From Indian Literature to World Literature: A Conversation with Satya P. Mohanty
Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar and Rajender Kaur
BHATNAGAR and KAUR: We wanted to begin by asking you about your new edited volume, Colonialism, Modernity, and Literature: A View from India, which offers a model for comparative Indian literary studies. It seems like it has taken several years to produce this collection, and the inspiration for it came from the talks U. R. Ananthamurthy gave at Cornell in 2000. Satya P. Mohanty: Yes, it has been exciting to collaborate with scholars from various linguistic traditions in India as well as American critics who specialize in European and Latin American literatures. But the inspiration definitely came from U. R. Ananthamurthy and his humane and cosmopolitan vision of literary studies. Our collection of essays is dedicated to him. His talks at Cornell dealt with a number of subjects but were based in part on a comparative study of Fakir Mohan Senapati’s Chha Mana Atha Guntha (1897-99) and Rabindranath Tagore’s Gora (1907-09), both of which had influenced Ananthamurthy. Q: We’d like to return in detail to the implications of your work on Indian literature, but can we ask you first about the connections between your theoretical work and your translation and interpretation of Indian texts? You’ve been working on philosophical realism for over two decades now, and have recently started writing about literary realism. Can you tell us about the connections you see between “theoretical realism” and literary realism? Your work conveys the sense that there are serious flaws in existing linkages between literary criticism and the broader intellectual current that combines humanistic research with social inquiry. You imply that students and scholars cannot take these links for granted and have to rethink them. In this broader project what is the role assigned to realism in your work? SPM: I think the best way to understand the connections between philosophical or theoretical realism and literary realism is to focus on what each says, explicitly or implicitly, about knowledge – about how we come to know things, especially in the social realm. Can we ever be objective in our understanding of social phenomena? Can we overcome socially produced distortions, especially those created by the dominant ideologies, and arrive at more accurate accounts, accounts that can be considered reliable? Let me develop this idea by explaining how I, a literary critic, first became interested in philosophical realism – and in these questions in particular. Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 |
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Essays in this Forum
Rethinking the Global South
by Mukoma Wa Ngugi From Indian Literature to World Literature: A Conversation with Satya P. Mohanty by Rashmi Dube Bhatnagar and Rajender Kaur Asia in My Life by Ngugi wa Thiong'o The Global South and Cultural Struggles: On the Afro-Asian People’s Solidarity Organization by Duncan Mceachern Yoon The Fault Lines of Hindi and Urdu by Sanjay Kumar Reframing Colonialism and Modernity: An Endeavour through Sociology and Literature by Gurminder K. Bhambra Varieties of Cultural Chauvinism and the Relevance of Comparative Studies by Tilottoma Misra Literature to Combat Cultural Chauvinism: A Response by Shivani Jha Is There an Indian Way of Thinking about Comparative Literature? by E. V. Ramakrishnan Modernity and Public Sphere in Vernacular by Purushottam Agrawal West Indian Writers and Cultural Chauvinism by Jerome Teelucksingh Oral Knowledge in Berber Women’s Expressions of the Sacred by Fatima Sadiki |