Rosinka Chaudhuri

Biography

 Research and Teaching Experience Research - Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the India Institute, King’s College, London, 8 May – 8 June 2016. - Visiting Fellow, Delhi University, 31 March – 4 April 2014. - Charles Wallace Fellow, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, 2005. - Visiting Fellow at the Centre of South Asian Studies, Columbia University, 2002. - Junior Research Fellowship from the University Grants Commission, University of Poona, 1989. - Research fellowship from the American Studies Research Centre, Hyderabad, towards M.Phil. Dissertation, Figuring the Feminine: A Study of the Selected Works of Cixous, Irigaray and Kristeva, 1990. Teaching - Co-ordinating and teaching two M. Phil. Courses at the CSSSC called ‘Cultures of Postcoloniality’ and ‘Introduction to Modern Social Thought’. - Co-teaching two M. Phil. Courses at the CSSSC called ‘Readings in Philosophy: Things, Commodities, Consumptions’, and ‘Research Methods’. Publications Books 1. The Literary Thing: History, Poetry and the Making of a Modern Cultural Sphere (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013; Oxford: Peter Lang, 2014). 2. Freedom and Beef Steaks: Colonial Calcutta Culture (Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2012). 3. Gentlemen Poets in Colonial Bengal: Emergent Nationalism and the Orientalist Project, (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2002). Edited Books 1. An Acre of Green Grass: English Writings of Buddhadeva Bose (forthcoming from Oxford University Press, New Delhi). 2. A History of Indian Poetry in English (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016). 3. The Indian Postcolonial: A Critical Reader, co-edited with Elleke Boehmer, (London: Routledge, 2010). 4. Derozio, Poet of India: The Definitive Edition (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008). Translations 1. Letters from a Young Poet by Rabindranath Tagore, Introduction and translation, Penguin Modern Classics, 2014. 2. ‘Letter-Fragments’, translations from Rabindranath Tagore’s Chhinnapatrabali in Fakrul Alam and Radha Chakravarty ed. The Essential Tagore, Harvard University Press: 2011, pp. 82-96, and Visva-Bharati Press: 2011, pp. 75-88. 3. Poems by Samar Sen and Saratkumar Mukhopadhyay in Memory’s Gold: Writings on Calcutta (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2008). Articles in Books 1. ‘The Practice of Literature: The Calcutta Context as a Guide to Literary Activism’ in Amit Chaudhuri ed. Literary Activism: A Symposium (University of East Anglia: Boiler House Press, 2017). 2. Introduction and chapter titled “Rabindranath translated to Tagore: Gitanjali Song Offerings (1912)” in Rosinka Chaudhuri ed. A History of Indian Poetry in English (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016). 3. ‘The Rustle of Language’ in Sangeeta Datta and Subhoranjan Dasgupta ed. Tagore: The World as His Nest (Kolkata: Jadavpur University Press, 2016) and in Debashish Banerji ed. Rabindranath Tagore in the 21st Century Theoretical Renewals (New York: Springer, 2015). 2 4. ‘Poet of the Present: The Material Object in the World of Iswar Gupta’ in Tapati Guha Thakurta ed. New Cultural Histories (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014). 5. ‘Three Poets in Search of History, Calcutta 1752-1859’ in Michael Dodson and Brian Hatcher ed. Trans-Colonial Modernities (London: Routledge, 2012). 6. ‘Young India: A Bengal Eclogue: Meat-eating, Race and Reform in a Colonial Poem’, in Touraj Atabaki ed. Modernity and its Agencies: Young Movements in the History of the South (New Delhi: Manohar Publishers, 2010). 7. ‘History in Poetry: Nabinchandra Sen’s Palashir Yuddha [Battle of Palashi] (1875) and the Question of Truth’ in R. Aquil and Partha Chatterjee ed. History in the Vernacular (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2008). 8. ‘Modernity at Home: The Nationalization of the Indian Drawing Room, 1830- 1930’, in Malashri Lal and Sukrita Paul Kumar ed. Interpreting Homes in South Asian Literature (New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2007). 9. ‘Toru Dutt’, in Arvind Krishna Mehrotra ed. An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English, (New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2003). Occasional Papers 1. ‘Modernity at Home: A Genealogy of the Indian Drawing Room’, Occasional Paper (Archives Series 04) published by the CSSSC in 2011. 2. ‘History in Poetry: Nabinchandra Sen’s Palashir Yuddha [Battle of Palashi] (1875) and the Question of Truth’, Occasional Paper No 1, 2005, The Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge. Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals 1. ‘Only What Does Not Fit In Can Be True”: De-professionalization and Academia in Relation to Adorno and Tagore,’ in the Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. LI, No. 43 (October 22, 2016). 3 2. ‘“Why, Sir, Am I Not An Indian?”: Identity, Liberation and Nationalism in Early Nineteenth-Century India,’ in the International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies, Special Issue: Nationalism and National Identity, Vol.15, No. 1 (2015). 3. ‘The Rustle of Language,’ in Journal of Contemporary Thought, Special Number: Winter 2011 (Published by Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda, and University of North Texas, Denton, USA.) ‘The Politics of Naming: Derozio in Two Formative Moments of Literary and Political Discourse, Calcutta, 1825-31,’ in Modern Asian Studies, Volume 44, Part 4 (2010). ‘Michael Madhusudan Datta and the Marxist understanding of the “Real Renaissance” in Bengal,’ in the Economic and Political Weekly, Nov 7-13, 2009. ‘Reading Bharatchandra: Literary Language and the Figuration of Modernity in Bengal (1822-1858),’ in Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Vol. 11, Number 3, 2009. ‘The Politics of Poetry: An Investigation into Hindu/Muslim Representations in Nabinchandra Sen’s Palashir Yuddha,’ in Studies in History (24,1, 2008: 1-25) ‘History in Poetry: Nabinchandra Sen’s Palashir Yuddha [Battle of Palashi] (1875) and the Question of Truth,’ in Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 66 (2007). ‘Cutlets or Fish Curry?: Debating Indian Authenticity in Late Nineteenth-Century Bengal’, in Modern Asian Studies 40, 2 (2006), pp. 257-272. ‘Hemchandra’s Bharat Sangeet (1870) and the politics of poetry: A pre-history of Hindu nationalism in Bengal?’ in The Indian Economic and Social History Review (Sage Publications), 42, 2 (2005). ‘Historicality in Literature: Subalternist Misrepresentations’, in Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. XXXIX, No. 42, October 16, 2004. ‘An Ideology of Indianness: The Construction of Colonial/Communal Stereotypes in the Poems of Henry Derozio,’ in Studies in History (Sage Publications), 20, 2, n.s. (2004). ‘The Flute, Gerontion, and Subalternist Misreadings of Tagore’, in Social Text 78 (Duke University Press), Vol. 22, No. 1, Spring 2004. ‘Young India: A Bengal Eclogue; Meat-eating, Race and Reform in a Colonial Poem’, in Interventions (Routledge), Vol. 2: No. 3, 2000. 4 Selected Talks, Seminars, Conferences - Talk titled ‘On the Colonization of India: Public Meetings, Debates and Disputes (Calcutta, 1829)’ at St Anthony’s College, Oxford, 7 June 2016. - Plenary Session titled ‘Provincialising Empire: The Cosmopolitan Vernacular, Authenticity, and Regional Literary Expression (Bengal, 1827-1881),’ at an International Conference titled ‘Ireland and Its Colonies’ at Queen’s University, Belfast, on 4 June 2014. Paper titled ‘Poet of the Present: the Material Object in the World of Iswar Gupta’ at the School of English, University of Glasgow, on 2 June 2014. - Talk titled ‘Two Ways of Thinking about Criticism’ at Department of English, University of Delhi, as Visiting Fellow on 31 March, 2014. - Talk titled ‘The Literary Thing: History, Poetry and the Making of a Modern Cultural Sphere’ at the School of Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, on 1 April, 2014. - Talk titled 'In the Likeness of History': Narrative Impulse in New Poetry (Bengal, 1858), at Department of History, University of Delhi, 2 April, 2014. - Talk at India International Centre, Delhi, titled ‘Letters from a Young Poet: Rabindranath Tagore (1887-95)’ on 3 April, 2014. - Inaugural lecture of the ‘Basanta Satpathy Memorial Annual Lectures’ on 26 June 2013 at Bhubaneswar. - Presentation at round table titled ‘Anglo-Indian Studies’, Central Library, University of Calcutta, Monday 15 July, 2013. - Paper at National Seminar organised by History Department, Loreto College, Kolkata, on 'Histories, Memories, Homelands: Four Kolkata Communities in Transition', Friday 22 and Saturday 23 November, 2013. - Chaired the Closing Session of Orientation Programme on Scheduled Castes and Other Marginalized Groups, organized by the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, 5 Calcutta (CSSSC) on ‘Artisans, Higher Education and Research’ (Speaker: Kancha Ilaiah) on November 22nd, 2013. - Paper at the Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, on ‘The Disenchanted World of Dineshchandra Sen (1866-1939)’, 11 June, 2012. - Paper at the Centre of ‘Civilisations, Cultures, Littératures Et Sociétés’, University of Paris-Sorbonne, ‘Introduction to The Literary Thing’, 30 May, 2012. - Paper at the Postcolonial Writing and Theory Seminar, University of Oxford, ‘Approaching Literary History Today: A Case Study from Bengal’, 24 May, 2012. - On the exhibition team of the CSSSC's archival collection, The City in the Archive: Calcutta's Visual Histories, displayed at the Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, Calcutta, in July 2011, and the India International Centre, New Delhi, from March 27 to April 3, 2012. - Staff seminar at the CSSSC on the introduction to The Literary Thing: History, Poetry, and the Making of a Modern Cultural Sphere on 5 March 2012. - International Conference on ‘Rabindranath Tagore in the World’ at the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, 11-13 August 2011. - UGC Sponsored One Day National Seminar on ‘Cross Cultural Perspectives: Indian Writing in English’ organised by the Postgraduate Department of English, Maulana Azad College, and Indo British Scholars’ Association, 25 September, 2010. - National Seminar on ‘The Indian National Congress and the Struggle for Independence’ organised by Victoria Memorial, Kolkata & the Department of History, Loreto College, Kolkata, 30 September, 2010. - Participated as speaker and discussant at the Cultural Studies Workshop of the CSSSC on ‘Empire, Nation, Cosmopolitanism’ in Jaipur, January 2011. - Presented a paper, ‘Translation and the Intra-national Diaspora in the Figuration of Literary Modernity: Calcutta, 1858-73,’ at a workshop on “Translation, Migration, and Modernity: South Asia and Beyond” at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) on May 27, 2010 6 - Paper titled: ‘'History, Teleology and the Present: Poetry in Bengal c1752-1859' at the Centre for South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, 31 May 2010. - Paper at SOAS, University of London, as part of the South Asia History Seminar, titled ‘Three Poets in Search of History, Calcutta 1825-1828’ on 1 June 2010. - Two-day conference on History and Teleology in Berlin on 11-12 June 2010. Presented a paper on the subject of ‘Teleology in historical imagination in Bengal in the early 19th century’ on 12 June, 2010. - UGC Sponsored One Day National Seminar on ‘Cross Cultural Perspectives: Indian Writing in English’ organised by the Postgraduate Department of English, Maulana Azad College, and Indo British Scholars’ Association, on 25 September, 2010. - National Seminar on ‘The Indian National Congress and the Struggle for Independence’ organised by Victoria Memorial, Kolkata & the Department of History, Loreto College, Kolkata, on 30 September, 2010. - Participated in the Cultural Studies Workshop of the CSSSC at Santiniketan, 30 January – 4 February 1-8, 2010. - Paper titled: ‘Refashioning Milton: Madhusudan and the Shaping of the National Modern’ at an international conference, ‘Inhabiting this Hour: John Milton, his Bequest, 1608-2010’ organised by the Department of English, Delhi University, 17- 19 February, 2010. - Paper titled: ‘Poet of the Present: The Self-Division of Iswarchandra Gupta (1812- 1859) and the Bengali Modern’ and discussant at the New Cultural Histories Conference at the CSSSC, January 5-7, 2010. - Workshop on ‘Mutual Making: Bengal and Britain’ organised by the Department of English, Calcutta University, in association with Open University, London, Oxford University and London University on March 18, 2009. - Talk at Wolfson Poetry Seminar, Wolfson College, Oxford University, titled ‘The Birth of the Indian Modern: Henry Derozio (1809-31) in the context of change’ on 5 June, 2008. 7 - Paper at the 20th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies at Manchester, 9-11 July, 2008, titled ‘Literary Language and the Figuration of Modernity in Bengal (1822-1858)’. - Staff Seminar at CSSSC on ‘"Bangalir Byarthatar Neelkantha": Madhusudan Dutt and the "Real Renaissance" in Bengal’ in two parts of 45 minutes each on August 14, 2008. - Sahitya Akademi conference hosted by the English Department at Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, on 20-21 September 2008 with a paper called ‘The Man of Krishnanagar: The Legacy of Bharatchandra’. - Paper titled ‘Fanon and the Idea of the Colonial Intellectual’ at a workshop conducted by the Calcutta Rese

Research Interest

Poetry, Criticism, Literary History, Nineteenth-Century Bengal, Postcolonial Theory.