RESISTANCE STUDIES

An early call for U. G. C. Sponsored National Seminar on Resistance Studies 23-24 August 2011 at Tiptur Karnataka

About the College: Pallagatti Adavappa First Grade College, a reputed institution of Kalpataru Vidya Samsthe, Tiptur commemorates its Golden Jubilee this year. It is one of the best and oldest colleges in Karnataka. Located 147 Kms away from Bangalore, enjoys a pleasant climate and is connected by rail and road transport.

About the Seminar: A group of Indian scholars brought this term into much popularity and made it focal point of research, investigation, critical scholarship and publication through their Subaltern Studies. The Subaltern studies published nine volumes on South Asian history and society, particularly from “subaltern perspective” during 1982-1996, hence, from then onwards this term attracts the attention of many researchers and scholars especially of social scientists and theologians. The geopolitical, economic, historical, political and social maps of the highly backward Indians of the rural and urban regions guided by their 'subaltern consciousness' make us alert to recurring famine, drought, starvation, malnutrition, disease, superstitious belief, bonded slavery, sexual exploitation and humiliation as the by-product of elite society.
Papers are invited for presentation from researchers and teachers on the following areas and related topics ( but not limited to ):
· Discrimination by Caste/ Class/Gender
· Historiography of India
· Comparative subaltern movements and cults across the globe
· Distribution of Power and Wealth
· Role of physical coercion of the state
· Ideology of nationalism and class
· Double colonization of women

Travel allowance:
II class sleeper train fare in the shortest route will be provided only for the first twenty Paper Presenters on furnishing tickets.

Abstract
The abstract in softcopy not exceeding 250 words, with title and author’s name as it should appear in certificate, typed in Times New Roman on A4 size, in MS-Word Format, double line spacing should be submitted as an attachment only through e-mail on or before 10th April 2011, to:

pacseminar2011@gmail.com
for more details:
udayaravi.shastry@gmail.com

Confirmed Plenary Speakers
Dr. H S Shivaprakash JNU New Delhi Dr. Suneetha Rani Hyderabad Univ. A.P Dr. Muraleedharan Calicut Univ. Kerala Dr. Sundara Raj K, Nizwa Univ, Oman Dr. Ghanashyam G A, Central Univ ChattsG

Call for an Anthology on Women's Theater

Gender, Space and Resistance: Women’s Theatre in India

Theme

Theatre in India has a long tradition. Women have performed roles that have ranged from playwright to direction and acting, to criticism, research and organization. There is extensive material to show the presence of women in all these areas.

This proposed anthology furthers research undertaken to explore women's presence in and their contribution to theatre in the recorded history and provide a platform to raise, discuss and debate, to the minutest details, issues connected with theatre—from aesthetics and techniques of the theatre to the political, social and moral values of the women involved in theatre. From the study of the available material it is seen that the actual contribution of women to theatre is marginalized in the otherwise comprehensive analysis of the theatre Thus an important component of women's cultural tradition is missing.

1960’s threw up new spaces for reconceptualizing and negotiating questions of women’s agency and identity. Aurat was street plays produced by Janamor Jan Natya Manch (People’s Theatre) of India, (This play has had more than 2,500 performances, and has been translated into almost all Indian languages). It challenged bourgeois notions of womanhood and articulated a politics that explicitly connected gender, class, and sexuality with home, factory, and fields, on the one hand, and with revolutionary change, on the other. Flood gates for women centric plays were flung open .Much of the plays that surfaced were based on Brechtian poetics, in which the spectator delegates power to the character to act in her place but the spectator reserves the right to think for [herself] often in opposition to the character. In contrast to Aristotelian poetics, wherein a passive spectator experiences a catharsis at the end of the dramatic action, the Brechtian spectator achieves a more activist, unsettling, “critical awareness” of societal issues. New generation of theatre practitioners were sculpting a new dramaturgy, creating an audience that does not demand to be delighted but content to engage with dialectics. The ultimate objective of this theatre was the creation of a more just society.

Topics

Original and unpublished papers are invited on the following topics and we also welcome suggestion for inclusion of other relevant topics as well:

1. Trends in feminist theatre

2. Theorizing feminist theatre

3. Themes/concerns of feminist drama

4. Discussion of particular texts/productions/performances

5. Focus on major dramatist, director, dramaturge, performers, and technicians on stage

6. Pedagogical implications of feminist theatre

7. New directions in the 21st century

MS Guide:

Style: MLA

Text: Heading 1—Ariel 16 bold, Heading 2—Ariel 14 bold, Body Ariel 12 normal, double spaced, Letter

Images/illustrations, if any: copyright free images in JPEG format between 800-1024 pixels on the longest side

Word-limit: minimum 3000 words and maximum 5000 words.

Submission:

Please send an abstract of about 150-200 words explaining your proposal by February 28. If selected, final articles should be submitted by 30th April 2011.

Contact

Anita Singh

Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Banaras Hindu University

Varanasi 221005, India. Email: anitasinghh@gmail.com

Tarun Tapas Mukherjee

Assistant Professor & Head, Department of English, Bhatter College, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India. E-mail: ttm1974@gmail.com

A good discussion today at Churchgate SNDT. It was a gathering of around 15 English Teachers from degree colleges and Post-graduate Departments.

Two papers were read and discussed in an exciting fashion. The first paper was presented by Ms Putul (i hope i am getting the name correct). She spoke about the two Dalit Autobiographies from the Marathi language which have been translated into English: Urmila Pawar's The Weave Of My Life: A Dalit Woman's Memoirs translated by Maya Pandit Publisher: Columbia University Press(June 2009) and Baby Kamble's The Prisons We Broke: The Autobiography of a Community, Baby Kamble, Orient Longman, 2008, p.178.

Foregrounding her paper Putul raised many an issues including but not limited to the issues of translations, Dalit Writing & Dalit Conciousness, The discourse of victimization and Victim hood

and laid out a rich thought provoking analysis. The discussions saw many a points including the point of Literary Historiographies, the exclusion of Dalit writing from the canon and our own very standardized expectations from texts that we read. That's the reason perhaps Dalit Writings want to shock the reader and come out as shocking. Another interesting point was about the welfare state response and the debate of how Dalit's have been politicized and the tribals have not been politicized in a similar manner- in terms of reservations and the benefit to be had..

This of course is not all that happened: there was lot more in the paper and the discussion. Please comment on this- Put in all your opinions... That's why this blog is there. The other paper Sujit Chandak talking on Marwari identity in India as seen through a Marathi novel. Let's discuss the above paper first and next week i will write a post on the Marwari Identity in the Margins paper... Pl. put in all your comments...SHOOT. . .