Colloque
Politics of Translation
Translation communicates an extended understanding of varied cultures, which one is not born into. The past few decades have seen a substantial rise in the discourse and practice of Translation, as lingual horizons shrink in a digitally connected world. At the same time, it is getting increasingly complex, as texts are no longer limited to a single language, dialect, or sociolect. This panel will look at the complexity of Translation and consider it as a tool to erase boundaries that has for centuries silenced, stereotyped and marginalized certain languages, cultures and traditions by marking them inferior, overwriting their narratives, politicizing their subject position.
Voicing Oppression: The Rise of Dalit Poetry
Poetry has always been the most dominant medium to voice oppression and silences that have plagued generations of subaltern masses. Dalit poetry, as it explores the stigma, trauma and injustice of untouchability and ostrascization, has eventually become the language of protest, revolution and change – portraying the quintessential existential struggle against homogenization. This panel will examine Dalit expression and poetry vis – vis the relationship between Dalit literature and Dalit politics, addressing the question if categorizing it makes its identity unique yet problematic. It will also look at the impact of translation of Dalit poetry.
The Feminine Pen: Exploring Women’s Poetry
With feminism taking the intellectual, political and cultural hegemony by storm, women poets experimented with issues like female sexuality, female bodies, authorship, motherhood, and gender discrimination to lexical flexibility and linguistic dynamism. This panel will take a look at contemporary women’s/ feminist poetry, and the concept of fluid gender identity that far transcends the male-female binary. Simultaneously it will also problematize the assumption that women write differently and for a different readership, ie, question the very label of ‘women poets’ and ‘women’s poetry’.
The Body in Verses: Expanding Boundaries of Performative-Poetry
This session on performative poetry will discuss and explore the dissolving boundaries of poetic expression and languages. The panelists will share their journeys with multiple forms while meditating on the art of poetry. In course of the session interspersed with conversation and performances, we will revisit definitions, forge or pull down walls and debate if the expansion through performances—if it acts as a distraction or an evolution of the same soul— if we can really point to one in a poetic piece, that is. We will go over the effects, fall outs when the performance of the language (poetic arts) meets with the performances of the body/ voice and other instruments.
Poetry of the East
This panel will consider the common socio-linguistic and cultural heritage of eastern India, and will look into the similarity and/ or difference between contemporary poetry from eastern India, particularly Assamese and Odhia poetry, and that of Bengal. It will also examine their popularity with translators, compared to Bengali poetry.