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This book brings together a rich collection of new work on the cultural interface of literature and gender, ranging from essays on medieval and Renaissance Europe to nineteenth-century political movements, and representations in modern Indian film. The contributors are some of the most distinguished scholars of our time, working in Europe and in India.
Frustrated with the colonial policing and “spyarchy” that had taken over administration in Bengal, Humphry House wrote I Spy with My Little Eye in 1937. The satirical pamphlet features a fascinating cast of local characters: from Ilsa, a blonde saxophonist at the Continental Hotel, to a shape-shifting Brahmin who morphs into a police inspector. For the first time in over 80 years, this curious work is being reprinted with a new introduction, notes and material from the Humphry House archive. Humphry House (1908-1955) came to India in 1936 and joined Presidency College as Professor of English. He was suspected of being a spy and hounded by the colonial police. Soon after, he left Presidency to join Ripon College. House became a member of the Parichay group and frequented the adda-s where intellectuals, writers and scientists gathered.
Chandra explores how English became an Indian language during the colonial period of 1850-1930. Using archival and literary sources, she focuses on elite language education for girls and women.
This collection brings together the stories of the Armenians, Chinese, Sikhs, ‘South Indians’, Bohra Muslims and other communities who have come and created this wondrous mosaic, the city of Calcutta.
Tales from the Jail is a funny, moving and poignant account of an outsider’s encounters with the inmates of Tihar Jail. This unforgettable collection of short stories will give you a rare glimpse into the world of prisons and the lives of its inhabitants. It will take you on a personal journey through Tihar and introduce you to some of its most memorable characters. Most of all, it will give you hope. “The book is inspiring. It deeply touches sensitive aspects of human relationships and ends with a note of guarded optimism for elevation of the human mind and spirit.” – Soli Sorabjee, Former Attorney-General of India
This collection of essays explores the way our notions of self, other, subjectivity, gender and the sacred text are being re-visioned within contemporary theory. These new ways of conceiving create upheavals and radical shifts that rework our understanding of philosophical, psychological, political, sexual and spiritual identity, allowing us to trace the fault lines, regulatory forces, exclusions and unmarked spaces both within our selves, and within the discourses that attend these selves. As such, revisionings break down borders, and the encounter of literature and theology becomes a crucial focus for these explorations, as the self learns to resituate its own being creatively vis-a-vis others and, ultimately, the Other.>
Gertrude More belongs to a tradition of mystical writers who believed in the value of the via negativa, a path to union with God by way of total self-abnegation and the emptying of the mind of set ideas and images. Her only book-length work, THE SPIRITVAL EXERCISES (Paris, 1658), is a collection of her writing assembled by Dom Augustine Baker, OSB, and published some thirty-three years after her death. Some of More’s other verse and prose appears in the biography that Baker composed, but her SPIRITVAL EXERCISES remains the main text she has bequeathed to her order and to posterity. It is reprinted here in full with Arthur F. Marotti's introductory note outlining Gertrude More's life and work.
The First Promise is a translation of Ashapurna Debi s novel, Pratham Pratisruti, originally published in Bengali in 1964. Celebrated as one of the most popular and path-breaking novels of its time, it has received continual critical acclaim: the Rabindra Puraskar (the Tagore Prize) in 1966 and the Bharitiya Jnanpith, India s highest literary award, in 1977. Spanning the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries, Ashapurna tells the story of the struggles and efforts of women in nineteenth-century, colonial Bengal in a deceptively easy and conversational style. The charming eight-year old heroine, Satyabati is a child bride who leaves her husband s village for Calcutta, the capital of British India where she is caught in the social dynamics of women s education, social reform agendas, modern medicine and urban entertainment. As she makes her way through this complex maze, making sense of the rapidly changing world around her, Satyabati nurtures hopes and aspirations for her daughter. But the promises held out by modernity turn out to be empty, instigating Satyabati to break away from her inherited world and initiate a quest that takes her to the very heart of tradition.