more multipolar world. I say “apparent” because these points are, of course, open to debate. Equally important in this regard, particularly in our acutely virtual age, is the popular perception of globalizing forces. Just as Franz Kafka, Albert Camus and Günter Grass focus our attention on very real repercussions of human perception, so do other writers—Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, Ryszard Kapuscinksi—explore such perceptive realities in the global sphere.
This is obviously a large topic. Broadly, we can think of literature in the following ways: how literary texts depict globalizing changes; how globalizing changes, including market forces, shape literature, both in form and content; the rather eclectic variety of readings for this workshop will, I hope, help us address such questions more effectively. To facilitate our discussion, I propose that we focus on just a few topics in this regard, namely migration (including itinerant labour), class division and class representation, the place of women, and group identity (particularly mixed identities). Some of the questions I hope we can engage are:
If we indeed live in an increasingly globalized world, how is this world reflected in, or refracted through, literary works? Are form, style, and content in any way affected by a world of increasingly entwined cultures? How and why does the image of home recur so often in recent novels and poems? What does this say about homelessness or homesickness in a broader sense? What is the relation of exile to the image of home, and to the prominent issue of migrancy? What is the relationship between modernity, as traditionally understood, and globalization, and what changes do we see reflected in recent literary works? Is literary taste affected by globalization? If so, how? If not, why not? Has globalization in any way shaped literary representations of gender? of class? How have concepts of nation changed, if at all? How have our perceptions of space and time changed, according to specific writers? What is the relationship between our present age of economic determinism (if indeed this is the case) and past eras, in terms of literary representations? Have concepts of individual and group identity changed? How do particular works of literature depict, or explore, such concepts as tradition and authenticity? or, conversely, hybridity and biculturalism? What are some effects on literacy, book production, and scholarship in our media-saturated age? Do globalized media markets determine what is published, and where? In what ways do postcolonialism, postmodernism and globalization inflect one another? Finally, what are the stakes for both literary texts and the profession of literary studies?
Besides a number of critical voices, including Arjun Appadurai, Fredric Jameson, Simon Gikandi, and Susie O’Brien & Imre Szeman, writers we might discuss include Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Salman Rushdie, Amitav Ghosh, Kiran Desai, Arundhati Roy, Aravind Adiga, Joseph O’Neill, and Tsitsi Damgarembga.
Faculty
Alan G. Johnson is an Associate Professor of English at Idaho State University, USA, currently teaching on a Fulbright grant at the University of Mumbai. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Riverside. Author of Out of Bounds: Anglo-Indian Literature and the Geography of Displacement (2010), he has taught courses in areas such as postcolonial literature, comparative literature, and literary theory and criticism. His articles have appeared in such journals as Journal of Commonwealth Literature; Nineteenth Century Contexts; Yale Journal of Criticism; and Rendezvous: Journal of Arts and Letters.
D. Venkat Rao is Professor of English at the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. He did his postgraduate work at Kakatiya University, Warangal, and doctoral research from University of Kent at Canterbury, UK. He did postdoctoral researches at University of Chicago, University of California, Berkeley, and University of Washington, Seattle. His most recent publication is a translation of Ashis Nandy’s The Intimate Enemy (as Priya Shatruvu, 2009) into Telugu. Earlier he has translated a Telugu intellectual autobiography called The Last Brahmin into English (2007). He has a full-length work on literary-cultural criticism in Telugu titled, Samskritika Chanakyalu (2005). His areas of interest include literary and cultural studies, hypermedia, image studies, comparative thought, art theory and mnemocultures. He has designed several courses interfacing areas of culture, technology and literary and cultural studies.
Registration Fee
Each participant is required to pay a registration fee of Rs. 800/- (Rupees eight hundred only) through a bank draft payable to the Forum on Contemporary Theory in Baroda. However, local scholars may pay cash at the Centre’s office. The fee will take care of the cost of reading material, lunch during the workshop and tea. The participants have to make their own travel arrangements. Accommodation for the participants can be arranged at a nearby hotel on request. The tariff for each room (with two beds) is approximately Rs. 400/- (Rupees four hundred only) per day.
Deadline for Application
The last date for receiving application for participation is: February 5. The application may be sent to the Director, Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda. Selection for participation will be made by February 10. Selected candidate are required to send the bank draft favoring Forum on Contemporary Theory by February 25. Course material will be mailed only after receiving the registration fee. The fee is non-refundable.
Application Format
The following format should be used for sending applications for participation in the Workshop.
Name
Address (including telephone number and email ID)
Institutional Affiliation
Date of Birth
Department
Teaching Experience (including the number of years only)
Academic Qualifications
Areas of Research and Teaching
Publication, if any
Specific Research Topic, if any
Whether Registered for a Research Degree?
A Brief Statement of about 150 words about what you expect from the workshop
Names and Addresses of Two Referees
Signature
Date
Address for Correspondence
Prafulla C. Kar
Director, Centre for Contemporary Theory
C-304 Siddhi Vinayak Complex
Behind Baroda Railway Station (Alkapuri Side)
Faramji Road, Baroda-390007
Tel: (0265) 2320870; E-mail: prafullakar@gmail.com
Website : www.fctworld.org
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
5th March 2010
9.45-10.00 am Tea/Coffee
10.00-11.00 am Inauguration
10.00-10.10 am Welcome: P. C. Kar, Director, Centre for Contemporary Theory
10.10-10.20 am Introduction to the Workshop: Alan G. Johnson
10.20-10.30 am “Critical Humanities in a Global Context”: D. Venkat Rao
10.30-12.00 pm Inaugural and Keynote Address by J. Birjepatil, “Literary Theory in the Context of Globalization with Special Reference to V. S. Naipaul’s The Mimic Men and Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland”
Discussion
12.00-12.05 pm Vote of Thanks: Mary Bachaspatimayum
12.05-1.00 pm Lecture, “Globalizing Literary Studies” by Alan G. Johnson
Discussion
1.00-2.00 pm Lunch
2.00-3.30 pm Workshop 1 (Alan G. Johnson)
3.30-3.45 pm Tea/Coffee
3.45-5.15 pm Participants’ Panel
Panelists: (a) Jamie Z. Hrahsel, (b) Babit Kumar Bihan, (c) Alan Lalthanzara, (d) Seema Malik, (e) Neeti Singh
6th March 2010
9.45-10.00 am Tea/Coffee
10.00-11.30 am Workshop 2 (Alan G. Johnson)
11.30-11.45 am Tea/Coffee
11.45-.1.00 pm Lecture, “Literary Inquiries: Crossing the Postcolonial Abyss” by D. Venkat Rao
1.00-2.00 pm Lunch
2.00-3.30 pm Workshop 2
Participants’ Panel
Panelists: (a) Kristina Z. Zama, (b) Namrata Pathak,
(c) Vaibhav Shah, (d) Mary Bachaspatimayum, (e) Angshuman Phukan
3.30-3.45 pm Tea/Coffee
3.45-5.15 pm Panel Discussion on “The Humanities in a Globalized World” (Panelists: TRS Sharma, D. Venkat Rao, Alan G. Johnson)
7th March 2010
9.45-10.00 am Tea/Coffee
10.00-11.30 am Workshop 3 (Alan G. Johnson)
11.30-11.45 am Tea/Coffee
11.45-1.00 pm Participants’ Panel
Panelists: (a) Piyush Raval, (b) Parimala Kulkarni
(c) Nandita Singh, (d) Toposhree Taraphdar, (e) Bini B.S
1.00-2.00 pm Lunch
2.00-.300 pm Workshop 3
Participants’ Panel
Panelists: (a) Soni Wadhwa, (b) Pooja Sinha, (c) Shailendra P. Singh, (d) Rajan Barrett
3.00-3.15 pm Tea/Coffee
3.15-4.30 pm Lecture, “Critical Comparisons: Rethinking the Comparative Episteme” by D. Venkat Rao
4.30-5.00 pm Valedictory and Open Session
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