The Department of English, The Bhawanipur Education Society College organized Peer Seminar: Chapter IV on 17th October, 2023 at 3 pm. The speaker was Mr. Soumyajit Chandra; his paper was entitled Wild Basil and Dancing Lights: Ecofeminist Reconceptualisations of the Bengal Landscape in Select Short Stories by Narayan Gangyopadhyay. The seminar was attended by the faculty members and PG students of the Department of English.
In his paper, the speaker subjected two Bengali short stories composed by Narayan Gangyopadhyay, namely Bana-Tulsi (Wild Basil) and Aleyar Raat (The Night of Aleya) to an ecofeminist critique through a study of the author’s representation of the Bengal landscape.
Traditionally, the Bengal landscape has been represented as fertile, prosperous and maternal in nationalistic and early modern Bengali poetry alike. Gangyopadhyay displaces “Mother Nature” from her nurturing, maternal role, constructing a radically alterantive femininity which undermines patriarchal and essentialist understandings of nature as feminine. Gangopadhyay plays off male protagonists (harbouring varying degrees of patriarchal affiliation) with nature in some of its insidious manifestations, observed in the wild basil wilderness and the dancing lights on a rain-drenched field at night. With respect to critical works of Madelon Sprengnether and Donna J. Haraway, the paper attempted to reclaim Mother Earth imagery and utilize essentialist positions to assign autonomous, self-determining roles to Nature.
The session was conducted by Dr. Gargi Talapatra, Head of UG English. Peer Seminar has served to foster research interests and facilitate academic dialogue at all levels of the academic space at the Department of English, The BES College.
Eight-ball, and sometimes called solids and stripes is a pool (pocket billiards) game popular in much of the world, and the subject of international professional and amateur competition. Played on a pool table with six pockets, Eight-ball is played with cue sticks and 16 balls: a cue ball, and 15 object balls consisting of seven striped balls, seven solid-coloured balls and the black 8 ball. After …
“No one has ever become poor by giving” – The Diary of Anne Frank The reality is that some people succumbed to the cold because of the unavailability of warm clothing. For the privileged, the thought of winter reminds them of cozy warm clothing and sipping warm coffee. But the poverty-stricken people in remote areas …
“A poet before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.” Owing to poetic symbolism, on a rainy afternoon, the Book Reading Club of The Bhawanipur Education Society College hosted ‘Barsaat’ as an ode to the monsoon season, known to evoke intense emotions in the hearts of all hopeless romantics. It was …
The Department of English organized a series of Fortnightly Lectures on Literary Theory for the final semester students of the Undergraduate and the Postgraduate courses, in March-April 2022. This was planned to ensure that the students are equipped with advanced knowledge of literary theory and criticism as several of them would, after their final semester, …
Peer Seminar: Chapter IV
The Department of English, The Bhawanipur Education Society College organized Peer Seminar: Chapter IV on 17th October, 2023 at 3 pm. The speaker was Mr. Soumyajit Chandra; his paper was entitled Wild Basil and Dancing Lights: Ecofeminist Reconceptualisations of the Bengal Landscape in Select Short Stories by Narayan Gangyopadhyay. The seminar was attended by the faculty members and PG students of the Department of English.
In his paper, the speaker subjected two Bengali short stories composed by Narayan Gangyopadhyay, namely Bana-Tulsi (Wild Basil) and Aleyar Raat (The Night of Aleya) to an ecofeminist critique through a study of the author’s representation of the Bengal landscape.
Traditionally, the Bengal landscape has been represented as fertile, prosperous and maternal in nationalistic and early modern Bengali poetry alike. Gangyopadhyay displaces “Mother Nature” from her nurturing, maternal role, constructing a radically alterantive femininity which undermines patriarchal and essentialist understandings of nature as feminine. Gangopadhyay plays off male protagonists (harbouring varying degrees of patriarchal affiliation) with nature in some of its insidious manifestations, observed in the wild basil wilderness and the dancing lights on a rain-drenched field at night. With respect to critical works of Madelon Sprengnether and Donna J. Haraway, the paper attempted to reclaim Mother Earth imagery and utilize essentialist positions to assign autonomous, self-determining roles to Nature.
The session was conducted by Dr. Gargi Talapatra, Head of UG English. Peer Seminar has served to foster research interests and facilitate academic dialogue at all levels of the academic space at the Department of English, The BES College.
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“A poet before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.” Owing to poetic symbolism, on a rainy afternoon, the Book Reading Club of The Bhawanipur Education Society College hosted ‘Barsaat’ as an ode to the monsoon season, known to evoke intense emotions in the hearts of all hopeless romantics. It was …
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