Frontiers of South Asian Culture : Nation, Trans-Nation and Beyond

This book is the first of its kind to significantly concentrate on trans-nation, transnationalism and its dialogue with various nationalisms in South Asia. Taking the absence of discussion on transnationalism in South Asia as a conspicuous lacuna as well as a point of intervention, this book pushes the boundaries of scholarship further by organizing a dialogue between the nation-state and many nationalisms and the emergent method of transnationalism. It opens itself up for many cross-border movements, formulating the trans-South Asian discursive exchange necessitated by contemporary, theoretical upheavals. It looks at such exchanges through the prisms of literature and cinema and traces the many modes of engagement that exist between some of the globally dominant literary and cinematic forms, trying to locate these engagements and negotiations across three geopolitical formations and locations of culture, namely region, nation and trans-nation. Cover Endorsement Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Contributors Editors Authors Introduction Part I Nation and Its Porous Frontiers 1 The Politics of Spectatorship: Textual Traditions, Cinematograph and the Moral Dilemma of the Natives of Assam in British India (1900–1935) Introduction Assam in the Nineteenth Century Joymoti in the Buranjis English Education and the Moral Question Assam in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century: Education, Novel Writing and Cinema Cinematograph in British India Conclusion 2 Then and Now: Nation and Transnational Identity in Jyoti Prasad Agarwala’s Joymati (1935) and Jahnu Barua’s Ajeyo (2014) Joymati (Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, 1935) Ajeyo (Jahnu Barua, 2014) Notes References 3 Humour and Cinema: A Study of Language Politics in Assam Introduction Humour and Cinema Assamese Cinema: A Brief History Linguistic Identity Politics in Assam Constructing Hierarchies On-Screen: A Critical Analysis Language and Music Gendered Reading of Humorous Language Contemporary Connections Notes Bibliography 4 The Transnational City of Pondicherry: Elite Indian Identity Crisis and Cortes’ Receding French Image Transnational Identity Formation in the Eighteenth Century Identity Formation in Modern Colonial Pondicherry: Parker and Goubert Sebastian Cortes’ Pondicherry: Through the Essays of Kapur, Jafir and Bruckner Amin Jafir – The Transnational Past as Heritage Pascal Bruckner – Paradox of the Past in the Present Sebastian Cortes’ Pondicherry: Through a Critical Lens The French as Pluri-Cultural Negotiators Conclusion References 5 Cartography of Goa: Analysis of the Tangible Loci of Culture in the Sketches of Mario Miranda Configuration of the Bazaar Space State–Corporate Nexus and Goa’s Tourism Industry Packaging Experiences: Selling an ‘Authentic’ Goa Mapping Goa’s Cultural Loci Goa as a Synergistic Cultural Interface References Part II Nation, Cultural Histories, Trans-Nation: The Cinematic Imagi-Nation 6 That Which Flows 1 2 3 Notes References 7 Ray at Large: Cinema In and Out of Literature in Region, Nation, Transnation 1 2 3 4 Notes References 8 Beckett and Avikunthak: Lineages of the Avant-Garde Notes References 9 The Partitioning of Bengal, 1971 and National Identity Formation in Tanvir Mokammel’s Films Introduction: Rethinking the Consequences of Partition From a Bangladesh Perspective Framing Mokammel’s Films On Partition and 1971 Theoretically Chitra Nodir Pare and Coming and Going Shimantorekha – Partition’s Hindu Bengali Victims Swapnobhumi – a Permanently Deferred Promised Land Conclusion Note References Part III Nation, Cultural Histories, Trans-Nation: The Literary Imagi-Nation 10 Region, Nation, Border: Histories of Land and Water Note References 11 Travelling On: Bengali and English Literatures of Transnational Worlding 11.1 Subimal Misra: World Enformed 11.2 Hemendra Kumar Ray: How Does the Untranslated Travel? 11.3 Travelling Further Into the Planet With Lubdhak and Gun Island Notes References 12 Capitalist World-Ecology, Food Crisis, and Embodied Aesthetics in Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve Notes References 13 Modernity On Wheels: Reading Trains as Sites of Encounter and Disaster The Beginning The Railway in Indian Literature Railways After India’s Independence Notes Bibliography 14 “The Lights Cut Out Quickly”: Nation, Nationalism and City-Lit During 1980s–1990s Notes References Part IV South Asian Transactions: Between Subcontinental Flow and Transnational Frictions 15 Tagorean Cosmopolitanism and Ceylonic Indigenization Movement Introduction Research Methodology Santiniketan Philosophy Sunil Santha and Sarachchandra: Biographical Details Analyses Obstacles Confronted in the Approach to Cosmopolitism Repercussions of Non-Acceptance of Cosmopolitism Conclusion Bibliography 16 From Villain to Superhero: Reimaginings of Ravana in Twentieth- and Twenty-First Century Sri Lanka Introduction Rewritings and Retellings Many Ravanas in Sri Lanka Conclusion Notes References Index