National Seminar on “Reading Indias”

Department of English of Christ University 

Is organizing a National Seminar on “Reading Indias” on

20 - 21 of February 2012 

Christ University, Hosur Road, Bangalore.

The Programme will be a platform to understand the working of the social and cultural imaginations of india from multiple perspectives to redefine their productive roles in the construction of the ‘Nation’. It not only encompasses the field of literature but also that of historical philosophy, cultural studies and mass media, and allows the participants to enter into the ‘hybridised’ world with a fresh, analytical and comprehensive approach to read the ‘Indias’ in as many genres. Ben Okri preferred to call it ‘literature of the newly ascendant spirit’ and it is this spirit that is the focus of this seminar. The conference hopes to capture points of convergence and divergence, exploring these matrices.

Through discussions and paper presentations this conference aspires to read the myriad images and visions of India. Papers are invited in the areas of film, drama, music and literature that address these notions. Issues could be about or of India, texts (in the Barthesian sense) by Indians and/or others.

Polyphonic voices of and about “Indias”, the role and function of social and cultural imagination and imaginings,  the  scope  and  history  of  the  Indian subcontinent necessitates a discursive reading. A greater awareness of indigenous communities, first nations and their cultural productions has burgeoned in recent decades. This seminar will negotiate the relations between the past and the present, the canonical and the non-canonical and the national and the trans-national. We endeavour to understand the working of these social and cultural imaginations from multiple perspectives to redefine their productive roles in the construction of the ‘Nation’. It not only encompasses the field of literature but also that of historical philosophy, cultural studies and mass media, and allows the participants to enter into the ‘hybridised’ world with a fresh, analytical and comprehensive approach to read the ‘Indias’ in as many genres. Ben Okri preferred to call it ‘literature of the newly ascendant spirit’ and it is this spirit that is the focus of this seminar. This seminar hopes to capture points of convergence and divergence, exploring these  matrices. 

Your Participation: Through discussions and paper presentations this seminar aspires to  ?read the myriad images and visions of India. 

• Papers are invited in the areas of film, drama, music and literature that address these notions. Issues could be about or of India, texts (in the Barthesian sense) by Indians and  ?others. 
• Students and faculty alike may present, however there will be no awards for faculty.  
• Apart from papers, we also invite you to showcase any presentation or project that you have worked on relevant to our theme. We will accommodate it, as per time schedules  ?and suitability. 
• Please  mail  your  abstracts  (300  words)  by  15th  December  2011  to readingindias AT eng.christuniversity.in.  In  the  subject  line  please  mention  “Seminar 2012”.