Sunday, April 14, 2019

Report of 18th MELOW Conference in Jamia


18th INTERNATIONAL MELOW CONFERENCE REPORT

Compiled by Kalyanee Rajan, Mirza Sadaf Fatima and Asra Mamnoon. The report was read by Asra Mamnoon.

15-17 March 2019
Inaugural session: The 18th International MELOW (The Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the World) Conference was held at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. The main thrust of the society lies on world literature and literature across borders of time and space. The theme for the 18th conference was “Sunny Pleasure Domes and Caves of Ice: Utopias and Dystopias in World Literature”. The inaugural session began with a formal welcome by Professor Simi Malhotra, acting head, Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia. Professor Anil Raina, President, MELOW, Professor Manju Jaidka, secretary, Joint Secretary, Professor Manpreet Kaur Kang, Professor Simi Malhotra and Dr. Shimi Moni Doley, co-ordinator for the conference formed the panel. The session was also graced by Professor Shahid Ashraf, Vice-Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia.
          A brief introduction on MELOW was given by Professor Manju Jaidka who shed light on how the society was formed and developed in India. A pertinent issue, on which the society emphasises, was brought forth by Professor Jaidka, which is that of the academia’s excessive preoccupation with theory and an evident side-lining of literature. The Vice-Chancellor also addressed the audience, emphasising on the importance of literature in every field.
          The presidential address by Professor Anil Raina began with an introduction and critical understanding of the conception of Utopia and Dystopia and how they merge into one another, especially in Coleridge’s imagination. Professor Raina emphasised on the search for Utopia as an extension of an inherent contradiction within the human self. Professor Raina drew on Greek texts and other instances to bring to the fore the ideas of Utopias and Dystopias as well as their inherent contradictions, accentuating on the fact that literary classics are mostly dystopian. The session came to a close with a vote of thanks by Dr. Shimi Moni Doley. It was attended by dignitaries from across the world, faculty members, graduation and post-graduation students and research scholars.
Plenary 1:
          The session was chaired by Professor Sachidananda Mohanty. Prof. M.L. Raina delivered the keynote address, entitled “Longings Redeemed but only Just: Utopian Imagination Then and Now”. Prof. Raina’s sweeping presentation covered the myriad manifestations of Utopias both in literature and art. His comprehensive presentation established a genealogy of Utopian imagination, which he noted, was as old as human desire. He also highlighted the infinite scope of variety in the conceptualization of the human imagination which ranges from the Biblical Utopia of the Garden of Eden or heaven, feminist Utopias, communist and even scientific Utopias. However, according to Prof. Raina, Utopias rely on a structured and hierarchical order which bordered on the tyrannical. He concluded therefore by asserting that we can only strive to make society better but not perfect.
Parallel session 1A was chaired by Prof Baran Farooqi where the panel consisted of Daniel Kalinowski who presented a paper titled “The Castle by Franz Kafka as a Prefiguration of Dystopia”. Harpreet Kaur Vohra presented a paper titled “Redefining Fertility and Reproduction in a Dystopia: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale”. Joydeep Bhattacharya presented the paper “Girish Karnad’s Boiled Beans on Toast : Mapping the Urban Potpourri of  Utopia and Dystopia”.
Session 1B was chaired by Prof. Anisur Rahman. In this panel Nahid Kaiser explored the possibility of a Feminist Utopia in Tagore’s The Land of Cards. Ritushree Sengupta presented a paper titled “Redefining the Utopia: An Ecological reading of Charles Kingsley’s The Water-Babies”.
Session IC was chaired by Prof. T. Ravichandran. Here, Anita Sharma’s paper investigated into an exclusively black Utopia imagined in Amiri Baraka’s poetry. Sunil Kamal delved into Danish Rana’s Red Maize. Vanda Sukheja analysed Sandeep Sahota’s’ The Year of the Runaways.
Parallel Session ID was chaired by Prof. Malati Mathur. Prof. Mary Mohanty presented a paper entitled “Utopia of the American Dream: Revisiting Scott Fitzgeralds’s The Great Gatsby”. Ranjita Barik presented a paper on “Utopian Vision in Master Poems: Tagore and Sri Aurobindo. Sayan Bhowmik presented on “Memory as a Bell: Violence and Forgetting in the Construction of Utopia in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant”. Satyajit Das presented a paper on “Puncturing Canadian Utopia: A Postcolonial Study of George Ryga’s ‘Indian’, ‘An Ecstasy of Rita Joe’’ and ‘Nothing But a Man’”.
 Parallel Session II A was chaired by Dr. Vandana Sharma where the first speaker, Neela Sarkar spoke on “Reclaiming the Self: A Reading of The Handmaid’s Tale, Never Let Me Go and Only Ever Yours”. The second speaker, Bipasha Som Gune spoke on “Indian Aesthetics and Individual Utopia: A Case Study of Bharat Muni’s Natyashastra”.
 Parallel session II B was chaired by Prof. Ameena Kazi Ansari. Sayan Mukherjee presented a paper on “The People Never Have the Power, Only the Illusion of it: Opposing Utopias in Assassin’s Creed”. Umara Butt spoke about narcissism, necrophilia and Oedipus Complex in the novel, Child of God. Shraddha Adityavir Singh presented on Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy.
 Parallel session IIC was chaired by Prof. Kadloor Savitri wherein Dr. Radha Gautam presented a paper on “Understanding Conflicting Utopias in India: Gandhi and Savarkar”. Navdeep Kahol spoke on “Pushing the Boundaries: The Dystopian World of ‘The Queene’.  Kalyani Rajan presented a paper entitled “Teaching Her a Lesson: Dynamics of State(ly) Rape in Ambai’s ‘Black Horse Square’ and Sowmya Rajendran’s ‘The Lesson’”.
Parallel Session II D was chaired by Prof Manpreet Kaur. Hem Raj Bansal presented a paper titled, “Subdued Voices, Stifled Dreams: Hope to Hopelessness in a Dystopian World in Bandi’s Accusation: Forbidden stories from inside North Korea”. Kalikinkar Pattanayak presented “Utopia and Indian Imagination: Revisiting The Ramayana of Valmiki”. The last speaker T. Ravichandran presented a paper titled, “Between Utopian Impulse and Dystopian Distress: Locating the Ecotopian in Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Wind Up Girl”.

On the second day of the conference, Parallel Session IIIA was chaired by Prof. Dipankar Purukayastha. Nilak Dutta presented a paper on a case study of Daniel Boone. The second presenter Parminder Singh spoke on Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The third speaker, Sunaina Jain spoke on Soul City in the light of John Rawl’s Theory of Justice.
Parallel Session III B was chaired by Prof. Sushila Singh. Adela Kalinowski presented a paper titled, “Polish and Romantic: Representation of London and New York by Cyprian Norwid”. Ishrat Fatma spoke on, “Home and Away in Anita Desai’s Bye Bye Blackbird”. Nilakshi Roy presented a paper titled, ‘ “Sacred Games”- A Modern Day Dystopia’. Payal A.P. presented “The Housewives’ Tarot: Marketing Domestic Utopia in Post- 9/11 American Popular Culture”.
Parallel Session III C was chaired by Prof. Neela Sarkar. There were four speakers in this session. Mousumi Chowdhury presented a paper on, “Post-Brexit Dystopian Britian: A Study of Ali Smith’s Autumn(2016) and Micheal Paraskos’s Rabbitman(2017)”. Srijani Chowdhury presented her paper titled, “ Brave New Aya: A Study of Kristen Simmon’s Dystopian Fiction The Glass Arrow (2015)”. Sumbul Nasim spoke about feminist utopias in her paper titled “Towards a Feminist Utopia: Manto and his Women”. Amit Narula presented a paper titled, “Search for a Women’s Utopia in The Prisons We Broke”.
Parallel Session III D had three paper presenters with Prof. Roshan Sharma chairing this session. Anil Kumar whose paper titled “Exploring Dystopian Dimensions towards the Post-human Future in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake” raised the trajectory of humanist thought from Plato to Heidegger and further relied on Katherine Hayless’ understanding of post-humanism, Leena Sarkar’s paper “Romanticism and Mid -Nineteenth Century Despair: Poetics Utopias and Anti-Utopia focused on William Wordsworth’s ‘Tintern Abbey’ and Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’ and Matthew Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach’. Rohitashav Yadav’s paper titled “Post -human Dystopia: A Case Study of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale attempted to explain post-humanism in The Handmaid’s Tale via the loss of fertility of women’s bodies due to environmental degradation and the control and surveillance in Gilead.
Parallel Session IV A was chaired by Prof. Roshan Sharma. Four speakers presented in this session. Arka Pramanick presented a paper on, “Towards a Female Utopos: Critiquing Futuristic Dystopia in Manish Jha’s Matrubhoomi”. Abin Chakroborty presented a paper titled, “From Buried Pterodactyl to Soaring Jwala Kumar: An Assessment of Utopian Potentalities in HansdaSowvendra Shekhar’s Jwala Kumar and the Gift of Fire”. Debjani Dutta spoke on, “a Re-thinking Rebellion: Unrest and its ramifications in the coerced collective of We”. The last presentation by Vandana Sharma was titled, “Paradox of Utopian Thought and Dystopian reality in Manjula Padmanabhan’s  Escape and the Island of Lost Girls”.
Parallel Session IV B was chaired by Prof. Baran Farooqi. Nidhi Sharma presented a paper entitled “Thinking In and Out of Utopia: A Postmodernist Reading of Cat’s Cradle”. Sartaj Ahmed and Shahila Zafar presented a paper on “Dystopian Society and Dehumanisation: A Critical Analysis of Lois Lowry’s The Giver. Sujoy Chakravarthi’s paper was on “Self-Fulfilling Prophesies: Locating our World Amongst Utopias in Selected Works”.
Parallel Session IV C was chaired by Prof. Manpreet Kang. Kamalpreet  Kaur’s paper was titled, “Uncovering the (Dys-)utopian reality of The Good Place”. Arundhati Ashangbam presented a paper titled, “Deconstructing Utopia: A Reflection in Primo Levi’s Works”. Manpreet Kaur Kang and Gabriella Vargas-Cetina presented a joint paper titled, “Trans-Species Dystopia: Margaret Atwood and our Biologically Engineered Futures”. Prerna Priyam Doley’s paper titled, “Negotiating Human/Non-Human Boundaries: A study of posthuman figures in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”.
Parallel session IV D was chaired by Prof. Vijay Sharma. Prof. Kalpana Purohit presented a paper entitled “A Probe into the Dystopian World of Modern Drama” Mridu Sharma spoke on “Ashen and Dark Despair: A Study of Dystopian Elements in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. Bipasha Bharti spoke on “Dystopian Discontent through the Lens of V for Vendetta”. Subham Amin spoke on “A Tale of a Ruptured Frame: A Study of the Quest for a Utopian Happy Family and its Dystopic Subversion in Kapoor and Sons”.
Following this, Prof. Sachidananda Mohanty delivered the prestigious Isaac Sequeira Memorial Special Lecture. A scholar of eminence and former Vice-Chancellor of Orissa University, Prof. Mohanty was introduced eloquently by session chairperson, Prof. Manju Jaidka. Prof. Mohanty’s lecture was titled “Beyond the Colonialist Imagination: Travel, Utopias and the Making of a New World”. He spoke at length about how every utopia needs a bit of idealism in order for it to be imagined. His lecture was directed towards reading India in the sense of a vibrant yet undiscovered pluralism, a condensed composite whose roots needed to be excavated and studied carefully in order to take utopianism forward. Using Leela Gandhi’s position explicated in her significant work, “Affective Communities, Prof. Mohanty set out to interrogate how utopias become an essential part of Indian heritage. His explication of Tagore’s Vishwabharati as a world in a nest, of Vishwa Sahitya, of simultaneous existence of tradition and modernity was remarkable. He concluded by quoting several extracts from his landmark volume on archival research, talking about how utopias thus conceived, grow beyond the nation to a global conception of counter modernity and new beginnings.
 The session titled Isaac Sequeira Memorial Award was chaired by Prof. Manju Jaidka, who delineated the facts about the award and the pre-requisite to get selected for the final competition. The three competitors for this round were Jasmine Sharma, who presented a paper entitled “Power, Sexuality and Techno-Scientific Dynamics in Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam Trilogy”. The second speaker, Nishtha Pandey spoke on “Utopias and the Pursuit of Knowledge: Reading Jorge Luis Borges”. The third speaker, Samarth Singhal spoke on “Grotesque Dystopia as Empty Gesture: The Case of Appupen’s The Snake and the Lotus”. A panel of three judges was constituted for this session. After the presentations, Nishtha Pandey was adjudged the winner of the Isaac Sequeira Memorial Award. The organisers also gifted a journal to all the three presenters.

On the third day of the conference, in the Parallel Session VA , two papers were presented in this panel. Arusharko Banerjee presented a paper titled, “The Men Died, Long Live the Women: A Comparative Reading of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain’s Sultana’s Dream and Virgin Bergin’s Who Runs The World.” Bhushan Sharma spoke on, “Ladyland of Begum Rokeya: A Feminist Utopia”.
Parallel Session V B was chaired by Prof. Raj Kumar. Sakshi Sundaram spoke on “Of Monsters and Men: Revisiting Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as Anti-Utopia”.
Parallel Session VC was chaired by Prof. Vivek Sachdeva. Santosh Bharti and Preeti Desodiya spoke on Feminist Utopia in Herland. Shishu Bala spoke on “Language as an Instrument of Oppression and Liberation of Women in Select Dystopian Novels.”.
Parallel Session VD was chaired by Prof. Kalpana Purohit. The first speaker, Mishail Sharma presented a paper on “Representation of Imposed Identity and Social Order in the Post-Apocalyptic World of Veronica Roth’s Divergent”. Shikha Thakur spoke on “Breaking the Feminine Myth: From Invisibly Silent to Obliviously Omnipotent Genesis of Women in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple”. Zainab Abrar spoke on “The Dystopian Roots of Post 9/11 Espionage Fiction”.       
Parallel Session VI A was chaired by Prof. Vijay Sharma wherein Shivali Khurana presented a paper on “Feminist Dystopia in Shashi Deshpande’s Stories”. Mohd. Sheraz Butt analysed Lord of the Flies in the light of technological Utopia in a Dystopic world. The third presentation by Azhar Uddin Sahaji and Mirza Sadaf Fatima made a comparative study of Waiting for Godot and Basma Abdul Aziz’s The Gate. Antara Bhatia and Armeen Kaur presented a paper titled “Bana Yeh Mulk Mashaan Kitna: The Post-partition Dystopian City”
Parallel Session VI B was chaired by Prof. Vivek Sachdeva. Ambish Malik presented a paper titled, “Environmental Dystopia in Bacigalupi’s The People of Sand and Slag”. Aparajita Shukla spoke on, “Cultural Ferment, Disintegration and Metamorphosis: Studying Dystopian Reality through Comics”. Rachit Verma presented a paper titled, “The Reworking of Arabic Myth and Folklore in Patrick Graham’s Ghoul”.
Parallel Session VI C was chaired by Prof. Sonya Surbhi Gupta. Rimika Singhvi presented a paper titled “The Religion-Science Divide: A Dystopian Re-telling”. Sourav Kumar Das presented a paper titled, “Comparison between the European and the Dystopian society in Ray Brabury’s Fahrenheit 451”. Tarundeep Singh  presented a paper on animated Japanese movie Spirited Away.
 Parallel Session VI D was chaired by Prof. Dipankar Purukayastha where Faizan Ahmed spoke on “Does Utopia Exist? Analysing Arun Joshi’s (Un)Brave New Worlds in The Strange Case of Billy Biswas”. Mohd. Sharief spoke on “Society and Governance in Dystopian Novels”. Rakhi Vyas spoke on “The Beat Generation and its Literature: A Bold New Utopia”.
          The three-day conference was a fascinating and enriching experience for the paper presenters and the organisers alike. With more than ninety presentations in all, invigorating question and answer sessions, a wonderful cultural evening put together by students of the department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia but enlivened by Prof. Roshan Sharma’s charming musical prowess, sumptuous lunches and sometimes ever too sweet tea breaks, the MELOW-Jamia Millia Islamia conference was a memorable and learning experience as well as an opportunity for people from across the length and breadth of academic institutions in India and abroad to interact, learn and form meaningful friendships. After all, as Prof. Mohanty reminded everyone, the highlight of a conference is great food, great conversations and great company.

Rapporteurs:
Asra Mamnoon
Kalyanee Rajan
Mirza Sadaf Fatima
Grace Mariam Raju
Anusha Halim
Usama Zakir
Anab Naiyer
Anubhav Pradhan
Zahra Rizvi
Aateka Khan
Arif Nisar
Faizan Moquim
Prisha Gupta
Kanupriya
Ishita
Sumaira Gilani


Friday, April 12, 2019

General Body Meeting 17 March 2019


MINUTES OF THE GENERAL BODY MEETING HELD IN JAMIA ON 17 MARCH 2019

After the Valedictory session of the 18th MELOW Conference, a General Body Meeting of MELOW members was held on 17 March 2019 at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi.

The following suggestions made by the Executive Committee were discussed, accepted and passed.
i.                    In an attempt to streamline and simplify conference preparations in future delegates would make their own arrangements for stay. MELOW organizers would, however, help identify suitable hotels and try and get discounted rates.
ii.                  The venue for the next conference would be Chandigarh and the dates would be sometime in February 2020. The topic would be decided after considering suggestions put forward by the members. Themes suggested were (i) Travel Writing and (ii) Looking Forward / Looking Back (changes that have taken place in literature through time). Other suggestions are invited.
iii.                While planning the next conference there will be committees formed for the various jobs related to the event so that responsibility is divided.
iv.                 At every conference the endeavour would be to get one or two invited keynoters, including one creative writer. In addition there will also be an invited ISM speaker. Efforts would be made to identify suitable names of senior professors for the keynote/ISM. Executive members are requested to nominate outstanding academicians and get their CVs for scrutiny.
v.                   Regarding membership: 10-year membership will no longer be offered. Instead fresh enrolments will be for one year (Rs 500) and 5 years (Rs 2000).
vi.                 Membership will be extended to foreign delegates, too at the rate of $50 for five years. For members from SAARC countries, however, a membership of $30 will be charged for five years.
vii.               Membership fee will not include delegate fee which will be taken whenever the member wishes to attend a conference.
viii.             Regarding Office bearers it was decided that Manju Jaidka would take over as President of MELOW, Vijay Sharma would continue as Vice-President, Manpreet Kang would be Secretary and Roshan Sharma would be Jt. Secretary. Anil Raina would formally take over the responsibilities of the Treasurer, a task that he has been doing efficiently since the inception of MELOW. Sachidananda Mohanty will be on the advisory committee of the society.
ix.                 MEJO, the MELOW Journal, will be taken care of by Manpreet Kang assisted by Neela Sarkar. In addition to conference papers MEJO will also consider for publication special invited essays. Journal issues would come out in February every year. Those who would like their papers presented in this conference should email soft copies of their papers to Manpreet at roohipannu@yahoo.co.uk with a copy to melusmelow@gmail.com
Anil Raina spoke of the financial health of the society, pointing out that MELOW is self-dependant and does not need to ask for monetary assistance. Membership and delegate fees ensure that all our activities are self-funded.
The General Body Meeting ended with a vote of thanks from the local organizers and MELOW officials.

BRIEF REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE, 15-17 March 2019
The Local Organizing Committee of Jamia Millia Islamia comprised Prof Nishat Zaidi, Prof Mukesh Ranjan, Dr Shimi Doley, Dr Adeel Mehdi, and Dr Asmat Jahan. They were efficiently assisted by student volunteers who ensured that the conference went off smoothly.
The Keynote Address was given by Prof M.L. Raina and the Special Isaac Sequeira Memorial Lecture was delivered by Prof Sachidananda Mohanty, former VC of Central University of Koraput.
Altogether approx. 100 papers were presented.
The ISM Award was given to Ms Nishtha Pandey of Jamia Millia.


The following were appointed Office Bearers of MELOW w.e.f. 1st April 2019:

President: Prof Manju Jaidka (Chandigarh)
Vice-President: Dr Vijay Sharma (Delhi)
Secretary: Prof Manpreet Kaur (Delhi)
Jt. Secretary: Prof Roshan Sharma (Dharamshala)
Treasurer: Prof Anil Raina (Chandigarh)

Executive Members: 
Prof Sushila Singh (Varanasi)
Prof Dipankar Purkayastha (Silchar)
Prof Debarati Bandopadhyay (Santiniketan)
Prof Ravichandran (Kanpur)
Dr Seema Bhupendra (Udaipur)
Dr Neela Sarkar (Kolkata)
Dr Jyoti Mishra (Chattisgarh)
Dr Vandhana Sharma (Jammu)
Dr Suneeta Patnayak (Chandigarh)
Dr Radha Gautam (Surat)
Dr Neepa Sarkar (Bangalore)

International Advisory Board
Prof Giorgio Mariani (U of Rome, Italy)
Prof Shirley Geok Lim (UCSB, USA)
Prof Rajeshwari Pandharipande (U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Prof Mukesh Williams (Soka University, Japan)
Prof Pawel Jędrzejko (U of Silesia, Katowice, Poland)
Prof Sachidananda Mohanty (Orissa, India)