Papers by Nirajana Chakraborty
Ecology, Literature, and Culture: An Anthology of Recent Studies, 2021
Abstract:
Spanning over 50 years in the subcontinent, the 2018 Indian English novel by Shubhangi... more Abstract:
Spanning over 50 years in the subcontinent, the 2018 Indian English novel by Shubhangi Swarup, Latitudes of Longing, juxtaposes temporal human action and political events with nature’s cyclicity, continental drifts and massive movements that disturb and reorient the balance in nature. This novel, in its post-coloniality challenges colonial boundaries as well as the legacy of the enlightenment that creates a division between nature and culture, in doing so it also questions colonial knowledge systems like anthropology, geography, taxonomy and zoology—modes of knowledge that nevertheless continue to shape postcolonial reality.
Unlike the narrative techniques of the modern realist fiction that with its preoccupation with a ‘mimetic ambition’ is centred on the general probabilities, this novel incorporates the sudden, the climactically catastrophic and the improbable in nature, addressing the ecocritical aspiration in contemporary fiction. Therefore the language encompasses elements of magic realism, premonitions and tales of a fantastic past, making the narration cyclical and rife with digressions, simultaneously non-realistic and postcolonial. The legacy of enlightenment rationalism is also the dual victimisation of women and nature—both seen as coterminous in certain patriarchal discourse, but also as targets of aggression. Ecofeminism advocates a new epistemology that would address the patriarchal aggression on nature and women—in the novel achieved by nature’s careful selection of who is part of it, is attuned to it (Chandra Devi, Apo), and who can understand and therefore foretell the future. The human body here, especially the bodies of some women, the elderly and the tortured become both metaphors for geopolitical changes, and modes of knowledge formation—breaking down the Cartesian hierarchy of mind/ body. Moreover, certain geopolitical settings in the novel are also portrayed as locations that resist the onset of the anthropocene, by juxtaposing an intuitive understanding of nature with an evolving scientific discourse.
Women and Education in India: A representative Study, 2020
In this article we look at the development of Bethune College and the generations of extraordinar... more In this article we look at the development of Bethune College and the generations of extraordinary women who taught and studied here--but also take a look at life as a boarder in the hostel, women's participation in sports and in poltical movements, and the spheres of literature and culture. This is a chapter in the volume Women and Education in India: A Representative Study, edited by Shantanu Majee.
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Papers by Nirajana Chakraborty
Spanning over 50 years in the subcontinent, the 2018 Indian English novel by Shubhangi Swarup, Latitudes of Longing, juxtaposes temporal human action and political events with nature’s cyclicity, continental drifts and massive movements that disturb and reorient the balance in nature. This novel, in its post-coloniality challenges colonial boundaries as well as the legacy of the enlightenment that creates a division between nature and culture, in doing so it also questions colonial knowledge systems like anthropology, geography, taxonomy and zoology—modes of knowledge that nevertheless continue to shape postcolonial reality.
Unlike the narrative techniques of the modern realist fiction that with its preoccupation with a ‘mimetic ambition’ is centred on the general probabilities, this novel incorporates the sudden, the climactically catastrophic and the improbable in nature, addressing the ecocritical aspiration in contemporary fiction. Therefore the language encompasses elements of magic realism, premonitions and tales of a fantastic past, making the narration cyclical and rife with digressions, simultaneously non-realistic and postcolonial. The legacy of enlightenment rationalism is also the dual victimisation of women and nature—both seen as coterminous in certain patriarchal discourse, but also as targets of aggression. Ecofeminism advocates a new epistemology that would address the patriarchal aggression on nature and women—in the novel achieved by nature’s careful selection of who is part of it, is attuned to it (Chandra Devi, Apo), and who can understand and therefore foretell the future. The human body here, especially the bodies of some women, the elderly and the tortured become both metaphors for geopolitical changes, and modes of knowledge formation—breaking down the Cartesian hierarchy of mind/ body. Moreover, certain geopolitical settings in the novel are also portrayed as locations that resist the onset of the anthropocene, by juxtaposing an intuitive understanding of nature with an evolving scientific discourse.
Spanning over 50 years in the subcontinent, the 2018 Indian English novel by Shubhangi Swarup, Latitudes of Longing, juxtaposes temporal human action and political events with nature’s cyclicity, continental drifts and massive movements that disturb and reorient the balance in nature. This novel, in its post-coloniality challenges colonial boundaries as well as the legacy of the enlightenment that creates a division between nature and culture, in doing so it also questions colonial knowledge systems like anthropology, geography, taxonomy and zoology—modes of knowledge that nevertheless continue to shape postcolonial reality.
Unlike the narrative techniques of the modern realist fiction that with its preoccupation with a ‘mimetic ambition’ is centred on the general probabilities, this novel incorporates the sudden, the climactically catastrophic and the improbable in nature, addressing the ecocritical aspiration in contemporary fiction. Therefore the language encompasses elements of magic realism, premonitions and tales of a fantastic past, making the narration cyclical and rife with digressions, simultaneously non-realistic and postcolonial. The legacy of enlightenment rationalism is also the dual victimisation of women and nature—both seen as coterminous in certain patriarchal discourse, but also as targets of aggression. Ecofeminism advocates a new epistemology that would address the patriarchal aggression on nature and women—in the novel achieved by nature’s careful selection of who is part of it, is attuned to it (Chandra Devi, Apo), and who can understand and therefore foretell the future. The human body here, especially the bodies of some women, the elderly and the tortured become both metaphors for geopolitical changes, and modes of knowledge formation—breaking down the Cartesian hierarchy of mind/ body. Moreover, certain geopolitical settings in the novel are also portrayed as locations that resist the onset of the anthropocene, by juxtaposing an intuitive understanding of nature with an evolving scientific discourse.