Representation of Humiliation in Dalit Literature
November 14, 12:00 Pm
206 Ingraham Hall
Presentation Description
This talk proposes to develop a comparative framework of pan-Indian Dalit writings on one hand and the representative Bengali Dalit writings on the other in the context of the experience of humiliation. The chief objective of this comparison would be a close reading of the treatment of the experience of humiliation, along with its claims and contexts, in regional literary traditions. Cutting across the literary genres, the main argument of this talk will be to show the qualitative difference in the perception of caste-based humiliation in Dalit literary expressions and a resultant realization that Bengali Dalit experience somehow falls short of depicting the intensity of insult abundantly manifest in Marathi and other regional Dalit writings. Throughout the scope of this talk, various factors responsible for such low decibel representation of humiliation will be taken up for detailed study with frequent references to past and present Dalit authors and their most representative studies. Another abiding engagement with the issue of humiliation, vis-a-vis the tragic demise of Chuni Kotal, will lead to questions about the muted presence of the community experience of humiliation by the erstwhile Criminal Tribe, Lodha Savar, in contemporary Bengali Dalit writings.
About the Speaker
Dr Indranil Acharya is Professor and former Head of the Department of English, Vidyasagar University, West Bengal. He is also the Editor of Janajati Darpan, the only international multilingual publication series from Bengal on indigenous studies. He has presented papers in international conferences hosted by Lancaster University, UK and Bridgewater College, Virginia University, USA. He has delivered more than seventy-five national and international invited lectures in offline and online mode. He has been engaged in Translation collaboration projects with CENTIL, Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Linguistic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, North Bengal University, Kalyani University, Aliah University and CIIL, Mysore. He has supervised eleven awarded Ph.D. scholars. He has served as a member coordinator and chairperson of the Peer Team for the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Govt. of India. In 2023, Professor Acharya was nominated as a member of the jury for the selection of Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar. Professor Acharya has recently been awarded the Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship in the 2024-25 cycle. His host institution is the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA and he has been affiliated to the Center for South Asia of the University.