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CWS is organising a seminar by Dr. Aishika Chakraborty

CWS is organising a seminar by Dr. Aishika Chakraborty

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CWS is organising a seminar by Dr. Aishika Chakraborty
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CENTRE FOR WOMEN’S STUDIES, JNU

 

Invites you to a Seminar on 

 

 

Out-caste-ing the Nation: Dismantling caste and patriarchy in Chandalika

 

 

by

Dr. Aishika Chakraborty

(Director, School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, Calcutta)

 

Bio:-  Dr. Aishika Chakraborty is currently Director of the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, Calcutta. Her research on the journey of modern/contemporary dance in Bengal looks at its artistic legacies, pedagogic practices and feminist politics of performance. Her edited book, Ranjabati, A Dancer and Her World, brings out some pioneering reflections on contemporary dance movement by her fellow-dancer, Ranjabati Sircar. Her recent co-authored book, Moving Space: Women in Performance, (Primus, New Delhi) talks about varied journeys of women dancers at wide-ranging spaces of performance. She is also co-editing a book titled, Women Speak Nation (Taylor and Francis, Forthcoming) which takes on board the contemporary discourses on gender and nationalism, exploring the intersectionalities of caste, class and sexualities. She is presently engaged in Arts Research Documentation programme funded by Indian Foundation for Arts (IFA), Bangalore. 

 

Abstract:- When a resurrected sanskritized classical sought textual sanction in sacrosanct Natyashastra and where dance icon-o-graphs seemed fossilized in temple sculptures, how did Rabindranath Tagore, an improbable dance-maker, fashion a transnational hybrid aesthetic subverting its unilinear canonical structure of dance contesting the claims of nationalism? Beyond the unbroken nationalist fable of dance, this paper charts out the alternative dance movement, triggered by Tagore, contextualizing his resistive kinesthetic within the overarching hegemonic frame of nationalism at a historic political moment of anti-colonial struggle. Did he transcribe resistance to the gendered repertoire of the Brahmanic classical, offering atypical and radical dancing bodies in flesh and blood in his subversive dance dramas of Chandalika, Chitrangada and Shyama?  Rotating round the axes of gender, caste and nation, this paper reads Tagore’s Chandalika (The Untouchable Daughter) as a resistive tale/performance against the caste-gender politics of Brahmanic patriarchy. She juxtaposes two written texts of Tagore with the choreographic politics of contemporary dance-theater, Tomari Matir Kanya(Daughter of your Earth, 1985), created by the feminist dance maker, Manjusri Chaki-Sircar to see how they coalesced together with a  new body politics contravening the socio-sexual politics of the new nation.

 

Date: 1st November 2017, Wednesday, Time: 2.30 PM to 4.30 PM

Venue: Committee Room No.402, Fourth Floor, SSS-I

 

All Are Welcome

 

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.