1st Edition
Travelling Texts Translating Nineteenth-Century European Classics into Indian Languages
Preface
Shantanu Majee
Introduction
K. Subramanyam
Chapter 1 - Compilation of Dictionaries for Translation: Pursuits in Jaffna, Sri Lanka in the Nineteenth Century
Gayathree Srikandavel
Chapter 2 - Chasing Spectres: The Adventures of Vikram and Betal from Burton to Chandamama
Balagopal Menon
Chapter 3 - Modernizing Nepal’s Education and Literary Systems through Euro-centric Translation: Special Focus on Nineteenth-Century European Literary Works in Nepali
Bal Ram Adhikari
Chapter 4 - Transcultural Translation: Exploring Linguistic and Cultural Hegemonies in Nineteenth Century translation of the Bible into Santali
Rahi Soren
Chapter 5 - Colonial Modernity and the Politics of Translation in 19th Century Assam: Exploring European Embodiments in Assamese Literary Movements
Namrata Pathak
Chapter 6 - Romanising Colonial Assam: A Case Study of Transliteration
Pompi Basumatary
Chapter 7 - Traduttore, traditore: Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland in Assamese
Bhaskar Jyoti Gogoi
Chapter 8 - Unsteady Texts and the Technologies of Translation: Jules Verne’s Curious Travels in Assam(ese)
Rajdeep Pathak and Himangshu Sarma
Chapter 9 - The Historian as Translator: Rajwade’s Contribution to Translation in the Nineteenth Century Maharashtra
Prithvirajsingh Thakur
Chapter 10 - Shakespeare in Telugu in the Nineteenth Century
Nishi Pulugurtha
Chapter 11 - Vocabularies of Desire”: Tracing the Queer Subject in Ram Swaroop Dubey’s Hindi Translation of The Picture of Dorian Gray
Swarnika Ahuja
Chapter 12 - Narratives of Victorian Style Cooking: a Study of Hindi Subtitles of Popular YouTube Series The Victorian Way
Mukulika Dattagupta and Ms. Subhasnata Mohanta
Chapter 13 - Importing Texts and Purifying Popular Taste: Tracking the Translation Projects of the Calcutta School-Book Society and Vernacular Literature Society in Nineteenth Century Bengal
Abhishek Tah
Chapter 14 - Sambhu Mitra’s Adaptation of Ibsen’s A Doll’s House travels to Bangladesh
Ahmed Ahsanuzzaman
Chapter 15 - European Wonder, Suspense and Thrills in the World of Bangla Children’s Literature
Anasuya Bhar
Chapter 16 - Transcultural Translation and Aesthetic Discourses: Twentieth-Century Bengali Poets’ Interpretation of Romantic and Victorian Poetry
Ananya Chatterjee and Nisarga Bhattacharjee
Chapter 17 - Politics and Aesthetics of Translating Thomas Hardy into Bangla
Neelanjana Basu
Chapter 18 - Feminist Politics and Gendered Translation: Nineteenth Century European Women Writers Translated into Bengali
Sanchayita Paul Chakraborty and Pritha Kundu
Chapter 19 - The Return of Dracula: Studying the Popular as Praxis in Bengali Popular Adaptations of Stoker’s Novel
Diganta Roy
Chapter 20 - Reading Robinson Crusoe in Bengal: Textual Transmission, Translation, and Authorship
Sujaan Mukherjee
Chapter 21 - An Improving World? Locating Samuel Smiles in 19th century Bengal
Amreeta Das
Biography
Shantanu Majee (Dr.), Associate Professor in the Department of English at Techno India University, West Bengal, received his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Nineteenth-Century Studies at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He has published his research extensively and has contributed to Digital Humanities through his engagement as Project Fellow in the collaborative project between the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University and the British Library, United Kingdom, on ‘Digitization of South Asian Archival Resources’, funded by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), Mumbai. He has received the artVarta Publishing Grant 2021, offered by Akar Prakar Art Gallery, New Delhi to curate a Virtual Exhibition of River Songs Sung by Women in the Hindustani Tradition, entitled ‘Song of the River: Curating Music, Memory and Modernity’. He has also published a module entitled ‘UVC in India: Case Study of JUDE’ for Undisciplining the Victorian Classroom initiative and has been working on BIPOC Voices in the Victorian Periodical Press at the One More Voice project. He is currently editing a special issue on ‘Archiving Sound: A Study in Listening’ and contributes to a MOOC project on Modern Indian Writing in English Translation.
K. Subramanyam (Dr.) is an early career academician from Indore, currently working as an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Shri Vaishnav Vidyapeeth Vishwavidyalaya, Indore. He received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literary Studies from Pondicherry Central University in 2018. His research interests lie in Drug Literature, Nineteenth Century Studies, Francophone Literatures, Gothic Studies, Psychedelic Studies, Nineteenth Century Literature and Anthropocene, Translation Studies. He has recently published with Vernon Press on Anne Bronte Anthology entitled ‘A Vain Talent? The Question of Female Artistry in the Life and Work of Anne Bronte’ and Jadavpur University Essays and Studies (JUES).
“This book is a timely contribution to the study of translation into the languages of the Indian subcontinent. The broad range of languages, cultures and text types discussed here paint a fascinating picture of the important role of translations in literary history.”
Susan Bassnett FRSL, FIL
Professor of Comparative Literature, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Glasgow, UK
Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature, University of Warwick, UK
President, British Comparative Literature Association
“This book is a rich array of essays focussing upon an extremely important question- which things form us and make us who we are. By tracing our textual genealogies across cultures, the book shows us that origins are a myth and that translation is not only a linguistic act; but one that encapsulates being from elsewhere and going somewhere. The essays are rigorous and rich and the languages and subjects in this book varied. I recommend this book to all scholars of literary and translation studies.”
Rita Kothari
Professor (English)
Co-Director, Centre for Translation Studies
Ashoka University, India
“This book provides detailed insights into the colonial and postcolonial history of translation and reception of European literature in South Asian languages. While the main focus is on Bengali and Assamese, it also includes many glimpses into Nepali, Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Santali material. More than twenty contributors cover media ranging from comics and periodicals to books and Youtube videos, and look into the cultural dynamics translation either unleashed or was itself a result of.”
Hans Harder
Professor of Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany
“This is a fascinating, rich and wide collection of essays about translated texts that covers a wide gamut thematically, geographically and chronologically. It covers classical and popular literature, and in keeping with contemporary times also includes YouTube. There is also a focus on Adivasi, feminist and queer texts adding to the richness of the material. And some of the essays also bring the reader to the centre stage.”
Anchita Ghatak
Award-winning Translator and Independent Development Professional
