Academic studies of Science Fiction as a genre go back at least 45 years, to Suvin (1979). Yet Suvin, Jameson (2005) or Bould and Mieville (2009) all focus mostly on English language SF from primarily the Anglo-American world. Even when horizons have extended, it has happened through English language, predictably following the Damrosch model of world Literature whereby the English translation is privileged. African SF has seen the English texts foregrounded, and in Indian SF, it is the Indian English SF, whether Samit Basu’s Gameworld Trilogy or Rimi Barnali Chatterjee’s Antisense Universe Climate Fiction which are easily found. This paper argues that extending the literary historiography of science fiction, reading science fiction as literature of the world rather than an expansion of an Anglo-American original, calls for a study of multiple literary systems, and offers a case study of Bangla SF. Going back to 19th century tales, it is possible to trace a trajectory via Hemendra Kumar Roy, Premendra Mitra, Satyajit Ray, Adrish Bardhan, Anish Deb and Muhammad Zafar Iqbal. The reception of Science Fiction in Bangla would show that tropes common to Western SF and other Western genres might often be subverted by the Bengali authors, whose earlier generations had themselves lived under colonial rule and who had deep distrust of the facile equation between technological advancement and social progress, so common to much “Golden Age” SF in the US. Using novels and short stories, it will also be the contention that unlike the Suvin definition, which puts SF at odds with realist fiction, Bangla SF could develop within the main currents of Bangla literature, especially in its earlier stages. Indeed it might be argued that Ray’s Professor Shonku presents a break in that trajectory, creating a variant that consciously looked for young readers, that delinked SF from broader streams, and that also handled science in an impoverished manner.

A literary text has to be read for the event of literature to take place, but while reading is a singular event, reception is not and cannot be. How a literary text is received by the literary system as a part of which it occurs provides a means to determine its aesthetic value in only that particular literary system, its further reception in different literary systems is independent of its original reception in its own literary system. If one chooses to formulate literary history based on reception, the “horizon of expectations” of a literary system could be seen as an appropriate tool. This paper aims to illustrate a history of literary systems using the "horizon of expectations” as a tool through Fakir Mohan Senapati’s Six Acres and a Third (1896) and O. Chandumenon’s Indulekha (1889), and thereby trace the origin of the novel in colonial India to interrogate if a geographical marker could be used to categorise literature which is supposed to be supra-national, if the literary category of the novel could possibly become Indian in its scope, or could encompass the “plurality” that characterises India. Since the two texts occur in two different literary systems, in two different geographical contexts within India, the extra-literary process of colonisation comes to impact the reception of both these novels distinctly. So, it is “imperative to locate them in the context of the histories of two differing yet related repertoires of colonial practice.” (Chanda 128).

Call for Papers (Open) by the

Standing Research Committee for the Study of Literatures and Cultures of South Asia, ICLA

‘Decolonising ‘World Literature’: Perspectives of Oratures and Literatures from South Asia’

If we look back on the evolution of the idea of ‘World Literature’ we will discover that the idealistic pronouncements by Goethe in 1823 and Rabindranath Tagore in 1908 on ‘WL’ have not been realized. The idea of ‘WL’ originated in Europe, when large parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America were being colonised by the imperial forces of European powers. The twentieth century has witnessed the emergence of these colonies into independent nations with greater awareness of their political and cultural identities. The works of those authors from Latin American, African and Asian countries who have won the Nobel prize or such prestigious awards in literature, figure in the list of canonical authors of the West. This only confirms that the idea of ‘World literature’ continues to be dominated by the ideology of Euro-centrism and its exclusivist approach to literary studies.

We find the world being increasingly standardised through the spread of technology, trade and migrations of people. Transnational net-works which ensure the dissemination of Western works of literatures have inbuilt filters that prevent the reception of texts and cultural goods from the global south. A noted comparatist from America, Gerald Gillespie wrote in 2017: “Now, after the year 2000, we are witnessing … the attempt to erect a new style WL movement in the present century via the hegemony of English as a world lingua franca.”

This seminar would like to address this complex situation. We need to shift our attention from ‘World Literature’ to ‘the Literatures of the World’. Papers which analyse the oral traditions of South Asia, colonial encounter and its aftermath, the contradictions and conflicts that accompany the process of decolonisation are particularly welcome. We need to study the Indian diaspora’s perceptions of the globalised world through their authors. Our larger objective is to examine how a new idea of ‘WL’ can emerge from the specific contexts of South Asian literatures and cultures.

Sub-themes: ‘World Literature’ and the South Asian Traditions of Translations,

Orality and Literacy in South Asia,Globalisation and South Asian Cultures,

Literatures of the Diaspora, Gender and Literatures in South Asia, Representation of Caste and Race in Literature

Please note that abstracts for the seminar are to be received by the date: January 10, 2025.

Abstracts should be sent to both:

E.V. Ramakrishnan: evrama51@gmail.com

Sayantan Dasgupta: sayantan.dasgupta@jadavpuruniversity.in

Muhyidhin Mala and the Imagination of ummah (community) in early 17th century Kerala.

Abstract: This paper attempts to read the 17th century text, Muhyidhin Mala and explores how identities were imagined through a hagiography. The collective imagination of ‘people’ brought forth through this text, at the centre of which faith organises the Islamic moral order, sheds light on Islam in South India in the context of a multicultural society. The language of faith, as narrated through the miracles (Karamat) of Abdul Qadir Jilani (1077-1166) may be situated within the historical context of Bhakthi in 17th century Kerala. But it also gives valuable hints about the ummah-the Islamic followers from the region, the kind of self-fashioning and disciplining aspired to be a follower of the religion. The reimagining and retelling of the saint’s life, distanced from the locus of its origin in Persia, also freeze temporalities, making the text important both as a site of memory and also as a contemporary experience in the socio-religious landscape. Qazi Muhammad, the author, inserts himself in the text urging the followers to listen and follow. However, the reception of the text also reveals the interconnected nature of the material in the text, since the Abdul Qadir Jilani had many textual representations in multiple performative practices of Muslim communities in South India. Muslims all over Kerala and other regions in the South continuously practised performances that praised the life of this sufi saint and the founder of the Qadiriyya order through Maulids and Ratheebs. Reading this text through aspirations that shaped the community, I argue that linguistic identity is pushed to the background as a negotiable medium, whereas the politics of faith/ piety functions as the intermediary to bring people together.