- New Delhi, Delhi, India
Special issue no 4-5 (English version) of Unesco-International Women Philosophers' Journal (Revue des femmes philosophes) on the present political conjuncture in India dominated by Hindu nationalism. EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Coordination:... more
Special issue no 4-5 (English version) of Unesco-International Women Philosophers' Journal (Revue des femmes philosophes) on the present political conjuncture in India dominated by Hindu nationalism.
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Coordination: Barbara Cassin Isabelle Alandary, Françoise Balibar, Anne E. Berger, Michèle Gendreau-Massaloux, Françoise Gorog, Judith Revel, Marta Segarra, Giulia Sissa
FOR NUMBER 4-5
Guest editor: Divya Dwivedi (Indian Institute o echnology, Delhi) Editorial Assistance: Priyanka Deshmukh, Chloé Pretesacque, Aarushi Punia
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Seyla Benhabib (urkey-USA), Fina Birulés (Spain), Fernanda Bruno (Brazil), Vinciane Despret (Belgium), Penelope Deutscher (USA-Australia), Julia Kristeva (France), Mariella Pandolfi (Canada), Danièle Wozny (France)
Contributors include Romila Thapar, Anand Teltumbde, Yashpal Jogdand, T. M. Krishna, Shahid Amin, Supriya Chaudhuri, Alok Rai, Vijay Tankha, Shaj Mohan, Debjani Bhattacharya, Adam Knowles, Charles Malamoud, Ravish Kumar, Teesta Setalvad, Favia Agnes, S. Anand, Perumal Murugan, Meera Nanda, Subhashini Ali, Siddharth Varadarajan, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Hartosh Bal, Urvashi Butalia, A. Revathi, Mariana Alves and many others.
Artists include Tejal Shah, Roshni Vyam, Javed Iqbal, Vivek Muthuramalingam, Ram Rahman, Parthiv Shah, Sanjay Kak, Altaf Qadri, Showkat Nanda, Javed Dar, Yasin Dar, Azan Shah, Jitish kallat, Kishen Khanna, Sam Panthaky.
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Coordination: Barbara Cassin Isabelle Alandary, Françoise Balibar, Anne E. Berger, Michèle Gendreau-Massaloux, Françoise Gorog, Judith Revel, Marta Segarra, Giulia Sissa
FOR NUMBER 4-5
Guest editor: Divya Dwivedi (Indian Institute o echnology, Delhi) Editorial Assistance: Priyanka Deshmukh, Chloé Pretesacque, Aarushi Punia
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Seyla Benhabib (urkey-USA), Fina Birulés (Spain), Fernanda Bruno (Brazil), Vinciane Despret (Belgium), Penelope Deutscher (USA-Australia), Julia Kristeva (France), Mariella Pandolfi (Canada), Danièle Wozny (France)
Contributors include Romila Thapar, Anand Teltumbde, Yashpal Jogdand, T. M. Krishna, Shahid Amin, Supriya Chaudhuri, Alok Rai, Vijay Tankha, Shaj Mohan, Debjani Bhattacharya, Adam Knowles, Charles Malamoud, Ravish Kumar, Teesta Setalvad, Favia Agnes, S. Anand, Perumal Murugan, Meera Nanda, Subhashini Ali, Siddharth Varadarajan, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Hartosh Bal, Urvashi Butalia, A. Revathi, Mariana Alves and many others.
Artists include Tejal Shah, Roshni Vyam, Javed Iqbal, Vivek Muthuramalingam, Ram Rahman, Parthiv Shah, Sanjay Kak, Altaf Qadri, Showkat Nanda, Javed Dar, Yasin Dar, Azan Shah, Jitish kallat, Kishen Khanna, Sam Panthaky.
Research Interests:
This chapter dwells on the issue of refugeehood and migration by using the vampiric figure to make a difference in the interpretations in a series of thinkers of "mitsein", starting with Heidegger. The vampire suggests a strata of the... more
This chapter dwells on the issue of refugeehood and migration by using the vampiric figure to make a difference in the interpretations in a series of thinkers of "mitsein", starting with Heidegger. The vampire suggests a strata of the old. Their existence is hidden and their survival relies on physical proximity, the intimacy of bites, while their exotic origins lure and threaten the West. The vampiric (as well as zombie) ways of being-with can be said to have undergone a Sloterdijkian densification, proceeding from folklore through high realist literature and expressionist cinema to twenty-first century Scandinavian crime fiction, sci-fi ‘survival horror’ films and video games, American soaps and chick lit. Dwivedi distinguishes Agamben and Foucault as two inheritors of the philosophical thought of politics that Arendt drew from Heidegger and proposes the concept of a rift-design of politics that preserves the openness for the new even as "it gives"(es gibt) the regimentation of being-with. She revisits Foucault’s tripartite sketch for relating to our own time and space politically: the combination of archaeology- genealogy-strategics identifies the possibility of shaking free from a reigning system of governmentality. She translates ontological openness into political openness, suggesting that considerations of refugeehood, too, cannot remain locked in aporias of sovereign power. The aesthetic existence of vampires and zombies across decennia is used as a genealogical index that also invites strategics, as shown in films like Warm Bodies.
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The Public Sphere from Outside the West brings together young scholars and established thinkers from philosophy, literature, sociology, history, information technology and artificial intelligence to present new and fresh debates on the... more
The Public Sphere from Outside the West brings together young scholars and established thinkers from philosophy, literature, sociology, history, information technology and artificial intelligence to present new and fresh debates on the public sphere. By focusing on the idea of the public as it is mobilized within multiple contexts, this unique collection refuses to track its fate as a norm that is achieved or deviated from. Instead it explores and understands the work of the idea of the public (and the public/private distinction) within different, often overlooked, contexts. For instance, as well as discussing the existence of a legitimate public space in India, The Public Sphere from Outside the West considers emergent public spheres in South Africa and southern Africa. With sophisticated discussion of the politics of the digital age, particularly in the context of social and political movements such as the Arab Spring, this is the first collection on the subject to feature an impressive range of writers from non-western countries. Global and timely in outlook, The Public Sphere from Outside the West breaks new ground and changes our way of looking at the public space in the 21st century. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-public-sphere-from-outside-the-west-9781472571939/#sthash.cdKoS5Xz.dpuf
Research Interests:
SHAJ MOHAN and DIVYA DWIVEDI interviewed by JOSEPH CONFAVREUX for the journal MEDIAPART, 2O MAY 2018 Pourquoi l’hindouisme a-t-il été inventé ? Comment les études postcoloniales sont-elles embrigadées par le nationalisme hindou ? La... more
SHAJ MOHAN and DIVYA DWIVEDI interviewed by JOSEPH CONFAVREUX for the journal MEDIAPART, 2O MAY 2018
Pourquoi l’hindouisme a-t-il été inventé ? Comment les études postcoloniales sont-elles embrigadées par le nationalisme hindou ? La figure de Gandhi est-elle équivoque ? Rencontre avec deux jeunes philosophes d’une scène intellectuelle indienne en proie à la chasse aux sorcières du pouvoir.
Pourquoi l’hindouisme a-t-il été inventé ? Comment les études postcoloniales sont-elles embrigadées par le nationalisme hindou ? La figure de Gandhi est-elle équivoque ? Rencontre avec deux jeunes philosophes d’une scène intellectuelle indienne en proie à la chasse aux sorcières du pouvoir.
Research Interests:
(Originally titled: Sex and Postcolonial Family Values) Raya Sarkar has brought us a Facebook list, setting the creeds and schools in abeyance, and we will not understand what they did until it has all been done. This list comes in the... more
(Originally titled: Sex and Postcolonial Family Values)
Raya Sarkar has brought us a Facebook list, setting the creeds and schools in abeyance, and we will not understand what they did until it has all been done. This list comes in the epoch of the leaks — "Unlike societies in the 1970s, our social body is defined by leaks; everything leaks, from surveillance tapes, wire tapes, nudity on a remote beach, books, music to medicinal drugs and lives”. It comes also in the era of new technologies of sex. In this, the list should not surprise us.
All we need to know about the list, for now, is that it is a “crowd-sourced list naming alleged sexual harassers in academia”. Further, some of the names in the list are the leaders of postcolonial theory which also determines the most dominant feminism in India. The list liberates women from the terror of men and the demand for submission to the postcolonial norms in the academia. In this, the list reveals the critical-ised state of feminism.
All we need to know for now is that Sarkar is 'they' since we do not give a damn about what anyone was born as. This 'they' is not Whitman’s multitudes but something different which indicates the passion for the future which — this time it is of everything — is already here. They and their list are showing us something beyond sex, death, and the little fascisms in the name of "the left".
Raya Sarkar has brought us a Facebook list, setting the creeds and schools in abeyance, and we will not understand what they did until it has all been done. This list comes in the epoch of the leaks — "Unlike societies in the 1970s, our social body is defined by leaks; everything leaks, from surveillance tapes, wire tapes, nudity on a remote beach, books, music to medicinal drugs and lives”. It comes also in the era of new technologies of sex. In this, the list should not surprise us.
All we need to know about the list, for now, is that it is a “crowd-sourced list naming alleged sexual harassers in academia”. Further, some of the names in the list are the leaders of postcolonial theory which also determines the most dominant feminism in India. The list liberates women from the terror of men and the demand for submission to the postcolonial norms in the academia. In this, the list reveals the critical-ised state of feminism.
All we need to know for now is that Sarkar is 'they' since we do not give a damn about what anyone was born as. This 'they' is not Whitman’s multitudes but something different which indicates the passion for the future which — this time it is of everything — is already here. They and their list are showing us something beyond sex, death, and the little fascisms in the name of "the left".
Research Interests:
Advance Review: Coming after 20 years, Arundhati Roy's new novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is not a picaresque tale of sorrowers but a saga of small-time renegades of fate who emerge as portraits each of a singular fortitude... more
Advance Review:
Coming after 20 years, Arundhati Roy's new novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is not a picaresque tale of sorrowers but a saga of small-time renegades of fate who emerge as portraits each of a singular fortitude through the darkest hour.
Coming after 20 years, Arundhati Roy's new novel The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is not a picaresque tale of sorrowers but a saga of small-time renegades of fate who emerge as portraits each of a singular fortitude through the darkest hour.
Research Interests:
(HIndi version of "Who Gets to Kill Whom in the Union of India") हिंदुत्ववादी गिरोह क़ानून, विस्थापन, हत्याओं और धमकियों के सहारे दलितों और मुस्लिमों की जीवन पद्धति को नष्ट करने में लगे हुए हैं. जब न्यायिक संस्थाएं असफलत हो जाती हैं, तब... more
(HIndi version of "Who Gets to Kill Whom in the Union of India")
हिंदुत्ववादी गिरोह क़ानून, विस्थापन, हत्याओं और धमकियों के सहारे दलितों और मुस्लिमों की जीवन पद्धति को नष्ट करने में लगे हुए हैं.
जब न्यायिक संस्थाएं असफलत हो जाती हैं, तब जीवन का आदिम क़ानून- वह क़ानून जो न्यायिक संस्थाओं को वैधता प्रदान करता है, प्रकट होता है और उसका राज कायम हो जाता है.
यह क़ानून कहता है कि आप अपने जीवन और स्वजनों की रक्षा ख़ुद करेंगे. राज्य का निर्माण करने वाला क़रारनामा सिर्फ़ इसलिए मुमकिन हुआ, क्योंकि हमने अपनी रक्षा ख़ुद करने के आदिम क़ानून को राज्य को सौंप दिया- कुछ इस तरह से कि राज्य हमारे बदले में बिना किसी चूक के हर मौक़े पर इस अधिकार का इस्तेमाल करे.
संविधान में इस तथ्य के प्रमाण मिलते हैं कि व्यक्ति को अपनी रक्षा करने का अधिकार है और इसलिए यह एक ऐसी चीज़ है, जिसको कोई चुनौती नहीं दे सकता है.
राजनीतिक विचारकों के लिए असफल राज्य एक दिलचस्प जगह है, क्योंकि यहां वह आदिम क़ानून दिखाई देता है, जिसके मुताबिक हमें अपनी हत्या नहीं होने देने के लिए दूसरों की हत्या करनी होगी. वैसे शासनों में जो अच्छे या ख़राब तरीक़े से चल रहे हैं, इस आदिम क़ानून का दिखाई देना वैसी ही अश्लीलता है जैसे किसी क़त्लगाह के बाहर अंतड़ियां दिखाई दें.
हिंदुत्ववादी गिरोह क़ानून, विस्थापन, हत्याओं और धमकियों के सहारे दलितों और मुस्लिमों की जीवन पद्धति को नष्ट करने में लगे हुए हैं.
जब न्यायिक संस्थाएं असफलत हो जाती हैं, तब जीवन का आदिम क़ानून- वह क़ानून जो न्यायिक संस्थाओं को वैधता प्रदान करता है, प्रकट होता है और उसका राज कायम हो जाता है.
यह क़ानून कहता है कि आप अपने जीवन और स्वजनों की रक्षा ख़ुद करेंगे. राज्य का निर्माण करने वाला क़रारनामा सिर्फ़ इसलिए मुमकिन हुआ, क्योंकि हमने अपनी रक्षा ख़ुद करने के आदिम क़ानून को राज्य को सौंप दिया- कुछ इस तरह से कि राज्य हमारे बदले में बिना किसी चूक के हर मौक़े पर इस अधिकार का इस्तेमाल करे.
संविधान में इस तथ्य के प्रमाण मिलते हैं कि व्यक्ति को अपनी रक्षा करने का अधिकार है और इसलिए यह एक ऐसी चीज़ है, जिसको कोई चुनौती नहीं दे सकता है.
राजनीतिक विचारकों के लिए असफल राज्य एक दिलचस्प जगह है, क्योंकि यहां वह आदिम क़ानून दिखाई देता है, जिसके मुताबिक हमें अपनी हत्या नहीं होने देने के लिए दूसरों की हत्या करनी होगी. वैसे शासनों में जो अच्छे या ख़राब तरीक़े से चल रहे हैं, इस आदिम क़ानून का दिखाई देना वैसी ही अश्लीलता है जैसे किसी क़त्लगाह के बाहर अंतड़ियां दिखाई दें.
Research Interests:
The country is witnessing the law of the living in the space of death. When the legal institutions fail, another law, the grounding law of the living — the law which legitimises the legal institutions — shows itself and reigns: You shall... more
The country is witnessing the law of the living in the space of death.
When the legal institutions fail, another law, the grounding law of the living — the law which legitimises the legal institutions — shows itself and reigns: You shall protect your own life and that of your loved ones. The accord which created the state was possible only because we entrusted to the state this grounding law — that we must protect ourselves — such that the state exercises this right on our behalf without failing in any instance. This fact is evident in the constitution — the individual has a right to defend himself — and is hence unchallengeable.
When the legal institutions fail, another law, the grounding law of the living — the law which legitimises the legal institutions — shows itself and reigns: You shall protect your own life and that of your loved ones. The accord which created the state was possible only because we entrusted to the state this grounding law — that we must protect ourselves — such that the state exercises this right on our behalf without failing in any instance. This fact is evident in the constitution — the individual has a right to defend himself — and is hence unchallengeable.
Research Interests:
When new statements are suppressed by being declared seditious, the potentiality of language secedes from us. In India, we are now beginning a fight for our right to not speak the words that are against our conscience, such as declaring... more
When new statements are suppressed by being declared seditious, the potentiality of language secedes from us. In India, we are now beginning a fight for our right to not speak the words that are against our conscience, such as declaring our allegiance through slogans and songs for a fair skinned upper caste housewife swathed in silk and gold, who loves to straddle wildlife, and lusts for real estate all the way from Iran to Philippines....The measure of the writer is the terror she inspires in the ceremonial orders of power.
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The lesson of the last century, a lesson obtained through the ashes of millions of lives lost, was to not let the light of free thought be snuffed out ever again in the name of anything, be it race, nation, territory, language, religion.
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In this module of the "Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics" section of the University Grants Commissions' e-content project "-Pathshala", an introduction is provided to the main concerns that the Philosophy of Literature comprises of.
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(This is the text of a conference presentation made in May 2006 in the University of Hyderabad.) Post-modern is seen as a crisis in and for philosophy, and philosophy is seen as a “discourse of legitimation” of every other discourse. For... more
(This is the text of a conference presentation made in May 2006 in the University of Hyderabad.)
Post-modern is seen as a crisis in and for philosophy, and philosophy is seen as a “discourse of legitimation” of every other discourse. For Lyotard, philosophy, identical to meta-narrative or grand narrative, which talks about everything and reduces everything to an identity or a proposition that is determined by the principle of identity – a being which is not a being is not a being – is no longer possible since something has happened to the identical. Though philosophy may have attempted this many times in its movement, it has never successfully determined all that is to an identical. This very attempt and its impossibility are philosophy and life. The sense or direction or destination or the end of the movement of philosophy is never known to it. Philosophy has many times tried to determine this end for itself in the restless quietness of the intervals between such determinations of ends in which it attempted to remedy this ill of an interval with inventions. In a sense, a certain kind of philosophy that attempted a determination of its end in terms of something that can be presented to it, or, if you like, of a proposition that obeys the principle of identity, such that this interval can be overcome, had begotten for itself a name, “metaphysics of presence” – certainly an abuse, from Heidegger. This very act of characterizing its own past and being concerned with a sense of itself is philosophy. This is evident in the case of the tradition that is called ‘continental’ – an explicit concern with history of itself starts, at least with Spinoza. But the same is found again in Aristotle, the chronicler of the Socratic and the Pre-Socratic, or in Plato’s dialogues where the Pre-Socratics make guest appearances. In this history of being-concerned-with-itself, bearing with all the other senses of such a phrase, there are overcomings carried out – Kant overcoming the Leibnizians and Spinozists, Hegel overcoming all those who came before him, ‘French Philosophy’ carrying out the task of overcoming Heidegger (this desire can be a definition). Overcoming has certainly many Hegelian lessons. To overcome one must be able to determine that which is to be overcome, which is to say that philosophy has to successfully determine the object proper to it. But also it is this successfully determined object that has to be overcome. However, what is essential for any such overcoming is an interval; there must be an interval such that the object that priorly determined the direction of philosophy may ease its weight and another be conceived in its wake.
Post-modern is seen as a crisis in and for philosophy, and philosophy is seen as a “discourse of legitimation” of every other discourse. For Lyotard, philosophy, identical to meta-narrative or grand narrative, which talks about everything and reduces everything to an identity or a proposition that is determined by the principle of identity – a being which is not a being is not a being – is no longer possible since something has happened to the identical. Though philosophy may have attempted this many times in its movement, it has never successfully determined all that is to an identical. This very attempt and its impossibility are philosophy and life. The sense or direction or destination or the end of the movement of philosophy is never known to it. Philosophy has many times tried to determine this end for itself in the restless quietness of the intervals between such determinations of ends in which it attempted to remedy this ill of an interval with inventions. In a sense, a certain kind of philosophy that attempted a determination of its end in terms of something that can be presented to it, or, if you like, of a proposition that obeys the principle of identity, such that this interval can be overcome, had begotten for itself a name, “metaphysics of presence” – certainly an abuse, from Heidegger. This very act of characterizing its own past and being concerned with a sense of itself is philosophy. This is evident in the case of the tradition that is called ‘continental’ – an explicit concern with history of itself starts, at least with Spinoza. But the same is found again in Aristotle, the chronicler of the Socratic and the Pre-Socratic, or in Plato’s dialogues where the Pre-Socratics make guest appearances. In this history of being-concerned-with-itself, bearing with all the other senses of such a phrase, there are overcomings carried out – Kant overcoming the Leibnizians and Spinozists, Hegel overcoming all those who came before him, ‘French Philosophy’ carrying out the task of overcoming Heidegger (this desire can be a definition). Overcoming has certainly many Hegelian lessons. To overcome one must be able to determine that which is to be overcome, which is to say that philosophy has to successfully determine the object proper to it. But also it is this successfully determined object that has to be overcome. However, what is essential for any such overcoming is an interval; there must be an interval such that the object that priorly determined the direction of philosophy may ease its weight and another be conceived in its wake.
Research Interests:
The Public Sphere from Outside the West brings together young scholars and established thinkers from philosophy, literature, sociology, history, information technology and artificial intelligence to present new and fresh debates on the... more
The Public Sphere from Outside the West brings together young scholars and established thinkers from philosophy, literature, sociology, history, information technology and artificial intelligence to present new and fresh debates on the public sphere. By focusing on the idea of the public as it is mobilized within multiple contexts, this unique collection refuses to track its fate as a norm that is achieved or deviated from. Instead it explores and understands the work of the idea of the public (and the public/private distinction) within different, often overlooked, contexts. For instance, as well as discussing the existence of a legitimate public space in India, The Public Sphere from Outside the West considers emergent public spheres in South Africa and southern Africa. With sophisticated discussion of the politics of the digital age, particularly in the context of social and political movements such as the Arab Spring, this is the first collection on the subject to feature an impressive range of writers from non-western countries. Global and timely in outlook, The Public Sphere from Outside the West breaks new ground and changes our way of looking at the public space in the 21st century. - See more at: http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-public-sphere-from-outside-the-west-9781472571939/#sthash.cdKoS5Xz.dpuf
Research Interests:
Gandhi's philosophy appears most clearly enunciated in Hind Swaraj, a book written during his days in South Africa. The book in many ways offers an exposition of Gandhi's moral conception of truth, but several aspects of his notions and... more
Gandhi's philosophy appears most clearly enunciated in Hind Swaraj, a book written during his days in South Africa. The book in many ways offers an exposition of Gandhi's moral conception of truth, but several aspects of his notions and ideas as they evolved and were enunciated early on in Hind Swaraj are only now being analysed. This essay looks at the conception of "speed", including its relational notion to time, and which, according to philosophers of the Enlightenment, separated the modern from the ancient or the old. In Gandhi's exploration, however, speed also denotes and evokes a comparison between the civilisational ethos that marks out the east from the west.
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Research Interests:
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THE ESSAYS in this volume all address narratological issues in postcolo- nial fictions, and as such they participate in what has been called post- colonial narratology, or—more broadly—contextualist narratology. That is to say, the... more
THE ESSAYS in this volume all address narratological issues in postcolo- nial fictions, and as such they participate in what has been called post- colonial narratology, or—more broadly—contextualist narratology. That
is to say, the contributors proceed from a narratological perspective, broadly understood, in order to realize the potential interest of narrative-theoretical concepts and methods for scholars and students interested in postcolonial fic- tion, but also in order to put the adequacy of those theoretical ideas to the test in the crucible of ideologically situated readings.
This sizeable introduction by the editors includes a detailed survey of the ways in which context and form have been explored in literary studies, and how questions of formalism and ideology are addressed hitherto in narratology. It provides an in-depth analysis of the calls for contextualist narratology and for postcolonial narratology, followed by a critique of postcolonialism. Finally, various narratological aspects of literary texts that are vital to the study of postcolonial issues in narratives are laid out, and the introduction ends with an account of what each chapter contributes to the volume. The essays provide narratological and ideological analyses of Kashmiri short fiction, and literary texts by authors including Mulk Raj Anand, O. V. Vijayan, Anita Rao Badami, Indra Sinha, Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondaatje, Mohsin Hamid, Jhumpa Lahiri, N. S. Madhavan, and Ousmane Sembene.
is to say, the contributors proceed from a narratological perspective, broadly understood, in order to realize the potential interest of narrative-theoretical concepts and methods for scholars and students interested in postcolonial fic- tion, but also in order to put the adequacy of those theoretical ideas to the test in the crucible of ideologically situated readings.
This sizeable introduction by the editors includes a detailed survey of the ways in which context and form have been explored in literary studies, and how questions of formalism and ideology are addressed hitherto in narratology. It provides an in-depth analysis of the calls for contextualist narratology and for postcolonial narratology, followed by a critique of postcolonialism. Finally, various narratological aspects of literary texts that are vital to the study of postcolonial issues in narratives are laid out, and the introduction ends with an account of what each chapter contributes to the volume. The essays provide narratological and ideological analyses of Kashmiri short fiction, and literary texts by authors including Mulk Raj Anand, O. V. Vijayan, Anita Rao Badami, Indra Sinha, Salman Rushdie, Michael Ondaatje, Mohsin Hamid, Jhumpa Lahiri, N. S. Madhavan, and Ousmane Sembene.
Research Interests:
Narratology and Ideology: Negotiating Context, Form, and Theory in Postcolonial Narratives, edited by Divya Dwivedi, Henrik Skov Nielsen, and Richard Walsh, brings together many of the most prominent figures in the interface between... more
Narratology and Ideology: Negotiating Context, Form, and Theory in Postcolonial Narratives, edited by Divya Dwivedi, Henrik Skov Nielsen, and Richard Walsh, brings together many of the most prominent figures in the interface between narratology and postcolonial criticism. While narrative theory has for some time recognized the importance of context in the analysis of fiction, this recognition has not quickly translated into substantial work in fields like postcolonialism, where situated questions of value and ideology have been brought to the fore. Postcolonial criticism, on the other hand, has often neglected the formal qualities of fiction in preference for ideological thematic interpretations, precisely because of the suspect legacy of formalism. The volume, then, stages a meeting between these two fields, negotiating both narratological and postcolonialist concerns by addressing specific features of narrative form and technique in the ideological analysis of key postcolonial texts.
The thirteen essays in Narratology and Ideology offer compelling readings of individual novels, with a focus upon South Asian literature, that provide a cumulative case study on the value of postcolonial narratology. The essays show not only how narrative theory can be productively applied in service of postcolonial criticism but also how such attention to postcolonial fictions can challenge and refine our theoretical understanding of narrative.
The thirteen essays in Narratology and Ideology offer compelling readings of individual novels, with a focus upon South Asian literature, that provide a cumulative case study on the value of postcolonial narratology. The essays show not only how narrative theory can be productively applied in service of postcolonial criticism but also how such attention to postcolonial fictions can challenge and refine our theoretical understanding of narrative.
Research Interests:
Dwivedi, Divya (2018) "The Addressee Function, or the Uses of Narratological Laity: Lessons of Khasak", in Dwivedi, Nielsen & Walsh (ed) Narratology and Ideology: Negotiating Context, Form, and Theory in Postcolonial Narratives, Columbus:... more
Dwivedi, Divya (2018) "The Addressee Function, or the Uses of Narratological Laity: Lessons of Khasak", in Dwivedi, Nielsen & Walsh (ed) Narratology and Ideology: Negotiating Context, Form, and Theory in Postcolonial Narratives, Columbus: Ohio State University Press. pp.251-272.
In this essay Dwivedi exposes the ideology of reading in various narratological and postcolonialist approaches, thus opening the way for an interrogation of the very concept of reading that is so easily taken for granted. To do so, she proposes the concept of the “addressee function,” which obtains for both narratologies and narratives but in different ways. Much like Foucault’s concept of the “author function,” the addressee function is ideological in that it operates as a control over the proliferation of meaning. She shows how in cognitive and rhetorical narratologies, as well as in Gayatri Spivak’s deployment of narratological concepts in her postcolonial theory of reading, this function appears in the way each model contains an implicit pedagogy. Pointing to the leakage of meaning through the addressee function, Dwivedi reads O. V. Vijayan and isolates a distinct technique in his Legends of Khasak, which she calls “dispersive focalization.”
In this essay Dwivedi exposes the ideology of reading in various narratological and postcolonialist approaches, thus opening the way for an interrogation of the very concept of reading that is so easily taken for granted. To do so, she proposes the concept of the “addressee function,” which obtains for both narratologies and narratives but in different ways. Much like Foucault’s concept of the “author function,” the addressee function is ideological in that it operates as a control over the proliferation of meaning. She shows how in cognitive and rhetorical narratologies, as well as in Gayatri Spivak’s deployment of narratological concepts in her postcolonial theory of reading, this function appears in the way each model contains an implicit pedagogy. Pointing to the leakage of meaning through the addressee function, Dwivedi reads O. V. Vijayan and isolates a distinct technique in his Legends of Khasak, which she calls “dispersive focalization.”
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The University of QueenslandQ -IIT Delhi Academy of Research (UQIDAR) Call for Applications to PhD programme: This project proposes to explore the relation between force, violence, non-violence, and resistance at two levels. From an... more
The University of QueenslandQ -IIT Delhi Academy of Research (UQIDAR) Call for Applications to PhD programme:
This project proposes to explore the relation between force, violence, non-violence, and resistance at two levels. From an ontological perspective, the task is to consider “the being of force” to ask how and whether violence (and non-violence) and resistance are located in the categories through which we determine politics and our world. This requires investigating the concepts of force and resistance in the history of thought and discovering the historical limits of their use vis-a-vis the political and institutional conditions. At the political and legal levels, and the domains where ethical judgements are made, the task is to examine the relations and effects of the different concepts of violence, non-violence and resistance proposed by key thinkers of politics and ethics. The clarification of ontological issues will deepen understanding of the politics of the acts and concepts named by violence, non-violence and resistance, terms that name different configurations of forces in history.
This project proposes to explore the relation between force, violence, non-violence, and resistance at two levels. From an ontological perspective, the task is to consider “the being of force” to ask how and whether violence (and non-violence) and resistance are located in the categories through which we determine politics and our world. This requires investigating the concepts of force and resistance in the history of thought and discovering the historical limits of their use vis-a-vis the political and institutional conditions. At the political and legal levels, and the domains where ethical judgements are made, the task is to examine the relations and effects of the different concepts of violence, non-violence and resistance proposed by key thinkers of politics and ethics. The clarification of ontological issues will deepen understanding of the politics of the acts and concepts named by violence, non-violence and resistance, terms that name different configurations of forces in history.
Research Interests: Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Violence, Literature, Literature and cinema, and 14 moreCritical Race Theory, Resistance (Social), Walter Benjamin, Émmanuel Lévinas, Nonviolence, Jacques Derrida, Immanuel Kant, Cinema, Schelling, Hannah Arendt, Frantz Fanon, Ambedkar Studies, Caste, and Gandhian Studies
Venue: India International Centre, Lecture Room 1 (March 1, 2019) & Conference Room 1 (March 2, 2019) There is an urgency today to re-open the question of values, nihilism, and our sense of desirable futures under the heading of... more
Venue: India International Centre, Lecture Room 1 (March 1, 2019) & Conference Room 1 (March 2, 2019)
There is an urgency today to re-open the question of values, nihilism, and our sense of desirable futures under the heading of “evil”. There are different histories of the concept “evil”, including the religious and the philosophical, and its relation to the opposite, the concept of “the good”. Today, two senses of the term “evil” overlap and resound: “it is bad” and “everything is going wrong” as the planet, the climate, politics, egalitarian structures, and knowledge are in crisis. The first sense of bad/evil/mal refers to that of übel which is the evil provoked and inflicted, while the second sense, much more prevalent today, is of the bad or schlecht which is of the adverse. The expectations we have for ourselves are of catastrophes rather than of progress and accomplishments as can be seen in theoretical movements such as “collapsology” and “accelerationism”. Instead of the dreams of “the good life for all,” we share in the fear of insecurities of jobs, health care, displacement, environmental degradation, and the rise of populist and far-right political groups. We experience the absence of “future” when all we have are probabilistic estimations of the figures of production given by machines. Everything today seems to be made to destroy or to corrupt the very possibility of defining what that could be “humans freed from all domination” (the Marxist producer of his own history). The term “evil” seems to have lost the value of its opposition to “the good” since there is no supposed “good” left for us which is beyond suspicion. Evil now seems to stand in a whole new relation to will (in terms of which Kant conceived of radical evil), thinking (through which Arendt had conceived of the banality of evil) and the meaning of existence. The discourses on value provided by previous religion and philosophy have been displaced or at least transformed by the modern technological determinations of sense which Heidegger called Gestell. Further, the different cultural meanings of the term “evil” are at odds with each other; for example, for Gandhi the notion of “the occident” was evil and he denied that there was any evil in the orient, despite the extremely oppressive caste system in the subcontinent. Such cultural and political deployments of the concept “evil” make it necessary to examine the distinct uses of evil across regions of the world beyond the limitations of the barriers such as the “orient/occident” distinction. Hence, we must revisit, and redefine, this term evil which continues to serve in one way or another to orient ourselves morally and to produce judgments in politics.
There is an urgency today to re-open the question of values, nihilism, and our sense of desirable futures under the heading of “evil”. There are different histories of the concept “evil”, including the religious and the philosophical, and its relation to the opposite, the concept of “the good”. Today, two senses of the term “evil” overlap and resound: “it is bad” and “everything is going wrong” as the planet, the climate, politics, egalitarian structures, and knowledge are in crisis. The first sense of bad/evil/mal refers to that of übel which is the evil provoked and inflicted, while the second sense, much more prevalent today, is of the bad or schlecht which is of the adverse. The expectations we have for ourselves are of catastrophes rather than of progress and accomplishments as can be seen in theoretical movements such as “collapsology” and “accelerationism”. Instead of the dreams of “the good life for all,” we share in the fear of insecurities of jobs, health care, displacement, environmental degradation, and the rise of populist and far-right political groups. We experience the absence of “future” when all we have are probabilistic estimations of the figures of production given by machines. Everything today seems to be made to destroy or to corrupt the very possibility of defining what that could be “humans freed from all domination” (the Marxist producer of his own history). The term “evil” seems to have lost the value of its opposition to “the good” since there is no supposed “good” left for us which is beyond suspicion. Evil now seems to stand in a whole new relation to will (in terms of which Kant conceived of radical evil), thinking (through which Arendt had conceived of the banality of evil) and the meaning of existence. The discourses on value provided by previous religion and philosophy have been displaced or at least transformed by the modern technological determinations of sense which Heidegger called Gestell. Further, the different cultural meanings of the term “evil” are at odds with each other; for example, for Gandhi the notion of “the occident” was evil and he denied that there was any evil in the orient, despite the extremely oppressive caste system in the subcontinent. Such cultural and political deployments of the concept “evil” make it necessary to examine the distinct uses of evil across regions of the world beyond the limitations of the barriers such as the “orient/occident” distinction. Hence, we must revisit, and redefine, this term evil which continues to serve in one way or another to orient ourselves morally and to produce judgments in politics.
Research Interests:
a two week course by Bernard Stiegler and Divya Dwivedi. Today, western thinking forms the technoscientific apparatus of societies of hyper- control, built on the foundation of ubiquitous and reticular computing. This amounts to what... more
a two week course by Bernard Stiegler and Divya Dwivedi.
Today, western thinking forms the technoscientific apparatus of societies of hyper- control, built on the foundation of ubiquitous and reticular computing. This amounts to what martin Heidegger called gestell, which imposes itself as the digitalized merging of science and technology.i n the epoch of data science, we find ourselves confronted forcefully (as what the Greeks called hubris) with the question of the status of technics
with respect to knowledge in all its forms. It has thus become crucial to understand how and why from its very birth, with Plato, philosophy has made technics literally unthinkable, thereby establishing the unthought that then comes to constitute the threat of the anthropocene.
Today, western thinking forms the technoscientific apparatus of societies of hyper- control, built on the foundation of ubiquitous and reticular computing. This amounts to what martin Heidegger called gestell, which imposes itself as the digitalized merging of science and technology.i n the epoch of data science, we find ourselves confronted forcefully (as what the Greeks called hubris) with the question of the status of technics
with respect to knowledge in all its forms. It has thus become crucial to understand how and why from its very birth, with Plato, philosophy has made technics literally unthinkable, thereby establishing the unthought that then comes to constitute the threat of the anthropocene.
Research Interests:
The modern world was formed to a significant extent by slave trade and colonialism which were accompanied by the ideologies of race and racist practices, and resulted in genocides, and enforced migration and segregation of people. These... more
The modern world was formed to a significant extent by slave trade and colonialism which were accompanied by the ideologies of race and racist practices, and resulted in genocides, and enforced migration and segregation of people. These atrocities and racism in many forms continue in the contemporary world, and in many parts racial tensions are on the rise. Critical philosophy of race, a new sub-discipline within philosophy, has developed in an effort to try to understand the persistence of racism and to investigate the relative success of the different strategies deployed to combat it. Drawing on the resources of a variety of disciplines from history and sociology to legal theory and psychotherapy, critical philosophy of race shows that racism is often defined too narrowly. First, the focus tends to fall on biological racism at the cost of its cultural and religious forms. Secondly, the focus also tends to remain on racist acts and slurs to the neglect of the institutional, environmental, and systemic forms that serve to produce those acts and slurs and give them their meanings. These tendencies are often promoted by the limitations of the forms of reasoning used to identify racism, which is why philosophy comes to play a central role in the fight against racism in spite of – and to a certain extent because of-the prominent role of certain canonical Western philosophers, such as Locke, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche, in promoting racism. Critical philosophy of race goes beyond critical race theory, which takes its starting-point in legal frameworks and so tends to be nation-based. It also takes a longer historical view because new racisms are layered over and interlaced with old racisms. One goal of this course is to give participants a familiarity with the present state of discussion of these issues within critical philosophy of race. But critical philosophy of race in its current form can rightly be criticized for taking a perspective that is too heavily Western in orientation and the course also aims to play a role in correcting that narrowness. It will dwell on the relation between race, gender, caste, colonialism and migration. This is an intensive course for which prescribed texts have to be read before commencement. It will discuss political concepts such as intersectionality and biopower, and also study literary articulations of different forms of racism. Participants will be invited to bring their own perspectives to bear so that they can come to understand how they might themselves be able to contribute to ongoing research in this thriving area.
Research Interests:
Lycée français international de Delhi, in collaboration with Institut français India, cordially invites you to the inaugural session of the Week of Ideas: Meetings, Lectures and Philosophy Workshop for all Ages on Monday, 22 May, at M.L.... more
Lycée français international de Delhi, in collaboration with Institut français India, cordially invites you to the inaugural session of the Week of Ideas: Meetings, Lectures and Philosophy Workshop for all Ages on Monday, 22 May, at M.L. Bhartia Audiorium of Alliance française
Research Interests:
Dec 27-28, 2016: A phiosophical dialogue between Bernard Stiegler, Divya Dwivedi, Katja Freistein, Michael de Saint Cheron, Shaj Mohan, Vijay Tankha. Good Government proceeds from the 14th century Effects of Good and Bad Government by... more
Dec 27-28, 2016: A phiosophical dialogue between Bernard Stiegler, Divya Dwivedi, Katja Freistein, Michael de Saint Cheron, Shaj Mohan, Vijay Tankha.
Good Government proceeds from the 14th century Effects of Good and Bad Government by the Italian painter Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Eminent thinkers will convene to discuss the idea of the ‘good government’ as conceived in the cultural history of India and Europe. Looking at history will go hand in hand with prospections towards the future, but it is today that we must question what we expect from ‘good government’: between the risk of technological disruption, educational challenges, the challenges of representation, trends in international news, the role of artists and the function of art, ‘Good Government’ is a philosophical principle that should be thought of.
Good Government: A Philosophical Quest is organised by the Institut Français, Paris, Embassy of France in India, Institut Français, India, Goethe-Institut, Alliance Française, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi Biennale Foundation.
Good Government proceeds from the 14th century Effects of Good and Bad Government by the Italian painter Ambrogio Lorenzetti. Eminent thinkers will convene to discuss the idea of the ‘good government’ as conceived in the cultural history of India and Europe. Looking at history will go hand in hand with prospections towards the future, but it is today that we must question what we expect from ‘good government’: between the risk of technological disruption, educational challenges, the challenges of representation, trends in international news, the role of artists and the function of art, ‘Good Government’ is a philosophical principle that should be thought of.
Good Government: A Philosophical Quest is organised by the Institut Français, Paris, Embassy of France in India, Institut Français, India, Goethe-Institut, Alliance Française, Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi Biennale Foundation.
Research Interests:
Notice for Workshop with Barbara Cassin at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, 29 January 2016