The Asiatic Society of Mumbai Literary Club
ASM LitClub Talk
Shakespeare for the # MeToo Generation

On Tradition and Taneja's We That Are Young
by Professor Ayesha Ramchandran,
on Thursday, 13th December, 2018, at 5.30 p.m.

The Literary Club of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai cordially invites you to a lecture by Ayesha Ramchandran, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Yale University, on Thursday, 13th December, 2018, at 5.30 p.m. in the Durbar Hall of the Society. Prof. Ramchandran will speak on Preti Taneja's acclaimed recent novel We That Are Young.

The talk considers some literary and cultural contexts for the novel, specifically its dark feminist reimagining of Shakespeare's "King Lear," set in Delhi, Amritsar and Kashmir in 2012. Released on the cusp of the MeToo movement, the narrative draws on a long tradition of post-colonial retellings of Shakespeare, particularly in India, and connects this literary inheritance to contemporary preoccupations with the consequences of capitalism, income inequality, misogyny and the challenge to patriarchy.
Beginning with a discussion of the modern tradition of "post-colonial Shakespeares" across the world and Taneja's place in it, Ayesha will trace Taneja's careful remapping of "Lear" in novelistic form and will show how Taneja explores the continuing intellectual and political consequences five hundred years later.
Professor Ayesha Ramchandran has published several articles, edited volumes and texts, made many presentations and given interviews for broadcasting and podcasts. She has participated in many conferences and symposia in various universities and knows a number of European and Indian languages, she is currently studying Arabic. Her list of publications include the book published in 2015: "The World makers: Global Imagining in Early Modern Europe", University of Chicago Press.
Do join us for tea at 5.00 p.m.