Tag: India
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Imitation to Independence: Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and the Legacy of Rajmohan’s Wife
“The earlier Bankim was only a poet and stylist, the later Bankim was a seer and nation-builder.” – Sri Aurobindo Last year, I talked a little about early Indian literature in English through the work of Toru Dutt, India’s first published woman writer in the language. But Dutt was not the first Indian novelist to…
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Day Tripping at the Met, Part 3: A Little Bit of Everything Else
Okay, folks we’ve made it to the third and final entry in my Met roundup, where I try to wrap up everything else that I saw after I escaped the first floor of the museum (and try not to think about all of the stuff I didn’t have time to see). A truly impossible task,…
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Different Worlds, Different Tongues: The Life and Works of Toru Dutt
One of the required classes for my English Literature BA at the University of Pittsburgh was one called “World Literature in English,” presumably an attempt by the program to make sure its graduates were exposed to at least a handful of writers who weren’t white at the end of four years of reading. Rather than…
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Archetype and Innovation: The Little Clay Cart and Classical Indian Theatre
“The rapacious greed of prostitutes robbed you of everything. No age has heard of a prostitute wanting to have compassion on another or to spare the passions which in a certain way they are able to consume.” – Fulco of Deuil to Peter Abelard (12th century CE) “Such a woman, the jewel of our city,…
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Sita Speaks: Chandrabati’s Ramayan and the Many Voices of Indian Storytelling
If I start telling the story of my misfortunes/ A blazing fire is ignited somewhere – Sita in Chandrabati’s Ramayan Sing his love, sing his praise/ Rama set his wife ablaze./ Got her home, kicked her out/ To allay his people’s doubt. — Sita Sings the Blues Since I’ve finally tired myself of dragging you all around…
Sarah Holz 