20 | Leisure and Forms of Resistance to Labour in Modern and Contemporary South Asian Literature
This panel investigates leisure discourses in recent South Asian literature both English and vernacular. We will look at leisure scenarios in modern and contemporary fiction and at how leisure-related activities and moments of recreation are juxtaposed to stress levels of globalized work regimes.
Convenors:
· Hans Harder Ruprecht-Karls-Universität (Heidelberg, Germany)
Timeslots:
· 07/28 | 17:30-19:00 UTC+2/CEST
Long Abstract
Leisure scenarios and leisure-work dichotomies are a recurring theme in modern and contemporary English-language fiction from South Asia. Leisure-related activities and moments of peace and recreation are opposed with new time regimes of modernity and contemporary modes of life determined by high levels of stress due to globalization-dependent work patterns. In regional language-literatures, representations of otium and reflections about leisure are frequently embedded in the representation of personal reflection and contemplation, taking recourse to the literary and the arts, socializing or travelling; they also portray practices that subversively undermine work efficiency and generally protest against the framework of contemporary conditions of work. A significant aspect of these themes are the ways in which time is perceived, experienced and felt. Many novels convey a decidedly nostalgic view of the past which is presented as having been more leisurely than the present. The panel welcomes contributions analysing work vs. leisure discourses in post-Independence South Asian literature (vernacular and English) and representations of leisure-related practices in texts. Papers that combine the leisure theme with a focus on gender issues, nationality, Partition, caste or postcoloniality are of special interest to the panel organisers. Furthermore, presentations that question or analyse the concept of leisure as a modern, contested category of postcolonial time are considered to be of significance to the panel.
Presentations
-
07/28 | 15:30-15:50 UTC+2/CEST
The Idle Visionary: Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s Kamalakanta (1875) (Hans Harder) -
07/28 | 15:50-16:10 UTC+2/CEST
The Warp of Labour and the Weft of Leisure in Abdul Bismillah’s Jhīnī Jhīnī Bīnī Cadariyā (Katarzyna Dombrowicz) -
07/28 | 16:10-16:30 UTC+2/CEST
Leisure and Resistance to Work Regimes in Satyajit Ray's /Feluda/ Novels (Farha Noor) -
07/28 | 17:30-17:50 UTC+2/CEST
“Are You Home?”: Erotics of Leisure in Bengali Poetry From the 60s (Supurna Dasgupta) -
07/28 | 17:50-18:10 UTC+2/CEST
A Brief Excurses Into Food and Travel: Writing Leisure in the Postcolony (Greeshma Mohan K) -
07/28 | 18:10-18:30 UTC+2/CEST
Alternative Temporalities of Experiences of Leisure in Recent Indian Fiction (Melina Munz)