Group Photo

Delegates of the Feb Conference 2010 in Chandigarh/

The conference-cum LitFest was a great success.

Lookout for the detailed report.

International Conference Feb 2010

http://www.theindiapost.com/2010/02/25/first-day-of-the-international-conference-on-contemporary-issues-literature-and-culture-since-1980-and-the-lit-fest/

http://bharatsandesh.com/bharat/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13997&Itemid=1

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

TENTH MELUS-MELOW INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE / FIRST CHANDIGARH LITFEST FEB 25-27, 2010

25^TH FEBRUARY 2010

9.30 AM REGISTRATION

9.45 AM INAUGURAL SESSION Venue: English Auditorium

10:00 am	Introduction	Manju Jaidka
10:15 am	Presidential Welcome	Gulshan Kataria
10:30 am	Inauguration	R.C Sobti (VC)
10:45 am	Special Guest	Pradip Mehra, IAS

11:00 am Announcement of Isaac Sequeira Prize and Book Launch

11.15 AM TEA BREAK

11.30 am to 12 noon: First Keynote. Prof. Harish Trivedi: “India, America and World Literature”

Venues for all Parallel Sessions:

Session A: English Auditorium

Session B: Lecture Hall I, GF, Arts Block I

Session C: Lecture Hall II, GF, Arts Block I

Session D: Language Lab, 1^st Floor, Arts Block I

12 NOON – 1.30 PARALLEL SESSIONS A - D

[Brajesh Sawhney]	[Vijay Sharma]	[Mita Biswas]	[Sushila Singh]
Anu Celly	Mahesh Bharatkumar Bhatt	Sushi Datta-Sandhu	Meenu Gupta
Manpreet Kaur Kang	Rajyashree Khushu-Lahiri	Sandhya Devesan Nambiar	Pankti Desai
Purnendu Chatterjee	Vinita Jha	Rohini Tukdeo	Rachna Rastogi
Sunita Sinha	Garima Williams	Shuchismita Mitra	Mary Mohanty

1.30 TO 2.30 PHOTO SESSION & LUNCH

2.30 TO 4.00 PM PARALLEL SESSIONS A - D

[Harish Trivedi]	[Sudhir Kumar]	[Anu Celly]	[Lovelina P. Singh]
Stella Hockenhull	Anil Raina	Anurag Kumar & Nagendra Kumar	Nilakshi Roy
Somdatta	Razdan, K B	V.Lakshmanan	Maghsood Esmaieli
Mohanmeet Khosla	Mukul Sengupta	Roshan Lal Sharma	Amrit Kaur
Sachin Ketkar	Santosh P. Rajguru	Niyatee Ayyar	Navjot Kaur

4.00 TO 4.15 TEA BREAK

4.15 TO 5.15 PM PARALLEL SESSIONS A - C

(Himadri Lahiri)	[V. Lakshmanan]	[Mukul Sengupta]
Azad+Esmael	NDR Chandra	R.G.Kulkarni
Jyoti Mishra	Ravichandran T.	Hossein Sabouri
Navreet Sahi	Melissa Helen	Ramanpreet Grewal

5.15 TO 6.00: BREAK

6.00 PM PLENARY PPT presentations (Eng Audi) On Michael Jackson; on Chandigarh by S.S. Bhatti,

8.00 PM DINNER

7.00 PM: Play Performance by Dept of Indian Theatre, Panjab University, Chandigarh

“The Trojan Women” in Hindustani – Venue – Open Air Theatre

26^TH FEB 2010

9.30 AM TO 11.00 - PARALLEL SESSIONS A TO D

[Kuldip Kaur Kuwahara]	[Razdan, K B]	[Nishi Pandey]	[Meera Malik]
Carolyn Kraus	Yatri Dilipbhai Dave	Rashmi Mathur	Sukla Basu (Sen)
Raphael Joseph	Mahesh M. Nivargi	Vandana Datta	Reza Yavarian
Anjali Chauhan	Harneet Sandhu	Anupam Nahar	Vicky Sylvester
Neeti Mahajan	Jayanta Kar Sharma	Kaliknar Pattanayak	Debashish Lahiri

11.00 TO 11.30 TEA BREAK

11.30 AM TO 12 NOON

PLENARY SESSION

Mukesh Williams

Second Keynote Address: “Culture of Capitalism and Consumerism: The American Gulliver and World Systems —Cooperation and Consensus”

12 NOON TO 1.00 PM - PARALLEL SESSIONS A TO C

[Somdatta Mandal]	[Mina S. Singh]	[Suneeta Patnayak]
Carlos Gohn	Kuldip Kaur Kuwahara	Anshu Shekhawat
Vivek Sachdeva	Nandini Bhadra	Vandana Sukheeja
Himadri Roy	Alka Saxena	Ranjita Barik

1.00 TO 2.00 PM LUNCH

2.00 PM TO 3.30 PARALLEL SESSIONS A TO C

[Mukesh Williams]	[Carolyn Kraus]	[Anil Raina]
Kaoru Kinoshita	Dipankar Purkayastha	Himadri Lahiri
Ui Teramoto	Roya Yaghoubi	Seema Malik+Vaibhav
Kun Jong Lee	Ashu Vashisht	Namrata Nistandra
Akiko Ogihara	Seema Bhupendra	Smita Jha

3.30 : TEA BREAK

3.45 to 4.15 PM MELOW GBM

6.00 TO 7.30 TWO PARALLEL POETRY SESSIONS (Hindi and English)

(A) Venue: Gandhi Bhavan [Mamta Kalia / DS Gupt] T N Raaz Yojana Rawat Roshan B D Kalia Rupa Saba Taaran Gujral Santosh Dhiman Atul Vir

(B) Venue: English Audi [Sushila Singh / Manju Jaidka] Nirupama Dutt Kailash Ahluwalia Balpreet Kaur Lalita Jagmohan Aradhana Sharma Sourabh Gupta Debashish Lahiri

7.30 PM: DINNER

27^th Feb 2010 Venue: English Auditorium

9.45 am to 10.30 am		Shashi Deshpande (Pratibha Nagpal & Sudhir Kumar)
10.30 am to 11.15 am		Mamta Kalia (Mina Singh)
11.15am to 11.30 am		TEA BREAK
11.30 noon to 12.15 pm		Chander Trikha (Madhav Kaushik)
12.15 to 1.00 pm		Namita Gokhale and Malashri Lal (Manju Jaidka)
1.00 pm to 2.00		LUNCH
2.00 to 3.30 pm TWO PARALLEL STORY SESSIONS
	(A) Venue: Gandhi Bhavan		(B) Venue: English Auditorium
	[Dr. Zakir]		[Manjula Padmanabhan]
	V. Mehndiratta		T N Dhar
	Indu Bali		Carolyn Kraus
	Ravindra Kalia		Jaideep
	3.30 to 3.45 pm TEA BREAK
3. 45 to 4.15 pm		P.C. Kar (Gulshan Kataria) ISM Lecture “Aesthetics of Modernism”
4.15-4.30 pm		Summing up & Vote of Thanks

CONFERENCE UPDATE:

The International Conference on “CONTEMPORARY ISSUES: Literature and Culture Since 1980” is being held from Feb 25 to 27, 2010. The Conference will dove-tail into the First Chandigarh LitFest for which there will be several well-known literary figures visiting Chandigarh. The event has been announced over the Internet through different mailing listservs and the expected participation from Chandigarh, India and abroad will be around 250 delegates.

The event is being co-hosted by the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi (www.chandigarhsahityaakademi.blogspot.com) which is governed by the Chandigarh Arts Council (UT) and organizes Literary events from time to time. In collaboration with the Panjab University and MELOW, the Akademi is, for the first time in the history of Chandigarh, organizing a Literary Festival.

MELOW (website www.melus-melow.org and blog www.melusmelow.blogspot.com) is an independent, registered, non-profit organization committed to the study World Literatures. A team of senior Professors from different universities in India and abroad manages the affairs of the Society. It has an International advisory board and to date it has held nine conferences. The February 2010 conference will be its tenth international conference.

About 200 delegates are expected to participate in this conference, including 20 from abroad. Well known names of academics are Profs Harish Trivedi, P.C. Kar, Tejnath Dhar, Sushila Singh, Malashri Lal. Mukesh Williams, Brajesh Sawhney, Mita Biswas, Dipankar Purukayastha, Nishi Pandey, Gulshan Kataria and KB Razdan. Creative writers particpating in the event include Shashi Deshpande, Mamta and Ravinder Kalia, Namita Gokhale and Manjula Padmanabhan. They will interact with local writers and scholars like Dr KL Zakir, V. Mehndirata, Indu Bali, Chander Trikha, Atulvir Arora, Nirupama Dutt and university teachers including Profs Manju Jaidka and Anil Raina, the main organizers of the conference and LitFest. Dr DS Gupt and Madhav Kaushik, Vice-President and Secretary, respectively, of the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi, are also involved in the organization.

The 3-day Event will be inaugurated on 25th Feb by Prof RC Sobti, Vice-Chancellor, Panjab Universtiy, Chandigarh. The Special Guest on this occasion will be Shri Pradip Mehra, IAS, Adviser to the Administrator, UT, Chandigarh.

There will be a special Isaac Sequeira Memorial Lecture delivered by Prof PC Kar on 27^th February.

The ISM Award for the best paper presented at the last (Shantiniketan) Conference will be given to Dr Dipankar Roy.

An anthology comprising selected papers of the Shantiniketan Conference will be released at the Inauguration.

FEBRUARY 2010 CONFERENCE

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AND LITFEST 2010

The Panjab University will collaborate with the Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi and the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the World (MELOW) to hold an International Conference on “Literature and Culture Post-1980” from Feb 25 to 27, 2010. The Conference will dove-tail into the First Chandigarh Literary Festival for which there will be several well-known literary figures visiting Chandigarh. The event has been announced over the Internet through different mailing listservs and the expected participation from Chandigarh, India and abroad will be around 200 delegates.

MELOW (website www.melus-melow.org) is an independent, registered, non-profit organization committed to the study World Literatures. A team of senior Professors from different universities manages the affairs of the Society. It has an International advisory board and to date it has held nine conferences. The Februrary 2010 conference will be its tenth international conference.

Chandigarh Sahitya Akademi (www.chandigarhsahityaakademi.blogspot.com) is governed by the Chandigarh Arts Council (UT) and organizes Literary events from time to time. In collaboration with the Panjab University and MELOW, the Akademi is, for the first time in the history of Chandigarh, organizing a Literary Festival.

WELCOME TO THE INAUGURATION ON 25TH FEB 2010 AT 9.45 AM.

VENUE: ENGLISH AUDITORIUM, PANJAB UNIVERSITY, CHANDIGARH

ABSTRACTS

ABSTRACTS ACCEPTED:

Alka Saxena

Lan Cao’s Monkey Bridge: A Study In Cultural Negotiation

Amrit Kaur

Shame Of ‘Honour Killing’: Moral Policing In Jaswinder Sanghera’s Daughters Of Shame

Anil Raina

Religion, Capitalism, And Terrorism In John Updike’s Terrorist

Anjali Chauhan

Lucknow City:From The Cuture Of Nawabs To The Culture Of Consumption

Ankur Sharma

"Most Mischievous Foul Sin, In Chiding Sin": Selling Women Emancipation In Bollywood

Anshu Shekhawat

Gender Perspectives in the Domestic Sphere In The Post-1980 Indian Drama : A Critical Study Of Selected Plays

Anu Celly Narula

Quest for the West: The Tragic Audacity of Immigrant Dreams in Laila Lalami’s Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

Anupam Nahar

The Bard In Bollywood: Adaptations Across Cultures

Anurag Kumar & Nagendra Kumar

Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day: A Cultural Study

Ashu Vashisht

Ecstatic Literature And Enigmatic Culture: Gendered Apostasy In Jerzy Kosinski’s Pinball (1982)

Azad Hamad Sharif (Senior Lecturer of English and American Literature in English Dept. College of Languages - Salahaddin University) (Mukriany2006@yahoo.com)

Address: Brayati Qrt., Erbil - Iraqi Kurdistan

&

Sherzad Barzani (Senior Lecturer of English and American Literaturein English Dept. College of Languages - Salahaddin University) (sherzadb@yahoo.com)

Address: Salahaddin Resort., Erbil - Iraqi Kurdistan

&

Ismael Mohammedfahmi Saeed (Assist Prof. of English and American Literature in English Dept. College of Languages - Salahaddin University)(drishmail@yahoo.com)

Address: Zanko Village, Erbil - Iraqi Kurdistan

Stephen King's Desperation (1996) As an Ecocritical Novel

Brahm Raj Singh

Diasporic Dimensions of the Cinematic Versions of Meera Syal’s Anita and Me

Brajesh Sawhney

The Last Report On The Miracles At Little No Horse(2001), By Louise Erdrich:

A Woman Trickster As A Place Where Identities Meet

Carlos Gohn

As They Saw India: The Case Of A Soap Opera In Brazil

Carolyn Kraus

Notes From Underground: Detroit's Other Economy

Christopher Patterson

Cosmopolitanism, Reappropriation: Loss And Transcendence In Han Ong's Fixer Chao

Debalina Banerjee

Retelling India: Of Mtv Cults And Cultural ‘Lakshmanrekhas’

Debashish Lahiri

“Grave Dirt, Dried Toads, and the Blood of a Black Cat: Man Jacks of Ideology and the Obi Bag ”

Debarati Bandyopadhyay

Negotiating Transitions: Charles Johnson And Mamang Dai

Dipankar Purkayastha

Negotiating transitions: Charles Johnson and Mamang Dai

Garima G. Williams

Sublime And Subversive Women Of Jhumpa Lahiri As Victim Of Consumerist Culture

Harish Trivedi

“American Literature as World Literature!"

Himadri Lahiri

Memory and Reality in Khaled Hossaini’s The Kite Runner

Himadri Roy

Invisible Reality Of The Gays In Bollywood Represenattion : A Case Study Of Dostana (2008)

Hossein Sabouri

Chinua Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah-: Whose is to Blame

Howard R. Wolf

Recent Trends In American Life And Culture (With An Emphasis On Television, Advertising, And Electronic Communication)

Jayanta Kar Sharma

A Critical Re-Reading Of Dalit Literature

Jesus Cyril M. Conde

The Discourse Of Open Rationality And The Borderless Post-Colonial Identity In The Oral Literature And Culture Of Mount Asog, Mount Isarog, And Malasugui, Camarines Norte In The Bikol Region Of The Philippines

Jyoti Mishra

Living And Not Pretending To Live Through Self- Actualization: Coelho’s Veronika Decides To Die

Kalikinkar Pattanayak

Fictional Representation Of Contemporary Reality:A Comparative Study Of "Midnight's Children" And "The White Tiger"

Kaoru Kinoshita

Concept Of Gender In The Poetry Of Walt Whitman And Daisaku Ikeda

Kishore Kumar Reddy

The Ascetic Ideal: Hyper-Male And The Making Of Politics

H S Komalesha and Priyanka Tripathi

Gendered Space and Endangered Species: Sexuality And Woman In Indian Women's Short Fiction In English

Kuldip Kaur Kuwahara

The 21st-Century Challenge of Exploring Violence and Envisioning Peace Through Multi-Ethnic World Literature: Kingston's Tripmaster Monkey and Rushdie's the Enchantress of Florence and Haroun and the Sea of Stories.

Kun Jong Lee

Repositioning Korean Military Wives In Ishle Yi Park’s The Temperature Ofthis Water

Maghsood Esmaieli

Hijab In Islam And Iran: The Shiite Perspective

Mahesh Bharatkumar Bhatt

Metamorphosis Of The Protagonist In Desirable Daughters By Bharati Mukherjee

Mahesh M. Nivargi

Heading For The Light : An Exegesis Of The Mysticism In The Traveling Wilburys’ Lyrics

Manju Jaidka

The Making of A Legend: The Virtual Life of Michael Jackson

Manpreet Kaur Kang

Indian Women Writers In Canada: A Socio-Literary Study

Mary Mohanty

The Woman Question: A Study Of Arundhati Roy's The God Of Small Things

Meenu Gupta

Aesthetics of Representing Cultural Paradigms In Rushdie

Melissa Helen

Mass Media And The Polarization Of Racism And Sexism With Reference To The Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas In The United States

Mohanmeet Khosla

Pictures In Our Heads: Media As Society’s Mirror Or Driver?

Mukesh Williams

Culture Of Capitalism And Consumerism　

The American Gulliver And World Systems—Cooperation And Consensus

Mukul Sengupta

Strategies Of Culture And Imperialism In Howard Bahr’s “ The Year Of Jubilo” A Novel Of The Civil War

NDR Chandra

A World without Real: Understanding Hyperreality”

Namrata Nistandra

‘The World Was Silent When We Died’: Remembering History In C N Adichie’s Half Of A Yellow Sun

Nandini Bhadra

Transculturing The Chinese Legend Mulan And The Woman Warrior Tradition: Legend, Myth, Film And Popular Culture

Navneet Sethi

Dissident Bodies, Demystified Nations: A Postcolonial Reading Of Disability In The Fiction(S) Of Toni Morrison

Navreet Sahi

Breaking The Boundaries: From Fringes To Frames

Neeti Mahajan

Bombay Lost and Found – The Question of Relocation and Identity Formation in Suketu Mehta's The Maximum City

Nilakshi Roy

“Schooled” And “Classed”: The Portrayal Of The 1960s-70s Asian Girl-Child In British Asian Texts Of The 1980s To The Present

Nishi Pulugurtha

"Translocating Identity In Sino-Indian Diasporic
Literature: Kwai-Yun Li’s The Last Dragon Dance"

Nitish S. Bhooshetty

Blogs As Texts: Meta Reality

Niyatee Ayyar

Journey From Compliance To Competence

(Portrayal Of African-American Women’s Selfhood In The Novels Of Contemporary African American Novelist Alice Walker)

Pankti Desai

Sugarcanes, Swans And Sex: Depiction Of Feminne Sexuality In Sujata Bhatt’s Poetry

Prem Anandhi

Impact Of Capitalist Culture In The Lives Of The Igbo Tribes In
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Purnendu Chatterjee.

Indian Sub-Continental Female Diaspora: Reading Three Novels Of Bapsi Sidhwa, Kiran Desai And Monica Ali

R.G. Kulkarni

Dissolving The Boundaries- A Critical Appraisal Of Sandra Cisnero’s Poetry

R. K. Dhawan

Combating Degradation Of Environment: An Eco-Critical Approach

Rachna Rastogi

Cultural Assimilation In The Works Of Kamala Markandaya

Rajyashree Khushu-Lahiri

Body and Food In Bharati Mukherjee’s Wife and Jasmine

Ramanpreet Grewal

Morbid Interregnum: Racial Violence In The Novels Of Nadine Gordimer

Ranjita Barik

The Voice Of The Subaltern In The White Tiger

Raphael Joseph

Re-Remembering Space And Place: Spatializing Literary And Cultural Studies (With Reference To Le Clezio And Kafka)

Rashmi Mathur

Rise Of The Indian Picaro : A Metamorphosis From Underdog/ Slumdog To White Tiger/Millionaire

Ravichandran, T.

"Mixing Of The Mythical And The Hyperreal In Cyberhell: Tracking The Topology Of Cybermancy"

K B Razdan

Literature - Culture Synergy : Chronic Scenario Of An Unnerving Fracture In John Updike’s Roger’s Version (1986)

Rosario Hubert

Revisiting Japonism In Contemporary Brazilian Literature

Reza Yavarian

Nature/Human In Hills Like White Elephants [Ask Him To Expand And Clarify]

Rohini Tukdeo

‘In Search Of Woman’s Sphere’ – A Case Study Of A Marathi Novel

Roshan Sharma

“Subverting Mainstream Cinema: A Critique Of The Images Of Despair, Death And Violence In Bahman Ghobadi’s Film Turtles Can Fly”

Roya Yaghoubi

Image Of Afro-American Subaltern Girl In Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye (Psychological Murder)

Sachin Ketkar

Rebuilding Babel: Literary Studies In The Post Global –Post Political Era

Sagar Pandya

Questioning Morals In The Devil And Miss Prym

Sandhya Devesan Nambiar

The Left Hand Of Darkness: An Ecofeminist Reading Of Ursula Le Guin

Santosh P.Rajguru

Multiculturalism And Ethnicity - A Study Of Zadie Smith's Novels

Seema Bhupendra

Poltics Of Violence And Oppression In The Plays Of Harold Pinter

Seema Malik & Vaibhav Shah

Terrorism And Counter-Terrorism: A Reading Of Orhan Pamuk’s Snow

Shuchismita Mitra

Role-Play And Shifting Identities In Popular Hindi Cinema : Jo Bole So Nihaal, A Case-Study

Smita Jha

The Western Paradigm: An Overview Of Slumdog Millionaire And The White Tiger

Smita Verghese

We All Hustlers: Sudhir Venkatesh’s Gang Leader For A Day: A Rouge Sociologist Crosses The Line

Somaya Sami Sabry

Performing Arab-American Women’s Experiences: An Exploration Of The Hyphen/Border And Its Dynamics

Somdatta Mandal

‘Fat Studies’: The Obsession And The Discourse Of Revolt In American Culture

Stella Hockenhull

Emotional Landscapes And My Summer Of Love

Stuti Prasad

Ecology And Environmemt In The Poetry Of Agha Shahid Ali

Subapriya, K.

Role Of ‘Ecological Conversion’ In Shaping Human Bondage With Nature

Sukla Basu

African American Consciousness Since The 80s: The ‘Songs’ Of Dramatist August Wilson

Suman Bala

Adapting Literary Classics To The Screen: A Study Of Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas, Amrita Pritam’s Pinjar And Bapsi Sidhwa’s Ice-Candy Man

Sunita Sinha

Miasma Of Violence In Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India

Sushi Datta-Sandhu

Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai: Environmentalist, Political Activist And Cultural Icon Of Kenya

Ui Teramoto

Configuring And Representing Indian Diaspora In Japan

V.Lakshmanan

Blues As The Enabler In Gayl Jones's Corregidora

Vandana Datta

The Underdog Has Arrived

A Study Of The Rise Of The Subaltern In Indian English Fiction

Vandana Sukheeja

Postcolonial Dichotomy In Girish Karnad’s “Wedding Album”

V.M. Sylvester

Dept of English and Literary Studies

University of Abuja, Nigeria

vickysylvesterm@yahoo.com

Critical Perspectives on Popular African Myths of Women: Implications for Development

Sub-theme: Popular Culture

Vinita Jha

The Post-Colonial Syndrome: A Study Of The Inheritance Of Loss

Vivek Sachdeva

Media As A Weapon: A Study Of Presentation Of Terrorism In Indian Visual Media With Special Reference To 26/11

Yatri Dilipbhai Dave

Culture Of Consumerism As Reflected In Chetan Bhagat’s One Night @ Call Center