Talks by Maria Bhuiyan
The Comilla University Journal of Arts (ISSN: 2616-8278), Jun 2020
Does the story of a patriarch society’s girl dressing like a boy to prove her worth or as a survi... more Does the story of a patriarch society’s girl dressing like a boy to prove her worth or as a survival mechanism sound familiar? Stories of cross-dressing have been (r)/e-volving from the 15th century’s Joan of Arc legends to today’s pop-culture. Drawing on Foucault’s ‘power/knowledge’ and Butler’s ‘gender performativity’, this qualitative research offers a comparative reading of the 20th - 21st century’s pop-cultural elements with reference to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night or What You Will to explore (a) how the subversive or transgressive practice of cross-dressing has been used across time and space as a means of accessing power in a male dominated society and (b) how it serves the end diversely.
Comparativisms Across Borders
Symposium: This talk was part of the International symposium entitled as "Comparativisms Across B... more Symposium: This talk was part of the International symposium entitled as "Comparativisms Across Borders,"organized by Centre for Comparative Literature, Bhasha Bhavana, Santiniketan on 26 February 2018. It was Chaired by Professor Abhijit Sen, Principal, Bhasha Bhavana, Visva-Bharati, and was conducted by Dr Sayantan Dasgupta, Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University. 5 students of Visva-Bharati and 5 MA (LECS) students of Batch 42 of the Department of English, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, participated in the lively dialogue, raising questions, re-addressing ideas and problematizing Comparative Literature as a discipline.
Conference Presentations by Maria Bhuiyan
South Asian experience of transnationalism can be closely observed through its literatures produc... more South Asian experience of transnationalism can be closely observed through its literatures produced by diasporic writers of this origin. When the first generation Bangladeshi migrants struggle to make a balance between two cultures and values, the second or third generation descendants are keener on digging for roots and identity. They grow up in a pluricultural/plurilingual surrounding where they are in an ongoing dialogue with the news, culture, value and history of the significant others from the country of their origin. The third gen descendants become a part of that dialogue when they look for their origin. Schuerkens argued that "the transnational migrant links the different contexts and contributes to changes in both" or vice versa. Monica Ali, Zadie Smith, Zia Haider, and Tahmima Anam tell such stories of transnational migrants of Bangladeshi origin in Brick Lane, White Teeth, In the Light of What We Know, and The Bones of Grace. The nation is not their characters' sole point of reference, rather it is themselves and their sense of identity that is in the center of everything.
by Maria Bhuiyan
The homogenizing concepts of normative cosmopolitanism, ranging from world citizenship to concern... more The homogenizing concepts of normative cosmopolitanism, ranging from world citizenship to concern for the welfare of humanity, have been vigorously contested as they tend to eschew issues of imperialism, Eurocentrism, communitarianism, and the global poor. Addressing these limitations, many critics have contributed to revitalize the notion of cosmopolitanism. Thus, while Hollinger distinguished cosmopolitanism from other apparently synonymous phenomena, such as universalism and pluralism, Nyers, rather opposing Hollinger, proposed the term “cosmopolitanisms” with a view to accommodating differing possibilities in a single word. Similar approach is evident in Bender who argued that cosmopolitanism is “an unsettling experience that provokes inquiry into difference” (Horta and Robbins 12). Taking cues from these re-appropriations of cosmopolitanism, the present paper concentrates on postcolonial cosmopolitanism, or, cosmopolitanism in the postcolonial context. As Fanon revealed, colonialism had significant contribution to the emergence and development of cosmopolitanism, and the connection is rather unambiguously evident in the contemporary postcolonial (and neocolonial) world. In such a context, postcolonial cosmopolitanism refers to critical awareness of the potential and pitfalls of Eurocentric imperialism-backed cosmopolitanism. Since both contemporary cosmopolitanism and postcolonialism deal with differences and togetherness in informed ways, the present paper contends that innovative combination of cosmopolitanism and postcolonialism can be effective in questioning and subverting imperialism.
Taking postcolonial cosmopolitanism as the point of departure, this paper offers a critical reading of selected South Asian novels in English that set diasporic or spatially transposed characters against contemporary socio-economic formations. When an individual with a colonial past intends to claim solidarity with the spirit of cosmopolitanism, s/he cannot help but notice imperialism as a major benefactor of cosmopolitanism. For example, learning English for a Bangladeshi is more than learning a world language. It is learning the language of the oppressive colonizers and, thus, perpetuating the mechanisms of colonization – linguistic imperialism. While the English writings of the critics and writers from the ‘postcolonial’ countries are divided in this debate, the increasing frequency of novels in English written by in-country and diasporic South Asian writers like Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Tahmima Anam, Chetan Bhaga and Ashwin Sanghi have made it relevant to explore answers to a seemingly simple question: does English effectuate cosmopolitanism, or, asked the other way, does cosmopolitanism necessitate writing in English? Reviewing relevant discussions on the issues, ranging from Tagore’s “Visvovod” to Ngugi’s “Globalectics,” from Cuddon’s definition of “cosmopolitan writing” as the one that depicts characters and societies as “globally representative” (183) to Schoene’s conception of “Cosmopolitan novel,” this paper explores if South Asian novels in English, in their bid to negotiate with the local and the global, expose or eschew the imperial, Eurocentric, and Anglo-centric underpinning of cosmopolitanism.
by Maria Bhuiyan
"…the Love Laws. That lay down who should be loved. And how. And h... more "…the Love Laws. That lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much."
Arundhati Roy, _The God of Small Things_
The "Love Laws" are always there to stigmatize and punish the transgressors who set themselves apart from the community by falling in love with the enemy like Romeo and Juliet did. Falling in love is usually deemed irrational as the lovers 'fall' into it. The negative connotation of 'fall' looms larger when it leads to adultery and when one falls in love with an enemy. While the Laila-Majnun tragedy testifies to the first instance, the story of the Jewish girl named Helena Citronova in Auschwitz concentration camp who fell in love with the Auschwitz SS officer Franz Wunsch during the World War II provides example for the second. The present paper addresses the violation of Love Law in its comparative reading of the treatment of adultery and courting one's enemy in Seamus Heaney's poem "Punishment" (1975) and Rybaiyat Hossain's film _Meherjaan_ (2011). While Heaney explores the predicaments of the Irish girls who fell in love with or married British soldiers, Hossain's film follows a Bangladeshi girl who falls in love with a Pakistani soldier during the Liberation War of Bangladesh when the Pakistan force was on a killing and raping spree throughout Bangladesh. The paper limits its focus on the study on the operation of voyeurism. The speaker in Heaney's "Punishment" is a self-proclaimed voyeur who is simultaneously compassionate and critical towards the bog body of a woman who was once punished for her adultery. The speaker's ambiguity towards the adultery of the little adulteress is expressed when the speaker feels that s/he is almost in love with her but would have cast the stone of silence towards her. Hossain's _Meherjaan_, on the other hand, problematizes audience's voyeuristic pleasure: Meher's repeated expressions of self-doubt and ambiguity regarding her falling for an enemy soldier expose the audience to their ambiguous attitudes to adultery. Recalling how both Irish "Punishment" and Bangladeshi _Meherjaan_ courted controversy, even banning (in the later case), this inter-artistic paper explores the dilemma between personal love and ethno-nationalist spirit evident throughout the world.
Drafts by Maria Bhuiyan
by Maria Bhuiyan
The ‘idea of a university’ implies that history of an idea from which it derives its identity. Un... more The ‘idea of a university’ implies that history of an idea from which it derives its identity. University has served many different cultures and societies for centuries and so the debate on the purpose of a university along with its education system has been inconclusive. One of the debates is whether university is for career or creativity. It has been present not only in the time of Cradinal Newman when he gave so thorough idea of university but also in the time of Chomsky or Derrida. This debate has become so acute with the contemporary tendency of corporatization, i.e. the commodification of knowledge, that it is almost impossible to consider knowledge being its own end like Newman. The debate of the idea of a university becomes more critical when it is discussed in postcolonial context of Bangladesh. The East has been following the ‘idea of a university’, which is a western concept, as a result of the mechanism of imperialism. According to Rabindranath Tagore, the lack of cultural appropriation is one of the reasons why still now university is a foreign concept, not a practical one in the East which has a history with the oldest university of the world, Nalanda. This paper enquires into the idea of ‘university’ of Jahangirnagar University today in its neocolonial context and the debate between conditional and unconditional thinking which creates the gorge between career and creativity with its covering rather than discovering tendency. It intends to reach a possible definition of university so that it will contribute to the clearer understanding of the present idea of university of JU.
Uploads
Talks by Maria Bhuiyan
Conference Presentations by Maria Bhuiyan
Taking postcolonial cosmopolitanism as the point of departure, this paper offers a critical reading of selected South Asian novels in English that set diasporic or spatially transposed characters against contemporary socio-economic formations. When an individual with a colonial past intends to claim solidarity with the spirit of cosmopolitanism, s/he cannot help but notice imperialism as a major benefactor of cosmopolitanism. For example, learning English for a Bangladeshi is more than learning a world language. It is learning the language of the oppressive colonizers and, thus, perpetuating the mechanisms of colonization – linguistic imperialism. While the English writings of the critics and writers from the ‘postcolonial’ countries are divided in this debate, the increasing frequency of novels in English written by in-country and diasporic South Asian writers like Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Tahmima Anam, Chetan Bhaga and Ashwin Sanghi have made it relevant to explore answers to a seemingly simple question: does English effectuate cosmopolitanism, or, asked the other way, does cosmopolitanism necessitate writing in English? Reviewing relevant discussions on the issues, ranging from Tagore’s “Visvovod” to Ngugi’s “Globalectics,” from Cuddon’s definition of “cosmopolitan writing” as the one that depicts characters and societies as “globally representative” (183) to Schoene’s conception of “Cosmopolitan novel,” this paper explores if South Asian novels in English, in their bid to negotiate with the local and the global, expose or eschew the imperial, Eurocentric, and Anglo-centric underpinning of cosmopolitanism.
Arundhati Roy, _The God of Small Things_
The "Love Laws" are always there to stigmatize and punish the transgressors who set themselves apart from the community by falling in love with the enemy like Romeo and Juliet did. Falling in love is usually deemed irrational as the lovers 'fall' into it. The negative connotation of 'fall' looms larger when it leads to adultery and when one falls in love with an enemy. While the Laila-Majnun tragedy testifies to the first instance, the story of the Jewish girl named Helena Citronova in Auschwitz concentration camp who fell in love with the Auschwitz SS officer Franz Wunsch during the World War II provides example for the second. The present paper addresses the violation of Love Law in its comparative reading of the treatment of adultery and courting one's enemy in Seamus Heaney's poem "Punishment" (1975) and Rybaiyat Hossain's film _Meherjaan_ (2011). While Heaney explores the predicaments of the Irish girls who fell in love with or married British soldiers, Hossain's film follows a Bangladeshi girl who falls in love with a Pakistani soldier during the Liberation War of Bangladesh when the Pakistan force was on a killing and raping spree throughout Bangladesh. The paper limits its focus on the study on the operation of voyeurism. The speaker in Heaney's "Punishment" is a self-proclaimed voyeur who is simultaneously compassionate and critical towards the bog body of a woman who was once punished for her adultery. The speaker's ambiguity towards the adultery of the little adulteress is expressed when the speaker feels that s/he is almost in love with her but would have cast the stone of silence towards her. Hossain's _Meherjaan_, on the other hand, problematizes audience's voyeuristic pleasure: Meher's repeated expressions of self-doubt and ambiguity regarding her falling for an enemy soldier expose the audience to their ambiguous attitudes to adultery. Recalling how both Irish "Punishment" and Bangladeshi _Meherjaan_ courted controversy, even banning (in the later case), this inter-artistic paper explores the dilemma between personal love and ethno-nationalist spirit evident throughout the world.
Drafts by Maria Bhuiyan
Taking postcolonial cosmopolitanism as the point of departure, this paper offers a critical reading of selected South Asian novels in English that set diasporic or spatially transposed characters against contemporary socio-economic formations. When an individual with a colonial past intends to claim solidarity with the spirit of cosmopolitanism, s/he cannot help but notice imperialism as a major benefactor of cosmopolitanism. For example, learning English for a Bangladeshi is more than learning a world language. It is learning the language of the oppressive colonizers and, thus, perpetuating the mechanisms of colonization – linguistic imperialism. While the English writings of the critics and writers from the ‘postcolonial’ countries are divided in this debate, the increasing frequency of novels in English written by in-country and diasporic South Asian writers like Salman Rushdie, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Amitav Ghosh, Tahmima Anam, Chetan Bhaga and Ashwin Sanghi have made it relevant to explore answers to a seemingly simple question: does English effectuate cosmopolitanism, or, asked the other way, does cosmopolitanism necessitate writing in English? Reviewing relevant discussions on the issues, ranging from Tagore’s “Visvovod” to Ngugi’s “Globalectics,” from Cuddon’s definition of “cosmopolitan writing” as the one that depicts characters and societies as “globally representative” (183) to Schoene’s conception of “Cosmopolitan novel,” this paper explores if South Asian novels in English, in their bid to negotiate with the local and the global, expose or eschew the imperial, Eurocentric, and Anglo-centric underpinning of cosmopolitanism.
Arundhati Roy, _The God of Small Things_
The "Love Laws" are always there to stigmatize and punish the transgressors who set themselves apart from the community by falling in love with the enemy like Romeo and Juliet did. Falling in love is usually deemed irrational as the lovers 'fall' into it. The negative connotation of 'fall' looms larger when it leads to adultery and when one falls in love with an enemy. While the Laila-Majnun tragedy testifies to the first instance, the story of the Jewish girl named Helena Citronova in Auschwitz concentration camp who fell in love with the Auschwitz SS officer Franz Wunsch during the World War II provides example for the second. The present paper addresses the violation of Love Law in its comparative reading of the treatment of adultery and courting one's enemy in Seamus Heaney's poem "Punishment" (1975) and Rybaiyat Hossain's film _Meherjaan_ (2011). While Heaney explores the predicaments of the Irish girls who fell in love with or married British soldiers, Hossain's film follows a Bangladeshi girl who falls in love with a Pakistani soldier during the Liberation War of Bangladesh when the Pakistan force was on a killing and raping spree throughout Bangladesh. The paper limits its focus on the study on the operation of voyeurism. The speaker in Heaney's "Punishment" is a self-proclaimed voyeur who is simultaneously compassionate and critical towards the bog body of a woman who was once punished for her adultery. The speaker's ambiguity towards the adultery of the little adulteress is expressed when the speaker feels that s/he is almost in love with her but would have cast the stone of silence towards her. Hossain's _Meherjaan_, on the other hand, problematizes audience's voyeuristic pleasure: Meher's repeated expressions of self-doubt and ambiguity regarding her falling for an enemy soldier expose the audience to their ambiguous attitudes to adultery. Recalling how both Irish "Punishment" and Bangladeshi _Meherjaan_ courted controversy, even banning (in the later case), this inter-artistic paper explores the dilemma between personal love and ethno-nationalist spirit evident throughout the world.